A farmer has been banned from keeping animals after he left sheep and horses living in muck and squalor.
Philip Govier has been given 28 days to get rid of the remaining livestock on his Devon farm after vets and welfare officials repeatedly found animals living in disgusting conditions.
Sheep, horses and cattle were kept in muddy fields or barns without any dry areas where they could lie down and dead livestock was left to rot or be eaten by other animals.
The farmer had promised to reduce the number of animals at his 114 acres on the Blackdown Hills but did not do so and on later visits a vet found a starving sheep in his van.
Govier, aged 68, had spent his whole life on Willtown Farm at Clayhidon but could no longer cope after suffering a severe kidney injury when he was gored by an animal in 2009.
He was banned from keeping or looking after any animals including his three pet dogs and warned he will go to prison if he ever keeps livestock again.
Govier's 78 horses will now be rehomed by animal charities and he will try to sell his ten remaining cattle and 165 sheep.
The ban was imposed at Exeter Crown Court where Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, ruled the farmer was no longer physically or financially capable of looking after animals without causing them suffering.
Govier, of Clayhidon, near Cullompton, admitted seven offences of failing to dispose of carcases, nine animal welfare and three record keeping offences.
In addition to the disqualification he was jailed for 12 months, suspended for two years, fined £20 and ordered to pay the £9,645.40 costs of the Devon Trading Standards prosecution.
The judge told him:"The reality is you cannot make a living out of farming and you no longer have the ability to provide adequate care for your animals. There is no prospect of that position improving.
"You are unable to farm without causing suffering to your animals. My primary concern in this case is the welfare of the animals. Since the last hearing there have been further breaches.
"It is a sad and difficult thing to say to a farmer of many years, but it is the truth. You are incapable of being left in control of animals."
Mr Tom Bradnock, prosecuting, said Govier allowed the carcases of dead animals to be eaten by predators and left his cattle in such filthy conditions they developed inflammation of the skin.
He said he ignored repeated warnings to reduce the size of his herds at his Willtown Farm at Clayhidon on the Devon Somerset border and allowed animals to roam across main roads in the Blackdown Hills.
The rotting remains of sheep, cattle and a horse were found on his land and his stock were put at risk by being exposed to barbed wire and rusting sheet metal.
Mr Bradnock said:"His farm has become completely unmanageable for him as a result of his poor health and animal husbandry. The farm is now in a terrible state of disrepair and the animals are kept largely in squalor.
"The defendant refuses to accept his farm is now unmanageable and refuses to sell his stock. He has received a vast amount of advice from the council and the veterinary service."
Council welfare officers and vets made five different visits to the farm between January and April last year and found scenes of suffering and decay.
A total of 17 dead animals were left in shed with live ones or in the open air and they found one being eaten by a dog. Live animals were in fields with jagged pieces of old metal or strands of stray barbed wire.
Since the last hearing in January there has only been a small reduction in the numbers and vets have found evidence of further suffering.
An emaciated sheep was found in a van without food, another on a pallet on the back of a tractor, and a third trapped in barbed wire.
Mr David Evans, defending, said Govier suffered kidney problems as a result of an accident with an animal in 2009 and also has arthritis and needs a hip replacement.
He said he wants to get rid of most of his stock and become a hobby farmer with a few horses and animals and has been in negotiation with charities to take on his horses.
He has no money and is currently more than £100,000 in debt to the bank and above his overdraft limit. He has suffered death threats as a result of publicity about the case.
