A DALES farmer, who lost his herd to foot-and-mouth, has restocked with cows that are not happy about hills.

Although no signs of the disease were found in the herd of Bainbridge farmer Mason Scarr, his cows were culled in April last year when a neighbouring farm was infected.

Mr Scarr said he was at first reluctant to keep going. "It was my son, William, who wanted to restock," he said. "If it was just me on my own I don't know if I would have bothered."

Mr Scarr did decide to carry on farming, and travelled to a dealer in Norfolk to collect 33 Holstein and Friesian cows. He wondered then if the new herd would cope on his Dales hill farm, after he saw the flat, lush meadows of East Anglia.

The farm's pasture, Brough Hill, includes a Roman fort and proved popular with both locals and visitors last year, when Mr Scarr put up cardboard cows and a mock up wind farm when his herd was culled.

As suspected, the Norfolk cows were not comfortable with their new surroundings. "They had to be pushed up and, as soon as you turned your back, they were back down again. We had to put a fence up to keep them on the hill.

"They were also not sure of how to come down - slipping and sliding all the way," said Mr Scarr.

He said his cows were getting used to the hills now - and hoped things would improve for dairy farming in general.

"The first milk cheque we got after we restocked was quite a shock - prices had dropped so much. I just hope in a year or two might things come round," he said.

RIGHT: The herd flows down the hill, watched by Mason Scarr