A FARMER from Gloucestershire will be among those protesting at the Houses of Parliament this morning about the decision not to cull badgers.

It was announced yesterday by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn that England's badger population would not be culled as a means of preventing the spread of bovine TB in cattle.

Farmers from across the county reacted angrily to the news, which leaked out ahead of the announcement and the National Farmers Union organised the protest.

Yesterday was also the first day that Gloucestershire farmers could vaccinate against Blue Tongue.

The county was added to the protection zone for the disease last week.

John Round, from Elmore Back Farm, near Hardwicke, is representing the county at the protest. He has lost 40 cows already this year to TB.

“The government need to realise, as with any disease, that the best cure is to sort out the source,” he said.

“We can't carry on killing cows for the sake of the disease, we need to get that message through to them.”

There will be 28 farming families from across the UK in attendance, each representing 1,000 of the 28,000 cattle which died from TB last year.

Around 13,500 cows have been killed by the disease so far in 2008.

Jan Rowe, a TB specialist for the NFU, hopes the protest will go some way to securing a sensible future plan. “We originally planned a lobbying exercise, but it has now turned into a small protest.

“The protest is unlikely to overturn the Government's decision, but hopefully it will go some way to informing them that the current decision is an absolute shambles, and make it clear that it is not an effective policy.”

Mr Rowe added that this will not be the end of the protests.

Meanwhile, a possible showdown between a Churchdown farmer and government officials did not take place yesterday.

Last week Ben Pullen cancelled an appointment for DEFRA staff to come and test his herd of cattle for TB.

He told the ministry that he wouldn't co-operate with testers because of the government's decision not to cull badgers.

But any conflict was averted because the testers did not show up.

Mr Pullen said: “They didn't show up today, my message must have worked.

The Churchdown farmer added: “This is very much a protest. I will co-operate with testing if I have to.

“I wouldn't want to take them on in court, and I'm not calling for other farmers to do the same, although if they did it might get our message across.”