Catsfield farmer's fears

Chris Sargent, of Eastlands Farm, has 1,200 sheep and 80 cattle, and takes his animals to market at Hailsham and Ashford up to three times a week.

But a ban on moving livestock means Mr Sargent can't get to the markets and instead of selling his animals at his prices, he is forced to sell them for slaughter at a fixed price.

He said: "You get to make a fair price at market rather than going to slaughter.

"The sheep are getting less money going for slaughter than they would make at the market.

"We have had enough hardship as of late, and an outbreak of foot and mouth will put people off doing the job."

Mr Sargent fears the longer the restrictions go on, the harder the farmers and farmers' markets will be hit.

He said: "It's just another nail in the coffin.

"Hailsham market is under threat anyway and all the weeks it is out of action that's not going to help it and we do not want to lose that.

"All the time we have got all these restrictions is not going to help Hailsham at all."

Farmers in the region breathed a sigh of relief earlier in the week, when tests for suspected foot and mouth at a farm in Romney Marsh, Kent, came back negative.

But if the outbreak does spread and restrictions on livestock movements carry on through the autumn, farmers will not be able to buy new ewes to produce next year's lambs.

The restrictions also prevent farmers from moving animals which are out for grazing to other fields.

Mr Sargent said: "If there's another outbreak some of the farms are really going to feel the pinch.

"The ban has got a two week incubation period so we have got the worry for a fortnight.

"If it carries on into September, when the markets go back, it's going to affect everything from that."