The following article contains spoilers from the episode of Emmerdale dated March 2. It hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX.

An announcement made by Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) has sparked even more problems for Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) in Emmerdale.

So far this year, Joe has been hellbent on securing the Sugden farmland and Butler’s Farm. It’s part of Kim Tate’s (Claire King) plan to own the land that surrounds Home Farm, and Joe is determined to help her build a bigger empire.

Through some classic blackmail, Joe managed to force Victoria and Robert Sugden (Isabel Hodgins and Ryan Hawley) to sell their land to him. Getting his hands on Butler’s, however, is proving more of a challenge.

This is because Cain is well, Cain, and isn’t just going to roll over and give Joe what he wants. He’s got an awful lot on his plate right now but Joe asked for a fight, which means he’s got one.

In today’s episode, Cain found Joe and Vanessa Woodfield (Michelle Hardwick) sitting in his kitchen. He discovered from the duo that a herd of cows on the farm need to be tested for TB, due to one of them showing symptoms.

Quietly getting them tested wasn’t a possibility. The Animal and Plant Health Agency now know, and another vet from the team was on their way to test the animals. It meant even if the test results came back as negative and the cows were fine, the incident would be recorded and impact the reputation of the seriously struggling farm.

Once Joe had left, Vanessa reminded Cain that if any of the tests are positive, the cows will have to be culled. And even if some are left, TB spreads quickly, which means there’s a chance the business will lose the entire herd.

Cain sighed, and couldn’t help but wonder what impact this will have on Butler’s Farm.

He’s received constant bad news ever since the start of this year really, so it was no surprise that Cain wasn’t full of optimism as he began the long wait for those all-important test results.

As Cain tries desperately to keep the farm afloat, he’s also keeping his prostate cancer diagnosis a secret, looking after the garage, his two sons, and visiting Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) in prison.