Well if you are a small holder in my local Norfolk or surrounding counties, take care. SBV - a disease thought to have made its way over inside midges blown across the channel - has been causing havoc with the sheep farming community and has the potential to spread to other animals.

SBV or the Schmallenberg virus is responsible for lambs being still born or with a defect causing them to die shortly after birth. although this seems to be contained at the moment people should be extra vigilant to stop it spreading further. As devastating as this could be for the farming community, with ideas like landshare taking off so repidly and 'the good life' being the new way to 'keep up with the Jones's'; for the small holder with only one or two sheep this could be a tragedy. Not to mention that midges can make up a few miles so if someone isn't responsible with the health of their own animals it could easily spread to farms or small holdings that have not been infected!

However we have a stong agricultural community in Norfolk and with every year bringing a new wave of illness for our livestock, from Bluetongue to CJD and Foot & Mouth, we keep clean, keep calm and above all, keep farming. Even if some of us don't have our own spring lamb on the table to go with our home grown veg this easter we will overcome the problem. Hopefully by then we will have learnt much more about this disease from the Netherlands by then and be able to protect our small holdings and farms in the future!