Champion bull given two-week stay of execution

Hallmark Boxster has been given another 14 days of life while

Defra "consults its legal team" over his future.

The bull was diagnosed as having TB after a test earlier this year but owner Ken Jackson has disputed the result though his calls for a retest have been refused.

Bovine TB is rare in Yorkshire as the disease is mainly confined to southern England and Wales.

The saga took on a new twist last week when Hallmark was named the best British blonde stock bull in the North-East by judges who visited him in his "condemned cell", a quarantine paddock on Mr Jackson's farm at Stubbs Walden near Doncaster.

The bull is now in the national final and could be crowned the best animal of its kind in the UK in the next few days.

Boxster, unbeaten in the show ring last season, was condemned when a beef heifer Mr Jackson purchased from Southern England was found to be a carrier. Vets then condemned six more animals, including the bull, because they had been exposed.

Mr Jackson remains unconvinced and asked for further tests carried out at his own expense, such is the animal's value.

The glory for the Jackson family's victory in the British Blonde Society was bittersweet however as it came after Defra's ultimatum by Defra that bull should be slaughtered or removed by force by last Thursday.

Following action by Mr Jackson's solicitor, Defra this week granted a two-week delay while it re-examined its options.

Last night Kate McNeil, Mr Jackson's daughter, said she and her family were now waiting.

"We have no idea how this is going to go at the moment."