HUGE variations in farm clean-up costs should have been anticipated by the Government, according to a leading contractor.

The discovery that the average bill for cleaning farms affected by foot-and-mouth tops £100,000 in England, compared with just £30,000 in Scotland, prompted ministers to call a temporary halt to the process.

But one contractor, involved in clean-ups in North Yorkshire, said the cost of some operations went well beyond £100,000 due to the demands of Government health inspectors.

Tim Pallister, of Hall Farm Merchants of Gatenby near Northallerton, said each clean-up was carried out to the instructions of Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) animal health officers and case officers.

He said after the livestock has been culled, the buildings are mucked out and then cleaned thoroughly.

He said: "We wash the building until it is immaculate, there is not a speck of dirt. "If it is an old building it could take two men a week, if it is a new building it might take one man a day, but it has to be spotless."

The bottom eight feet along the interior is then degreased, to remove wax where the animals have rubbed against the walls and which may harbour the foot-and-mouth virus.

The walls are then disinfected and after waiting seven days are degreased and disinfected again. Mr Pallister said: "Every building is different and every case officers method of dealing with it is different. It could as long or as short as the case officer wants."

But he said case officers had demanded that buildings be destroyed and replaced and said costs can increase dramatically if the livestock has included cattle over 30 months or it has been killed on the farm.

He said: "There are some sites where six inches of the farms floor has been removed and we have put down new stone, because they were worried about BSE getting into the floor.

"It could add £20,000 to the cleaning costs to get rid of water which might have been infected with BSE.

"In some instances the bill be will way, way higher than £100,000 a farm."

Read more about foot and mouth here.