For pity's sake let us move stock

Many farmers are facing financial ruin because they cannot sell stock and are being forced to use fodder intended for the winter to feed their animals.

Alistair Davy, a spokesman for the Hill Farming Initiative from Marrick, in Swaledale, North Yorkshire, said that as there was no way of selling the breeding stock, farmers would have to fatten them and sell them as fat stock, but this would not cover costs.

"The Government has to look at introducing some kind of inter-farm trading," he said.

"At least it would start the money moving again. With no income, the debts are piling up, and we're all in the hands of the banks."

It comes at the same time as sheep farmers across the country are braced for the culling of two million "light" lambs because they cannot be exported to their intended markets in Europe.

Farmers are struggling to sell the animals in Britain because adequate supplies of lamb are already available from countries such as New Zealand.

But supermarket chain Tesco has announced it will change its specification policy, so that smaller lambs can be sold in its product range.

Safeway has also issued guarantees to pay all UK farmers who supply them with lamb within a 48-hour period, and will be marketing Scottish and Welsh light lambs for the first time.

The National Farming Union (NFU) said the only way to drive up the current poor prices for stock was to persuade retailers to buy more British meat.

Rob Simpson, NFU North-East spokesman, said it was also pushing the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to lift restrictions quickly, but said the ministry faced a "massive job".

Meanhile, another 1,200 tonnes of pyre ash stored at the Freightliner depot on Teesside has been moved to a landfill site in Buckinghamshire.

A spokeswoman for Freightliner said 60 sealed containers were loaded on to overnight trains on Tuesday.

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