Harrowing video shows reality of on-farm TB cow culling

A harrowing video shared to both YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) has shed light on the stark reality of the on-farm culling of cattle identified as TB reactors.

Filmed on a farm in Wales, the video shows heavily pregnant beef cattle owned by farmers Anthony and Rhian. [Warning: this video contains upsetting images]

The cattle, too heavily pregnant to be removed, are culled on the farm, while the videographer captures the desperately sad reality of unborn calves still moving within the bodies of their dead mothers.

Posted by hill farmer Gareth Wyn Jones as part of an ongoing series giving insight into the TB crisis in Wales, the video, filmed by Steve Evans, has been shared over 10,000 times.

See also: New Welsh bovine TB advisory group ‘a positive step forward’

Mr Wyn Jones told Farmers Weekly: “I just wanted to put this video out there. I had a long chat with Rhian and Anthony, and they felt very very strongly about sharing their horrible, horrific story.

“We need people to realise what is happening in Wales. Hopefully we can relate this to the public – it is they who vote these people into power, so we have to use our platforms to educate people about the problems we have got.”

Posting on X, Mr Wyn Jones said the farmers had been extremely brave to share their plight. He said: “They lost 13 cows today on the yard, heavily pregnant, shot and loaded onto a lorry.

“It’s very disturbing to see calves kicking away in the cow’s belly. It’s brutal to watch.”

The farmer, Anthony, said that the situation is “just bloody hard at the minute,” and that the effects have taken a toll both mentally and financially.

“A good chunk of our income has gone on stop because I have lost those calves. Yes, there is compensation, but it doesn’t cover what I have got to pay to buy the cows back in.

“This is happening on eight out of 10 farms in the area and it needs addressing.”

Telling of the effect that TB is having on his business, Anthony explained: “I buy a lot of calves in, rear them up and sell them as weaners or take them on as stores, but my hands are tied on that now.

“The next test will be the worry. If we go down on the next test – where do we go from there? We won’t be able to buy in, and that will pretty much put the nail in the coffin of the business.

“We’ve got 130 sucklers, and we’ve lost 10% of them this morning going off on the knacker wagon.”

Responses from social media

The video has received hundreds of responses on both YouTube and X, with an outpouring of sadness and sympathy from farmers and members of the public.

One X user said: “If only the wider public could understand what turmoil farmers go through to put food on their tables.”

While another said that it highlighted a “devastating” reality, and that it is “no wonder so many farmers are at their wits’ end”.

On YouTube, the comments echoed a similar sentiment, with one user saying: “Well done Gareth for showing the true reality of what is really going on. Surely this will wake the public up to lobby the MPs to get it sorted.”

Mr Wyn-Jones has urged the public to share the video far and wide in the hope that it reaches key decision makers.

“Hopefully this goes back to the people that are making these policies, and to the Welsh government which is still holding back on the evidence that it must understand is working in England with the reduction of numbers in badgers,” he said.

“If you want to help farming families, and if you want to stop these killings on-farm, please look at the scientific evidence.”