'It's just heartbreaking'

The Surrey outbreak has thrown the lives of farmers into turmoil

The latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Surrey has brought chaos and uncertainty to the UK agricultural community. How is it affecting farmers across the UK?

The restriction in England on moving livestock for slaughter has been lifted, but farmers are still unable to move animals for any other reason.

Some of them explain how this has affected their livelihoods.

MATTHEW BAINBRIDGE, 21, NEAR CARLISLE, CUMBRIA

I haven't sold anything for eight weeks - since before the first outbreak.

If I don't sell my cattle it means I have to keep feeding them and that costs money.

Even before the foot-and-mouth outbreak I was barely breaking even because prices are so low.

I bought a new tractor in January, but I think I'm going to have to sell it to make ends meet.

SUSAN CRIMES, 39, NEAR SWANSEA

Lifting the movement restrictions in Wales hasn't helped much. You can take your livestock direct to slaughter, but you won't get as much for them as you would at market.

We haven't been able to move anything for two weeks. We're running out of grass because we didn't expect to still have so many animals.

It's just heartbreaking because every farmer spends so much time and money building up their herds.

People think that farmers have it easy, but it's an incredibly difficult time for all of us.

JOHN BARCLAY, 29, NEAR MAYBOLE, AYRSHIRE

We have 100 sheep to sell and it looks like we've got nowhere for them to go.

They are worth roughly between £40,000 and £50,000 and if we don't get them sold it will be disastrous.

The easing of movement restrictions in Scotland makes no difference because we don't sell for slaughter and much of our trade is down south.

It's absolutely devastating for us. This is the time that these sheep have to go - this is the breeding season.

ALISTAIR MACKINTOSH, 49, RAVENGLASS, WESTMORLAND

At the weekend I sold 300 lambs, but now I can't move them.

So I'm stuck feeding £10,000 worth of livestock that should be with someone else.

This time of year is when I - and most livestock farmers in this part of the country - make 90% of their money.

Cashflow is a big at the moment and there's a huge amount of despondency about.

JAMES TAYLOR, 28, BANBURY, OXFORDSHIRE

The value of our stock is falling sharply and we can't get replacement ewes in to breed for next year, so the impact will be long-lasting.

On top of everything else, our heifers are calving at the moment.

The sheep are just sitting in the field and if they get too fat their prices will come down.

We don't deserve this.

MATTHEW ROBINSON, 45, KENDAL, CUMBRIA

When foot-and-mouth struck in 2001, I lost £100,000 and nearly went to the wall.

This time I know it's going to be difficult. I've still got 80 lambs I need to sell.

The growth of the grass for feeding is starting to slow down and time is running out. The timing really couldn't be worse.

But there are others worse off than me who are in danger of going to the wall. It really is the final straw for them.

LOUISE TODD, LINCOLNSHIRE

This has basically brought everything to a halt. We buy 60% of our cattle at this time of the year and now we can't buy or sell anything.

We normally sell every week at Newark or Selby, but our production has stopped, our cashflow has stopped. We can't even take the cattle down the road.

We've got 700 cattle and buy about 300. We usually sell them just before they reach 30 months because after that they lose value, and we've got a lot that are near 30 months now. If we can't sell them until after 30 months we're going to lose money.