A BICESTER farmer said damage caused to his property by a huge straw fire could cost more than £100,000.

More than 2,200 tonnes of hay and straw caught fire at Hawkwell Farm, in Bucknell Road, on Tuesday morning.

Tim Malins said water troughs, two Dutch barns – one topped with solar panels – and farm machinery were damaged.

The fire service said about 1,000 tonnes of hay and 1,200 tonnes of straw were destroyed.

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Mr Malins, 58, who runs the farm with brother John, 68, said: “It is disappointing but we just have to carry on – it is a bit of a hassle.

“There are 750 cows on the farm that still need to be milked twice a day.

“We are used to having to put up with the weather and whatever it throws at us, and this is just something else to deal with.”

He added: “It is certainly in the “tens of thousands of pounds, but it is probably in the hundreds of thousands.”

Fire crews were called to the scene at about 4am on Tuesday.

Emergency services kept a close watch on the fire on Wednesday and left the scene late on Thursday afternoon.

No people were hurt but 50 small bulls were led from a barn to safety and some were “scorched” by the flames. One was put down, Mr Malins said.

Mr Malins – who has been at the farm since 1963 – said: “It could have been a lot worse. At least no-one was hurt.”

A spokeswoman for Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said yesterday that all their firefighters had left the scene, but could not confirm the cause of the blaze.

Thames Valley Police spokeswoman Rhianne Pope said officers were initially called at about 7.15am on Tuesday, and investigated the fire as a possible arson.

She added that the blaze was no longer being treated as arson but could not say what had caused the fire.

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