NFU insists cull is “postponed and not cancelled”

The National Farmers Union has reiterated its commitment to the planned badger cull which will take place in summer next year, claiming that it has been “postponed and not cancelled”.

A spokesman for the Union said: "The resolve is still there, DEFRA is committed and we are working closely with the farmers - it's still all systems go. We must emphasise that the cull has been postponed and not cancelled. The culling licences are in place and the plan is to start next June."

A series of meetings are to be held by farming leaders and the groups involved in the planning of the cull over the next few weeks to discuss the way forward. They will be discussing, among other topics, the revised badger population numbers from the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA).

FERA estimated that much higher numbers of badgers had to be shot to ensure that the trial could reach its target of culling 70% of badgers within the cull zones to make the trial successful. This revelation came just days before culling was set to begin last month and consequently it was decided to call off the cull.

The NFU's decision to ask DEFRA to delay the cull until next year had been justified as the tougher targets meant farmers could not be confident of culling enough badgers to make the trial a success.

The spokesman explained: "The decision to delay was the right one. If we are going to do this, we are going to do it right. There's no point going ahead with it and getting it wrong. We couldn't afford to take that risk. We want to do the cull for right reasons and make sure that we get it right. This is not just about culling badgers. We want to show that the policy does work and we can do it properly."