The shortage of milking cows is blamed on the numbers that are having to be slaughtered due to bovine TB.
Malpas farmer Barbara Hughes said: “The shortage has meant the prices of dairy heifers has rocketed. Last year you could get a heifer for £800-£900, last week at Beeston I had to pay £2,000. With these prices we cannot survive.
“If a planned programme of badger culling had been put in place this would not be the case. Nobody likes killing animals but if an organised cull had taken place we would not be slaughtering so many cows.”
“Two very brave women in the Welsh Assembly, Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones and Welsh chief vet Dr Christianne Glossop, have taken the difficult and probably unpopular decision amongst non-farmers to do a trial cull of badgers in TB hot spots in Wales, and now the Government here needs to follow.”
