The owner of one of Kent’s biggest sheep farms has given a dire warning about the future of the British livestock industry, and called for the bluetongue control zone to be expanded to cover the whole country.
With restrictions imposed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) it is only possible to move sheep from Kent as far as Essex, Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire, meaning that thousands of animals are fast running out of space to graze.
The measures have been introduced in a bid to contain the spread of the insect-borne virus, which affects sheep and, to a lesser extent, cattle.
The number of confirmed bluetongue cases is now 34 and rising.
Frank Languish, who has around 9,500 sheep grazing on Romney Marsh, said there was “very little hope” for British farmers.
He said: “To be honest, we are well and truly buggered. The situation is a lot more severe than many people realise, this is just the start of the crisis.
“When the arbitrary control zones are put in place, it takes a minimum of two years for them to be lifted, but more realistically three.
“This year there are a very small number of actual bluetongue cases, but when it comes back after the winter it will kill many, many more animals – that is the nature of the disease. The numbers of infections multiply very rapidly, that is the experience in Europe.
“This is unavoidable unless we have a vaccine, but the only company in Europe currently making it is in Holland, and the best they can reasonably say they can produce is enough for the sheep in Holland.
“The other problem is confidence. Everybody is trying to get out and the market has collapsed, especially as the animals can’t be exported because of the foot and mouth restrictions.
“There simply isn’t a big enough market for lamb in the UK. If everybody goes out and fills their freezers with British lamb it would help a great deal.”
Farmers say that around 200,000 Romney sheep are trapped by the control zone.
Mr Languish’s sheep usually graze in Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset for the winter, and he said that unless the control zone is expanded his sheep may soon run out of grass.
He continued: “The problem is that there are around two million sheep inside the exclusion zone and around 30 million outside of it. If it covered the whole country we would be able to graze our sheep and they would not have to be culled – which is a very real risk.
“The Government has left the decision up to the farmers, but it is not in the interests of those on the other side of the line. This year the restrictions will kill more animals than the disease.”
Environment secretary Hilary Benn this week announced a £12.5m aid package for farmers, which included £1m to pay compensation to those who have had all their livestock culled and £2m to promote British meat.
POSTED: 14/10/2007 04:00:00
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