IAN Wilson should be up to his eyes in his sheep-showering business at this time of year.

Instead, foot-and-mouth disease restrictions have brought his thriving venture to an abrupt halt.

The 24-year-old farmer's son set up the showering service with business partner Paul Atkinson, in July last year.

They designed a mobile shower, which gives farmers an alternative to dipping sheep, and won orders solely by word of mouth.

The shower can handle 1,000 sheep a day and the pair hoped to treat 7,000 sheep by the end of last September, the end of the season.

He said: "We would have been very happy with that, but we ended up doing 19,000 - we were astonished."

Most of their work was on the North Yorkshire Moors, in the Kildale, Danby, Castleton and Ryedale areas. They treated sheep after they had been clipped and before they were turned out onto the moor.

At 60p-a-head, they were looking forward to building on last year's success when the first foot-and-mouth outbreak struck in Surrey.

Mr Wilson, of Hall Farm, Nunthorpe Village, east Cleveland, said: "We were going well until foot-and-mouth broke out on August 2, and we had to stop.

"We were due to treat 5,000 sheep the following week."

Although restrictions were lifted on August 12, they were re-imposed on September 12 when more outbreaks occurred in Surrey.

Mr Wilson said: "We reckon we have lost about 9,000 sheep since then, and have no idea how long the restrictions will stay in place.

"It is just very disappointing that we had started a good business and were going to expand, and something like this happens and sets us back a year."

However, he said he would rather the business was affected than see foot-and-mouth spread across the country.

"We are lucky that this time it has been kept down south, but the restrictions have certainly affected us and other farm businesses," he said.

Mr Wilson studied wildlife and conservation and arable cropping at Bishop Burton College, near Beverley, East Yorkshire.

But like many others, the family farm at Nunthorpe was not big enough to support him and his parents, Ray and Liz Wilson.

Since returning home, he has been self-employed doing contracting work and working for Mr Atkinson before they set up their business.