Anglesey prepares for the cull

The mass burial presents a daunting logistics problem

On Anglesey everyone knows him as Huw bugail - the welsh word for shepherd.

It is an admiring recognition of his gift for breeding prize-winning sheep.

Next to the carved shepherd crooks in his sitting room are the proud photos from agricultural shows.

If I can keep a few of the ones my son and I have selected then I think I might be able to come up on top again

Huw Williams
Farmer

But Huw Williams' farm is in south-west Anglesey, where a cull of all sheep is expected to begin Tuesday.

In a pen, Huw Williams sorts through the best of his ewes.

Pedigree breeders on Anglesey have been offered some hope of a reprieve.

Under strict conditions, some will be allowed to keep a small number of their sheep.

Years of breeding - what farmers call their bloodlines - make them impossible to replace.

"If I can keep a few of the ones my son and I have selected then I think I might be able to come up on top again," he told the BBC.

Livelihoods lost

While he waits in hope, some neighbours will lose everything.

Anglesey is a tightly knit community, but even within a few miles some farmers will fare better than others under the cull.

There is little time to value sheep before the slaughter begins.

The weathered face of Michael Wynne Pari is a familiar one on local farms.

Aerial pictures show row upon row of dead cows and sheep

He is the managing director of the only auctioneers on Anglesey.

The livestock pens have been empty since the outbreak began at a meat processing plant next door.

Mr Wynne Pari has to find a middle way between the guidelines set out by Maff and his local knowledge of livestock.

"There has to be a lot of compassion in how we do this, it is not normal business," he said.

"We're used to doing valuations everyday of our working life for people, but that is under different circumstances."

Compassion

Across the water at the Maff offices in Caernarvon, the logistics of the cull are being finalised.

Lessons have been learned from the early weeks of the crisis.

The sheep will be brought from the farms to the meat plant at Gaerwen for slaughter.

Maff vets have been visiting nearby sites to find land suitable for disposing of the carcasses.

Dafydd Pugh, the divisional veterinary officer for Maff, has to consider the last minute appeals from pedigree farmers.

Letters began arriving over the weekend from farmers anxious to make their case.

Mr Pugh is from a local farming family and knows many of those whose sheep he will now order to be slaughtered.

There will be little talk on Anglesey this week of anything but the cull.

For many farmers here it is hard to express their depth of feeling in English rather than their mother tongue, Welsh.

There is sad resignation and the hope that in sacrificing sheep on part of the island, the rest might be spared.