Gut wrenching, that's the only way I can describe this latest outbreak of foot and mouth. While the last outbreak in early August made life difficult, this one will make life next to impossible.
With sheep breeding sales kicking off again this week I was due to have sheep at two markets tomorrow in a bid to playn catch up and finally earn some money this year. Now don't get me wrong, I'm only small-scale compared to many, but even so I now face the very real possibility of losing up to £3000 of income, some of which has already been deferred from sales due to take place in early August.
This though is not a plea for pity, my loss is nothing compared to those likely to be suffered by others also due to sell stock in the next few days and weeks. Consider the case of my friend Malcolm Stewart, Brotherstone, Melrose. As a ram breeder tomorrow's Kelso Ram sales are usually one of his largest pay days of the year. Last year he averaged more than £550 of the 98 Suffolk tups he sold at Kelso.
This year he would have traded more than 130 tups there, I'll leave to do the sums on what that means for his business. He, like many of us are now wondering just when, indeed if he'll be able to sell any tups at all this year.
Quite where the sheep industry goes now is anyone's guess. There will be many farms where, unless significant changes are made to allow welfare movements, tupping will be delayed and in the worst case scenario may not even happen.
Equally, there will be farms where large numbers of breeding ewes, ewe lambs and store lambs would have been due to have been sold in the next month, keeping these stock any longer will compromise productivity on these farms for at least one if not two years. They will be eating grass which others should have been eating, meaning ewe flushing will be impossible, impacting heavily on next year's lamb crop.
So, while we all understand and support the need for the movement restrictions, it doesn't help us feel any better or ease our worries when the bank manager comes calling next time.