Kelvin Fletcher was noticeably emotional in the latest episode of Fletcher’s Family Farm, broadcast on Sunday, after discovering his cherished cow Ruby had died unexpectedly.

Kelvin made the distressing discovery whilst doing the evening rounds on his farm in Cheshire. In the voiceover, Kelvin revealed, “As the sun fades on our evening rounds, Josh and I are confronted by a sign no farmer ever wants to see. Our much-loved cow Cherry is lying motionless on her side. “

The realisation soon dawns that Kelvin’s cow has tragically died, leaving her six-month-old calf, Ezra, without his mum. This isn’t the first heart-wrenching goodbye the Fletchers have faced this series, having also bid farewell to their cow, Sonic. Kelvin appeared very upset as he said, “It’s absolutely heartbreaking. I’ve no idea at all about what’s caused it. I’m just surprised how shocking it is, to be honest, I’m just having a bit of shock.”

The former soap star explained he had already contacted the vet, Hugo, so Cherry could be collected and they could determine how she died by conducting a post-mortem, reports the Mirror. He continued, “Hugo will do his checks, and hopefully we’ll get an answer then as to what’s happened, but just absolutely heartbreaking. Completely just bewildering, and we think she was in calf again.”

“This is a lot to process. We are such a small herd, and Cherry was most definitely the matriarch,” he added. “Losing her is a huge blow for us and her calf, Ezra. It’s really upsetting. Absolutely gutted.”

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Kelvin expressed that his priority was to ensure the safety of the remaining herd, and so he and his wife, Liz, planned to herd them into the barn. Liz reflected, “It’s just happened so out of the blue, but we’ll get them in now. We’ll work out what we’re gonna do about Ezra, and, yeah, just try and get them all back in the sheds.

“It doesn’t feel real about Cherry because it just doesn’t make sense. She was absolutely fine this morning, and it’s not until we get the post-mortem from the vet that we know what happened.”

Once the rest of the cows were in the barn, Liz later said, ‘We always joke about it, but with Kelvin, he’s completely connected with the cows. He’s at one with them. It is gutting.” As the couple voiced their concerns about Cherry’s calf, Ezra, Kelvin said, “He’s such a lovely calf, it is heartbreaking.”

“This’ll be his first night without his mum,” Liz chimed in. “I feel like cows know as well, they have a real connection with each other. There’ll be farmers on every single farm that have dealt with this, and I’m pretty sure that when they’ve dealt with it time after time after time, they just know what to do, but when it’s your first, it just cuts a little bit deeper.”

“It makes it even harder to stomach, really,” Kelvin emotionally stated. The following morning, Hugo delivered the sad news that Cherry had died from severe, acute bacterial pneumonia.

He conveyed over the phone, “It’s not like something she would have had for very long. About half of her lungs were completely consolidated. It’s a bit unexpected because I was expecting to see a clean set of lungs.”

Reassuring Kelvin that there was nothing he could have done or prevented, Hugo continued, “It’s just a one-off sort of thing that happens. It’s not contagious, it’s just a bit shocking.”

After being advised to wean Ezra onto normal food, Kelvin reflected on the heartbreaking loss of Cherry.

“She was a healthy cow, and unfortunately, she got pneumonia. I can’t help but feel a sense of guilt,” he said. “You want to learn from your mistakes.”