HEREFORDSHIRE'S farming community is waiting with bated breath to see if it will be spared another catastrophic outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

Two cases have been confirmed in Surrey and herds of cattle slaughtered, forcing the government to introduce stringentmeasure to prevent the virus spreading.

In Herefordshire, all livestock markets are closed and farmers are banned from moving any cattle, sheep or pigs. No animals can be taken directly to an abbatoir to be slaughtered either.

Farmers are bearing the brunt of the measures, holding back stock that should be going to market or the abattoir and seeing feed costs spiral.

It is the second blow in less than a month as many farmers, both stock and arable, are already reeling from record-breaking rainfall which fell in July, destroying some crops and lowering the quality of others.

Ginny Lilwall, from Aconbury Court Farm, runs an arable farm with potatoes and corn and has suffered the repercussions of the wet weather.

"Our oats went completely flat and there is blight in our potatoes. Because our farm is high up we weren't flooded but our crops were damaged and we won't know the full extent for a couple of months," she said.

At the last foot-and-mouth outbreak, in 2001, the Lilwalls ran a dairy farm but managed to keep the virus away.

The council shut the road between Callow and Hoarwithy leaving the farm cut off for the duration, but their milk was still collected.

"Thankfully we didn't lose anything but it was a very scary time. It didn't affect us as it would have affected sheep farmers and this time around we are extremely concerned for people with livestock," added Ginny.

But while the agricultural community tries to cope with a bleak situation there is a general plea that, for the rest of Herefordshire, it is "business as usual".

Livestock is restrained, but the public is not. Footpaths and pleasure spots remain open, planned events continue with hotels and b&bs ready to welcome visitors.

Nevertheless, the possibility of foot and mouth returning to Herefordshire has reawakened the nightmares suffered by people who lived with the day-to-day consequences of the disease in 2001, when the county was shut down for around six months.

Many thousands of cattle, sheep and pigs were shot or put to death by injection and buried or burned in fields across the county. Many more were carted away to mass burials elsewhere.

Some schools were closed, villages came to a standstill, and even farm dogs were confined. The sights, sounds and smells will never be forgotten while many farmers have not restocked, turning to arable farming or letting their land. Others built up new herds and flocks.

Now, as stock farmers put their businesses on hold, Herefordshire NFU chairman Julia Evans, said farmers were already feeling the repercussions: "We need to get back to business as soon as possible. Stocks of meat will start to get low the longer this ban continues but, unfortunately for our farmers, imports will be brought in."

At Ross-on-Wye livestock centre, Richard Williams said the market was totally shut. "We can't sell any livestock and we don't know how long it's going to be for but we hope we will be able to operate some form of collection centre soon where animals can be sent straight to the slaughterhouse," he said.

Michael Evans confirmed Hereford market was closed and a sale for 3,500 sheep scheduled for yesterday (Wednesday) was cancelled.

John Uffold, from McCartneys, said losses were a certainty: "Last week, at Ludlow market, we sold 700 cattle and 4,600 sheep, and this week we would have sold a similar number on Monday and Friday," he said.

"It's difficult to say how much the market closures could affect farmers - it depends how much meat is brought in from abroad to meet demand but there will be no exports on meat which will affect the lamb trade."

Past president of the British Veterinary Association, Peter Jinman from Ewyas Harold who played a lead role during the 2001 outbreak said the single biggest problem for farmers was coping with the total clampdown.

"Obviously there are concerns the longer this goes on, more problems will arise, such as cattle which may have had calves, or a shortage of fodder.'' He also warned people not to get too complacent. "Animals may have been moved out of the infected area during the incubation period and we cannot be sure it is not in our own back yard,'' he said.

John Burnett, for Herefordshire Council said the animal movement ban was being enforced and anyone suspecting illegal movement should report it to the animal welfare team by phoning 01432 260530.

Many farmers are introducing their own precautionary measures and the council is holding emergency supplies of disinfectant.

l SIR Ben Gill, head of the NFU in 2001, is optimistic this outbreak will be confined to Surrey.

Sir Ben, who now lives in Herefordshire, believes the government has acted swiftly enough to weaken the threat to the rest of the country and believes the situation is very different with only two confirmed outbreaks so far.

He said many of the procedures worked out after 2001 were being implemented, but he said the infected cattle in the first outbreak in Surrey should have been slaughtered within 24 hours to restrict the spread.

l WITH a complete standstill on the movement of livestock, business at the abattoir of R W Williams and Sons at Weobley has been seriously curtailed.

Supplies of cattle, sheep and pigs have been halted and the 30 staff have been dealing with meat already on the premises when the ban came in at the weekend.

Normally they would slaughter up to 40 cattle a day and up to 300 sheep and 200 pigs a week. It buys animals in livestock markets and fresh from farms to supply many county butchers.

Extra imports of Belgian lamb and French pigs have already been brought in.