Shropshire farmer: 'Machinery theft has become a huge issue across the county'

During the night thieves had broken into one of his buildings and stolen a £38,000 Kubota loader which had been fitted with a new yard scraper days earlier.

“The thieves would have had to have known what they were doing to get at the loader and get it out of the farmyard without disturbing us,” said David, whose family have farmed in Shropshire for generations and who runs a 550 head dairy herd together with cows and 350 followers.

“Machinery theft has become a huge issue across the county. We had a quad bike stolen last year – and every farmer I know has been hit repeatedly.

“In fact, as our loader was being driven away from our farm, police were arriving at our neighbour’s farm where the same gang had struck earlier that night.

“Like other farmers we’re spending a lot of money on security measures - but it’s not stopping them stealing and returning time after time. It’s costing the industry a fortune as well as causing huge disruption to farmers. Farmers work so hard for so little return these days that these thefts can be the last straw for some farms.

“A new tough approach to policing and sentencing is needed to bring this crime wave under control.”

After the theft, David found the thieves had disabled all the farm’s security lights and had avoided being captured on CCTV. The loader was driven out of the back of the farmyard, across a paddock and on to a road where it was probably put on the back of a loader.

No trace of the machine was found, despite David searching the local area for two days in case it had been left parked out of sight by the thieves.

The loss slowed down work on the farm for days until David was able to source a replacement from his local dealer.

Extensive security measures were already in place on the farm and have been tightened further since the latest theft, including security gates across the farm entrances.