Long Dean, Cotswolds: It’s only one steer, thankfully, but with badger activity changing we fear further infection

There is a bee bumbling about the winter jasmine, which belies the fact that we’re in November. Earlier I collected hay, anticipating colder days, but trundled home with the window down, past the cattle, which didn’t even turn their heads. Yet despite this sense of late autumnal ease, I’m disquieted. Our farm is under threat – not from climate change, nor the chancellor – but from our old foe, bovine TB.

At our recent six-monthly test, a young steer was condemned as a “reactor”, our first for nearly six years. My neighbour doesn’t check his cattle between day one of the test, when they’re injected with avian and bovine tuberculin, and 72 hours later when the vet returns. But, having been through this before, when we lost almost 50% of our stock, I like to anticipate what’s coming; it means I’m emotionally and practically prepared when I’m told: “You’ve got a problem here.”