A PENRITH farmer has issued a stark warning after posting a video showing the terrifying moment his wife is attacked by a rampaging cow.

Matthew Blair, 32, a beef and sheep farmer at Thrimby Hall and Thrimby Grange, shared the footage of his wife, Dani, 32, being rammed and butted by the suckler cow in the early hours of Sunday.

The farmer shared his video alongside his comments regarding the animal which he described as 'one of the quietest on the farm'.

But since posting the video Matthew has had to cope with negative comments on social media from animal rights activists, and even had a death threat, which is now being handled by police. "Some have been so bad I've had to remove them. This video was posted as a safety call for other farmers, but unfortunately, I've had to deal with some unpleasant comments and even a death threat, but police know who it is and are dealing with it," Matthew told the News & Star.

Matthew Blair at Thrimby Grange

Matthew Blair at Thrimby Grange

The incident happened as Dani, who is also a vet, tried to guide the animal into a pen in order to help her calf.

Matthew said Dani was 'very lucky' to have escaped with only bruising. "I shared the video on Twitter because I wanted to alert other farmers to livestock safety, and how any cows, even the quietest, can turn."

"This cow had been with us for seven years. She's calved every year. She's one of the quietest cows on the farm. That is why you should never trust any of them. It wasn't a good one. Dani is ok, just bruised, but if she was lone working it could have been different," said Matthew.

The video shows Dani being crushed between the cow and a fence and is headbutted into the air a couple of times before being forced to the floor by the cow. Thankfully Matthew intervenes and while the cow appears to turn on him, he manages to push the animal's head away from Dani, who manages to escape.

"But I've also had a lot of thanks from farmers for being brave enough to show the video and also Health and Safety have asked if they can use if in their briefings and a couple of fire brigades have asked the same thing," added Matthew, who along with Dani took on the two farms in 2019.

 

Still from the video

Still from the video

 

National Farmers Union President, Minette Batters issued a warning to farmers after seeing the video. She applauded the bravery of the couple for sharing the post to social media, but added that livestock farming, particularly with suckler cows, is high risk and always will be.

Adam Day, MD of The Farmer Network, based at Penrith said it should serve as a 'wake-up call' to farmers to never, ever trust, event the quietest of cows. "It could have been much worse. The couple are experienced farmers and handled the situation with courage. Dani dealt with the situation the right way and Matthew calmly tried to subdue the animal to give Dani time to get out of the pen," said Mr Day.

According to the Health and Safety Executive, agriculture has the worst rate of worker fatal injury (per 100,000) of all the main industry sectors, recording almost four times above the all-industry average.Figures published in last year’s Health and Safety at Work report, 4,100 of 100,000 farm staff reported an injury in the 12 months to March 2022, compared with an average of just 1,110 injuries in 100,000 across all other industries.