Four months of fighting Defra ended on Friday with the slaughter of Mous'l Fern, the Dexter calf owned by Sheilagh Kremers of New Park Farm at Ogwell.

The new independent valuer, a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, valued the calf at £2,100. 'To me Fern was priceless,' said Ms Kremers. 'But I had no option really. I was quite keen to say no and take the case to court – but this is it, the end of an era.' Ms Kremers had prepared for the visit of the valuer and the Defra vet by drawing up a list of 12 points explaining why Fern was so valuable to her. The points included his parentage – Fern's sire was three times Show Bull of the Year, a national champion. 'I liked the independent valuer the minute he walked in,' said Ms Kremers. 'He read through my list and ticked every point, then wrote something on a piece of paper and gave it to Linda Evans, the Defra vet. She passed it on to me, and when I saw £2,100 I said: "Okay, I accept." At least I made them pay – I'm very happy that I had the independent valuer as he was fair in his assessment, even though no amount of money can ever replace Fern.' The valuer, Derek Bliss from Greenslade Taylor Hunt in Taunton, praised Ms Kremers' herd, saying they were 'good stock' and also appreciated Fern for being 'good strong and healthy – a super calf'. Ms Kremers particularly appreciated the use of 'healthy'. The valuer confided in Mark Isted, Ms Kremers' husband, that he did not approve of what Defra was doing and added: 'They don't care what grief they're causing.' Fern was shot dead in his stall by a girl from Cremtor. Ms Kremers did not watch. Her husband, an experienced slaughterer, supervised proceedings. The image Ms Kremers is unable to forget is that of Fern's body being dragged up her field behind a tractor. Four vets performed a post-mortem on Fern. 'They were desperate to find something,' said Ms Kremers. 'But there were no lesions on his lungs or in his stomach. Finally they found "one spot of calcified lesions that had been there for some time".' Mr Isted and Brian Warren, from Farming in Crisis, observed the post mortem. They saw the tiny calcified infection, which appeared to have been sealed off by the calf's immune system, thereby made safe and not infectious. Ms Kremers must now think about the rest of her Dexter herd. All will need to be retested as a result of Fern's positive reaction to TB. 'I just don't know what to do,' said Ms Kremers. 'I feel like saying as soon as Ben Bradshaw makes up his mind what to do about badgers I'll make up my mind about having my cows tested. If he can dither, so can I.' She is desperately worried that TB is not being stopped in England, but is getting worse. 'I read that 61 new farms had their first TB cases in February,' she said. 'I wish the government would accept vaccination for bovine TB. 'Defra say no vaccine exists, but it does. Human beings are vaccinated against TB, after all. Now there's bird flu as well. I phoned to book the vet to visit to vaccinate my birds, but he can't – Defra holds all the stocks of vaccine.' Sheilagh Kremers is far from finished. She, clearly, will battle on.