A farmer in south Herefordshire says her business is being ruined by wild boar that live in nearby woods.
Bets De La Pasture, who owns a farm at Weston-under-Penyard, near Ross-on-Wye, says the boar killed one of her cows and damaged her fields.
There are estimated to be 300 wild boar in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Dorset. National Farmers’ Union officials say they are receiving more reports of wild boar problems.
Bets said: “We’ve halved our production here, which has great economic consequences for us, and it’s making it unviable now. The boar dig up our pasture and it’s virtually impossible to get it back now it’s like this.
“We have 40 acres, and the vast majority of it has been ploughed up. They keep returning to the spot, too. It’s a permanent problem.”
The Government has issued guidance on how to cull wild boar. The Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it was important that landowners were allowed to decide for themselves if a cull was necessary.