John Round, 44, a dairy farmer from Elmore Back in Gloucestershire, took his own life allegedly because he was being investigated for ear tag and passport irrrelularities. he died after deliberately by-passing the safety cut-out on his tele-handler. He was found in the farm’s silage pit crushed against the side wall by tractor driver, Tom Miles. Tom had arrived for work and saw the loader’s engine was still running and its wheels were still turning. “It has a safety device which means it will not move unless someone is sitting in the seat. I saw that a large bag of feed had been placed on the seat to by-pass it,” he said. He moved the loader away from Mr Round and noticed the handbrake was off.

Former Trading Standards officer, Nigel Durnford, told the inquest in Cheltenham held in September 2011 that the investigation had been about cattle which had been sent for slaughter after reacting to bovine TB testing. He said it was believed the cattle sent for slaughter were not those which had reacted positive at the farm, and that their ear tags and cattle passports had been changed. DNA samples apparently showed none of the five cattle in question were related to their listed offspring or their dams, he said.

In a statement made three weeks before his death, Mr Round said that cattle ear tags were changed when they got damaged, and some may have been given the wrong tags, but he was satisfied all the correct cattle had been sent for slaughter.

The inquest heard the father of three had been ‘worried’ about the investigation and the day before his death. He had been told that his biggest customer, Dairy Crest, would no longer buy the farm’s milk. Summing up, deputy Gloucestershire coroner, David Dooley, said he was satisfied that Mr Round had intended to take his own life. The verdict was suicide.

Information from /www.farmersguardian.com/home/latest-news/gloucestershire-farmer-took-his-own-life-coroner-rules/41462.article