TV star Adam Henson, 60, emotional amid Cotswolds farm update

The Countryfile presenter has been starring on the popular BBC programme for a quarter of a century, having initially made his debut back in 2001.

He lives and works on his Cotswold Farm Park, which is just across the Oxfordshire border and which he took over from his father Joe, who started running it in 1971 and helped to establish it as a much-loved visitor destination.

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Now he has opened up about the emotional story behind a new arrival at the 50-acre farm park.

Indeed, Mr Henson revealed – in a new column for Cotswold Life Magazine reported on Gloucestershire Live – his excitement about a Jersey cow, which has just joined his community.

Adam Henson. (Image: PA)

Called Gillie, he said she belongs to “one of the best-known and enigmatic of all the native breeds in the British Isles” and that she has “stolen our hearts”.

Not only does the cow type produce “deliciously” rich milk but it also has a family connection as his father “fell in love” with a dairy herd during a visit to a farm as a boy.

Following that, the first cow he milked when he was older was a Jersey.

This comes after Mr Henson opened up about a “major problem” in farming earlier this month, when speaking at his Cotswold Farm Park.

During a recent Q&A session with Olly Harrison, one member of the crowd asked what Government changes the pair would like to see for the food industry.

Jersey cows with Queen Camilla (Image: Andrew Matthews.The Sun/PA)

Mr Henson said: “I was with someone from the Food Standards Agency and food fraud in the UK has a value of nine billion pounds.

“So stuff that is on a glass or a packet or says it’s something that it’s actually not.”

Adam said it was an issue that requires proper investment, before turning to problems in chicken farming and how it is said to be “impacting the rivers”.

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“Yes, there is a problem there, and there is again with our sewage treatment plants allowing sewage into the waterways,” he added.

“But the main problem is that we haven’t got the checks and measures in place or the teams to get out there and check the water and find out where those problems are coming from.

“And if they can identify those, then they can fine the person that is causing the problem.

“And that doesn’t matter who they are, whether that’s a farmer or a sewage treatment plant. Those things shouldn’t be happening.”

He added that a lack of resources is holding things back, calling it a “major problem”.