Hirst's floating cow leaves bad taste for farmers recovering from foot-and-mouth

A previously unexhibited work by Damien Hirst intended to convey the countryside's renewal after the end of the foot-and-mouth epidemic has failed to win over the worst-hit farmers.

The Prodigal Son, a work that features a bisected calf in formaldehyde, is part of an exhibition designed as a fillip to the rural communities in the two counties most directly affected by the disease.

But senior figures in the National Farmers' Union (NFU) in Cumbria, where the exhibition is showing first, said yesterday that the Hirst work was too graphic a reminder of the slaughter during the epidemic.

More than 10 million animals were culled during last year's outbreak, with about one third of those in Cumbria.

The calf, from Hirst's own collection, appears with more than 140 other works including representations of the British countryside by painters such as Turner, Constable and Landseer in "Love, Labour and Loss" at Tullie House, Carlisle.

Hirst himself has a large farm in Devon and has been lauded in some agricultural circles for his work with chainsaw and formaldehyde that thrust British livestock to the forefront of late 20th-century art. Hirst's Mother and Child Divided – a halved cow and halved calf – won the Turner prize in 1995.

Despite the complaints of some animal rights activists, he said: "I haven't killed anything for art. I like people who like animals."

But Will Cockbain, the NFU chairman for Cumbria, said yesterday: "We understand that Tullie House put the exhibition on to try to give Cumbria a lift after foot-and-mouth and I am sure the farming community would very much welcome that."

Mr Cockbain added: "Unfortunately, there are one or two aspects of the exhibition such as the Damien Hirst calf that people might find in unacceptable taste because of the animals that were slaughtered last year."

Nick Utting, the NFU secretary for Cumbria, said: "It may be acknowledged by many as a piece of art but to many farmers it will simply bring back the bad memories of the slaughter of their stock last year."

The Prince of Wales is patron of the exhibition that will move on to Exeter, Devon, another area badly affected by foot-and-mouth. Staff at Tullie House said bringing together exhibits worth £50m in a matter of months had been an impressive coup worthy of a top European gallery.

They hoped the show would bring back the tourists who had stayed away since the outbreak.

Mike Mitchelson, the leader of Carlisle City Council, said: "I'm sure such a world- class grouping of paintings reflecting agriculture over the last 300 years will be a great attraction to both Cumbrians and visitors alike."

Clive Adams, the curator of the exhibition, said it was exploring agriculture's "centrality to the physical, cultural and commercial landscape of Britain over the last 300 years".