A CASH-strapped farmer says he has been forced to condemn cattle to slaughter because he has no food for them.

Nick Allen's farm at Upton-upon-Severn was flooded in September.

He lost most of his winter forage in the floods and has been spending £240 a day feeding his dairy herd.

Tomorrow, he will send around 35 cows to slaughter.

"You have to say 'that one lives, that one dies'," said Mr Allen, who has been farming at Bury End Farm since 1989.

"The smaller ones will stay because they eat less, but they don't produce as much milk.

"But I've still got to choose which ones will go.

"I can't get rid of all of them because you have to balance things, I've got to carry on one way or another."

The 45-year-old has already had two grants from the Addington Trust, which has been linked with the Evening News' Stress in the Countryside Appeal.

"How many times can you keep asking for money?" he said. "I don't want to keep on taking charity.

"But the way things are going we can't afford to feed all of them.

"We need a minimum of six tons of silage a day to feed all of them, costing £40 a ton.

"But now you just can't get it."

He said the situation had been made worse because there was such a demand for clamp silage.

Many cattle and sheep have been kept indoors to reduce the threat of foot-and-mouth, and fed on stocks built up by the farmers.

"But we can't get any more food and now the farm is starting to go under water again so there's no chance of getting them all outside," said Mr Allen. "We just can't afford to keep them."