A farmer is at the centre of a row following what he says is a second dose of conflicting advice about how he can keep foot-and-mouth disease at bay.

Recently, Peter Hutchinson was told by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to disinfect a public road used by his cows twice a day.

Mr Hutchinson had secured a licence to move his 60-strong milking herd across the road, which splits his farm in two.

He followed their instructions to the letter - until the Environment Agency said his actions could cause pollution of the nearby River Ure.

But in a statement, the agency said most of a nearby ditch was now "dead" so there was probably not a real pollution threat to the river.

Meanwhile, Mr Hutchinson, of Westwick Hall, Roecliffe, near Boroughbridge, said Defra told him it was happy with his twice daily, 90 minutes per session, of road and yard cleansing.

Days later he got a visit from a trading standards official who warned he could be prosecuted unless the work was done more thoroughly.

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Having had conflicting advice earlier I was getting it again," said Mr Hutchinson.

His anger had barely subsided shortly afterwards when a wagon turned up at the Hutchinson farm.

He said the driver had been sent along to clean the area himself - which covered a total of 2,000sq yds.

"I just can't believe this sort of thing is happening to me again.

"I just feel I have been harassed, with one organisation interpreting rules one way and another one telling me the opposite," said Mr Hutchinson.

After two sets of conflicting advice, Mr Hutchinson feels at the end of his tether and wonders at what cost the contractor has been employed to do a job that satisfied Defra when he did it himself.

Mr Hutchinson is now taking up the "do this, don't do that" dispute with the National Farmers' Union.

"I have been trying to keep everything as clean as I can - even one of my neighbours stopped on his way past the other day and said how clean it was.

"We're certainly doing our best, but we can't get it like a hospital operating theatre," he said.

A spokesman for Defra in Leeds said when it saw the work being done by Mr Hutchinson it may well have been completed to its satisfaction.

"But we know that trading standards have been to the farm on numerous occasions to check things out," he said.

The farm falls within the Government's "bio-security fortress" introduced in July to prevent the disease spreading into the Vale of York where it would decimate the UK pig industry.

The bio-security intensification area is centred on Thirsk and stretches as far as Northallerton, York, Harrogate and Malton. It is surrounded by a buffer-zone, where livestock movements in or out are banned, except for licensed slaughter.

Every vehicle that goes on or off the 1,200 farms in the area has to be thoroughly cleansed and disinfected every time.

Fifteen teams of Defra, police and trading standards officers patrol the area, carrying out roadside checks to make sure the measures are being adhered to.

Those that fail to make the standard are automatically sent to one of six cleansing and disinfectant stations.

Repeat offenders could find themselves facing fines of up to £5,000

Read more about foot-and-mouth here.