Farming under siege

Farmer faces huge losses as animals' market value falls

One farmer caught up in the foot-and-mouth disease crisis tells BBC News Online of his life of virtual siege on his livestock farm in Worcestershire.

Adam Quinney's farm in Redditch is free of the disease and so is the surrounding area, but the ban on moving livestock means that he and farmers like him are facing huge financial losses.

He told us: "We have livestock on this farm that is ready to go to market.

"We have 80% of our lambs from last year ready to go that were born last Spring."

I would get no compensation whatsoever

Adam Quinney, farmer

"We have quite a few cattle that are ready to go as well, and they are approaching 30 months of age.

"And of course the value of them would collapse if they reach 30 months of age because they have to be incinerated."

Mr Quinney estimates that it is costing him £1,000 a week to feed the sheep that he cannot sell and that even if he could, their value has fallen by £7,000 in a few days.

Huge losses

His cattle losses could be as high as £20,000 if the ban on livestock movements lasts a further three weeks.

He said: "As a tenant farmer this is extremely worrying.

"I would get no compensation whatsoever. You only get compensated if you have your animals slaughtered.

"You will not receive any compensation at all if you are outside the affected zone."

Cattle are ready to go to market

The farm, like all livestock holdings throughout the UK, is effectively cut off from the outside world in an attempt to stop the disease spreading.

Mr Quinney said: " We have had a feed supply this morning.

"We unloaded the lorry in the village as opposed to him coming onto the farm.

"We disinfect all the vehicles as they leave the farm and we disinfected the lorry as he left the area.

"We have chemical barriers on all the farm gateways which we have replenished twice a day - that is another job to do - but you have got to do it."

'Desperately worried'

Mr Quinney is in e-mail contact with many other farmers up and down the country.

He described them as "Desperately, desperately worried."

One of his friends has a farm very close to the source of the outbreak in Northumberland. Another in Essex has seen his prize herd destroyed and burned.

Mr Quinney had a gloomy assessment of the prospects for the farming industry, after talking to his own father who was farming during the 1967 foot-and-mouth outbreak.

"He said the main difference then was that we had some fat on us.

"As no doubt most people are aware, this last three or four years have been extremely difficult - there is no fat to cut off.

"It is going to be good-bye for a lot of people if this carries on for too long."