Two elderly brothers have been fined £1,250 each after being found guilty of neglecting 93 cattle and calves at their Perthshire farm.
Perth Sheriff Court heard some of the animals were so thin their bones were visible.
Three heifers at the site were in such a poor condition that they had to be destroyed.
Archiebald Boreland, 72, and James Boreland, 70, of Shipbriggs, Errol, have been banned from keeping or owning animals, except domestic cats, for five years.
The exemption was granted because they keep two pet cats at home.
Sentencing them on Monday, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said: “It seems to me it was patently obvious that the conditions in which the cattle were kept and were looked after did not meet the extent required by good practice on May 9 2012.
“I suspect from the evidence led before me, that it was always a situation where the case was always close to the borderline between compliance and not.”
He continued: “This is not a situation where there was complete failure to provide appropriate veterinary treatment for animals, but it was the case on May 9 2012, particularly for three Down cows.”
The court had heard that 93 cows and calves were kept in a building with a partially collapsed roof and a slurry-covered floor.
Several witnesses during the trial, including veterinarians and Scottish SPCA officers, said they were “shocked” by the condition of the animals.
The brothers had been warned about conditions on their farm but failed to take action.
Sheriff Foulis found the brothers guilty to a charge that on May 9 2012, at Abernyte Farm, Abernyte, both being responsible for cows and calves, totalling 93, they failed to provide adequate water and nutrition for the cattle, so that they were emaciated and dehydrated, and that they also failed to provide a suitable environment in that the building they were housed in had unsuitable makeshift pens which were inadequate and that the floor was covered in slurry and debris.