I ONLY recently became aware of the terrible tragedy that befell the Jump farming family, near Usk in which a father and son died after being attacked by a water buffalo, having experienced a similar experience with a cow whilst in my 30s, many years ago.

I know full well the trauma involved in overcoming and escaping from a maddened animal in this frame of mind, and I was extremely lucky to have the presence of mind to bash it well and truly in the eye, the one and only weak spot these animals have. This in itself is a terrible experience not easily realised, until it is too late.

There is always a cause for cows and or bulls to loose their cool completely, in my case the animal concerned was a two-year-old Friesian heifer that was well incalf, she knocked me down from behind without any warning whatsoever.

After quite a fracas I managed to sink my thumb in her eye, and luckily this stopped her. It took me a considerable time to realise why this usually quiet animal behaved thus. In this case she was a highly hormonal pregnant animal that had already adopted another cow's calf, so she was protecting her calf that was grazing in the same field. This proves how easy a dangerous situation can arise.

Usually bulls become aggressive due to cruel or bad treatment, but it can happen if they are out grazing and come across and eat a garden herb known as horseradish.

This herb became very popular early last century, and better off estates with posh gardens grew it as an aphrodisiac. Unfortunately, this is also a very aggressive, deep-rooted and potent plant. Its seeds very soon escaped the gardens, and it grows very well in pasture amid the grass.

Farmers may see this and assume it is nothing other than a dock leaf, but if they look closely, its leaves have a slight twist in them, easily overlooked. Chew a little of the leaf and it is pungent, similar to the said sauce.

This plant will, and does, affect bulls, both in the green and also more so if it has been dried in a hay crop. I can recall four instances where bulls have been put down due to this cause alone, each one seriously dangerous.

On one occasion I found this plant mixed up in a load of straw bought in, it can also be introduced to a farm by buying in dry hay.

Nasty bulls can also be controlled by rationing their water intake, but this is only a temporary solution. In my early 20s, I worked with an elderly farmer and cattle dealer.

Each week he regularly bought in 60 to 70 female cattle to fatten and, believe me, we landed up with all the rogues and rascals of the cattle world.

What an experience this was! We got all the head bangers that farmers did not want to keep. Regularly each week, the extreme cases were caught up in yokes; we would then tie their ears back over their necks with string after placing tags in both their ears.

With this treatment cattle are partially paralysed, they won't even step over a low electric fence, let alone jump a hedge. After four or five days they can safely be cut loose. Not once did I come across one that behaved abnormally after this treatment.

I have learnt all this through hard experience, and I hope that every farmer in the country will get access to it, so to help avoid such terrible and unnecessary tragedies happening ever again. So if a farmer has a nervous or sly, kicking heifer, give her the ear treatment, but please don’t forget to release her ears in four days' time.

All the above information and much more is included in a book I published some years ago entitled 'Farming for better Profitability' any bookshop can order it through the Welsh Books Council. Alternatively simply ring 01994 240059 for quick service.