My family has been farming in the Cotswolds for three generations. It鈥檚 a stunning part of the country. Rolling green fields, ancient hedgerows and a thriving ecosystem that we do our best to support.
At the heart of this picture is our 200-strong herd of cattle. They graze outdoors, are well cared for and are part of a way of life we鈥檝e built with pride and passion.
But for over two decades, there鈥檚 been a shadow hanging over our farm. Bovine tuberculosis (bTB).
I鈥檒l never forget the day it arrived. It was 2001, not long after my father passed away. The vet came for our routine bTB test, and 24 of our cattle were 鈥榬eactors鈥�. This is a word few outside farming will recognise, but one every farmer dreads. It meant those animals had to be culled. Immediately. We were devastated. Until that moment, we鈥檇 never had a case on our farm. It felt so unfair and needless.
20-year ordeal
That day began a 20-year battle to rid our herd of this disease. Because we鈥檙e in the designated HRA (High Risk Area) for bTB, it means our cattle are tested every six months. It never gets easier. I am anxious weeks before the tests are due. You look at your cattle - healthy, content, showing no signs of illness - and wonder if this test will be the one that brings more loss.
Testing for bTB is always a horrible day. The cattle are brought in from the fields, the vet takes each one鈥檚 ear tag number and then injects them in the neck with two small doses, one from bovine TB, the other from avian TB. Three days later, the vet comes back to measure the size of each reaction caused by the two injections in the skin. If there is a four-millimetre reaction on the bovine injection, the animal is considered a 鈥榬eactor鈥� and doesn鈥檛 pass the test. It will be isolated on the farm and then taken away to be culled.
This has a significant emotional wrench on the farm. The most heartbreaking was with my British Blue Bull, Ernie. He was a family favourite. He was all white and arrived at the farm at the age of two in March 2005 with only one eye. He鈥檇 had an infection in his eye as a calf, so it was removed by its breeder. He was the kindest bull I鈥檝e ever come across. But in 2014, he failed a bTB test. Because he鈥檇 recently been wormed, he couldn鈥檛 be transported and had to be culled on the farm. I remember turning away and telling my wife, 鈥淒on鈥檛 let me keep cattle again. I can鈥檛 go through this.鈥�
But of course, we carried on because this is what we do and because we believe in producing nutritious, sustainable food for our country.
In our 20-year ordeal, we鈥檝e lost 160 cattle. That鈥檚 almost an entire herd lost to this awful disease. Today, I鈥檓 relieved to say our herd has been bTB-free for 5 years. During this time, we鈥檝e taken part in the government鈥檚 wildlife control programme, which included badger culling over a licensed area. Badgers are a well-known vector for bTB and pass the disease to cattle. As part of the programme, cattle have also undergone increased testing and improved on-farm biosecurity.聽
It's not about politics聽
This holistic approach is part of the strategy to make England TB-free by 2038. Since then, we鈥檝e seen a significant drop in cases, both on our farm and across the region. National data supports this too; in areas where four years of badger culling have been completed, bTB in cattle has dropped by 56%. Despite this progress, government policy is changing. Plans are now in motion to end wildlife control programmes, even though large-scale scientific studies have shown their role in reducing the spread of bTB.
Other approaches, like badger vaccination, are being explored, including a farmer-led project with the Zoological Society of London in Cornwall. However, badger vaccination is not yet proven to reduce bTB in cattle, nor is it ready to be deployed at scale.
So, why take away one of the tools we know works? If we鈥檙e serious about eradicating this disease by 2038, we must be pragmatic. That means using every tool in the toolbox. Testing, vaccination, cattle movement controls, wildlife management, biosecurity. All of it.
Because, while our farm has made it through, many others haven鈥檛. Families across the country are still losing herds, livelihoods and lifetimes of work to a disease that hides in plain sight.
This isn鈥檛 just about politics, it鈥檚 about cattle and the farmers who raise and care for them.
Bovine TB devastates herds and takes a heavy emotional toll on the people in our rural communities. We owe it to those on the front lines to keep all options open in the fight against bTB.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised by David, help and support is available. Head to our mental health and wellbeing support directory or contact NFU CallFirst on 0370 845 8458.
More on bTB
