THE future of the multi-million pound turkey production business in Herefordshire still hangs in the balance.

More than 40 growers in the county are waiting to find out if their growing operations can be saved.

Early last month Brandons plc, the second largest turkey firm in the country crashed out of the business.

Since then the company has been run by administrative receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers who said they would do everything possible to find alternative buyers.

But it has now confirmed that one of Brandons' processing plants, at Dalton in Yorkshire, has closed down and 58 employees made redundant.

The troubled company had already advised its employees that it would have to close even before it went into administrative receivership and PricewaterhouseCoopers now says there is no other option than to cease production now.

Millions of turkeys grown in Herefordshire are dealt with at Brandons plant at Abergavenny which is comparatively new and employs 650 people.

Rob Hunt, joint administrative receiver and a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said it was business as usual at the moment.

The Abergavenny enterprise had been advertised for sale and a number of parties expressed an interest.

Mr Hunt said the same applied to the company's other major plant in Scropton in Derbyshire.

Many growers in Herefordshire have become creditors of Brandons, not being paid for turkeys delivered in a period before the crash.

There has been a guarantee that birds taken to the plant during administration will be paid for and Sun Valley Foods, also a creditor, has been assured of payment for feed delivered to thousands of turkeys still growing in sheds across the county.

It is not certain if sheds are being restocked when they become empty, a spokesman saying it would be a decision up to each producer.

But with the current state of the turkey market the administrators believe the most important factor will be the long term strategy for the turkey business.

One of the main reasons given for Brandons failure was the glut of cheap frozen turkeys imported from abroad, particularly eastern Europe.