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The future of farming’s next generation is being threatened by the government's expected decision to ignore calls for a badger cull to control bovine TB, according to one Devon livestock farmer.
Malcolm Huxtable, a past president of the Jersey Cattle Society, said the disease would become a problem across the whole of the country unless DEFRA takes action to control infected badgers.
He said his businesses had been “devastated” by bovine TB and that he did not feel he could hand his farm over to his son and grandchildren when its future was not secure.
Talking to fellow farmers, he said it was not a case of “have you had TB”, but “when did you get it?”
“Farmers don’t have a vendetta against badgers,” he said. “We have a vendetta against the disease.
“DEFRA will not just bite the bullet and we are in a lose-lose situation for all of time."
Watch the full interview with Mr Huxtable from Stockleigh, Pomeroy, Devon:
by Caroline Stocks (About this Author)
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