SIR,

I write to express my dismay at the disorganised and incompetent administration of the TB control programme and the resultant culling. This is my third TB breakdown, 2007, 2010 and 2013.

I run a traditional mixed farm, sheep and suckler cow herd. bovine reactor was collected for slaughter from my farm last week. She was an excellent cow, third calving, with a good strong bull calf of six weeks at foot. The calf was not collected. The cow was found to have TB lesions in due course. No-one would wish t condemn a healthy calf, but statistically there must be evidence for expecting the offspring of an affected animal to also be infected - so why could they have not been taken together? What is the statistic that would justify leaving the calf behind, a potential TB carrier?

The calf then needed caring for, on a farm not set up for calf rearing. Caring for even a single young animal requires much care, patience and time, so it is then distressing to know all that care was for nought. Most distressing of all was the inhumanity of separating the cow and calf for no good reason. shockingly, it was left to the abattoir to notify us that the calf was to be slaughtered – where is the AHVLA, where the co-ordinated bio-security?

This terrible disease must be tackled with total competence and rigorous procedure, which is not possible if political and non-agricultural groups are allowed a voice and vote. The veterinary practice is supportive but has no incentive to press for efficiency, so who will make the Gamma Interferon test mandatory so that the agricultural community may have some reason to trust the ministry and its procedures? By opting for vaccination, the WAG has been weak and changed direction, making an unsatisfactory compromise that mean TB in Wales will never be eradicated. If the badgers are to be vaccinated, why not the cows? Let us not forget all the other mammals in the countryside, mentioned on the DEFRA website: "pigs, sheep, goats and camelids; wildlife eg badgers and deer; pets including cats and dogs, and humans."

Why is the public not presented with the honest and informed scientific case: any wild animal carrying TB will suffer a painful death, whether the surrounding wild population is vaccinated or not. I cannot carry the costs of ministerial incompetence. The valuation of the cow and calf was not adequate to replace like for like. Does the government hope farmers will go out of business and stop producing food? It is heartbreaking.

At least England is heading the right way with a badger cull, albeit in a very small area. The danger is that ill-informed protesters may frighten the resident badger populations into dispersing, taking the TB with them.

Please, think, and help your local farmers.

JJL Humphreys

(Usk)