A CATTLE farmer claims nature charity the RSPB has “decimated” his farm after he lost the tenancy on more than 1,200 acres of land.

Jeff Horn has farmed the former ICI land, near Seal Sands, Teesside, for 23 years, leasing hundreds of acres of land from the Teesside Environmental Trust (TET)with his son David.

Now he has had to quit hundreds of acres of land after the RSPB, which operates nearby nature reserve Salthome, and manages the land for the TET, gave the contract to a different farmer.

But Salthome site manager David Braithwaite said the tenancy was put up for renewal because the charity had to encourage more wildlife-friendly farming.

He said the tender was fair, and the panel chose the farmer who impressed them most with their conservation aims.

The land in question surrounds popular nature reserve Saltholme, which has attracted well over 500,000 visitors since it opened in 2009.

Mr Horn, 71, said: “This has broken my heart.

“I once had 1,000 cattle here and farmed 2,000 acres of land.

“Now I have just 20 acres owned by myself and another 100 which I lease.

“I have had to let six lads go, and I only have 200 cattle left. I lost the grazing rights, then they gave me notice to quit the feedstock land.

“I can’t grow food to feed the cattle through winter so I have had to reduce the numbers.”

Mr Horn, who lives in nearby Cowpen Bewley, near Billingham, said he recently had a stroke and was seriously ill, which he believed was partly brought on by the stress of seeing the farm he has built up over two decades diminished.

The Horns had to quit the land in January this year.

Mr Braithwaite said the RSPB recently had to obtain a court order to enable them to build a fence between their land and Mr Horn’s, after the land agent installing it experienced “colourful language” from the veteran farmer.

“We are a charity and we are duty bound to promote conservation,” he said.

“I have empathy for Mr Horn and his family for losing the tenancy but this does happen all the time. We gave them two years instead of the usual 12 months notice to quit.

“Three potential tenants were interviewed by a panel and scored on their environmental credentials and the highest-scoring farmer was chosen.

“We do understand that farming needs to be commercially viable too, but we have a delicate balancing act between that and nature conservation. We believe we have been as fair as we possibly could be.”