THE appalling consequences of the foot and mouth outbreaks, even for farms clear of the disease, are becoming clear.

On Dartmoor, the MAFF decision to cull healthy animals on farms adjacent to Dunnabridge, where an outbreak of the disease was confirmed last week, caused an agonising wait for the Branfield family of Moorlands Farm.

The slaughter began as the Times went to press yesterday (Wednesday).

Jill Branfield was dreading the event.

'It's going to be awful. It comes to a lot of years' work and breeding, but if it has to be, it has to be,' she said.

Mrs and Mrs Branfield will lose 100 cattle and around 1,000 healthy sheep in the cull. They did not know whether the animals would be taken away for rendering or burnt.

'It's a nightmare. Time seems to have stood still. We are surviving but it's a peculiar mindset when you are not used to being fixed in one place,' she said.

The couple's children were due to move out of the farm by special licence prior to the cull, a measure Mrs Branfield felt was necessary to save them from distress.

'I'm reluctant about it because it could be for a couple of weeks. They are not going to be very far away. We are talking about it all the time, but I'm very anxious to protect them,' she said.

Despite living through an experience which must be every farmer's worst nightmare, Mrs Branfield is positive she and her husband will not turn their back on the farm.

'We shall definitely carry on farming, but I don't know how long it will be before we can farm here, whether it will be six months or less.

'I don't think we're going to be beaten yet.'

Mrs Branfield said her husband Layland was trying to trace bloodlines in preparation for the day he can start to farm again. The family also has stock on other pockets of land in Devon, which they are hoping will remain safe from the disease.

She said the Duchy of Cornwall, which owns their farm, is being 'very supportive and sympathetic', but she criticised national tabloid newspapers which she said tried to 'stir' stories about the Prince of Wales being a heartless landlord.

'It's not very helpful to us,' she said.

Meanwhile welfare and financial problems are mounting by the hour as farmers, unable to get finished stock to slaughter, face animal overcrowding and no income.

Sarah-Jane Stephens, who has a herd of pedigree Landrace pigs at her farm at Heathfield near Tavistock, said: 'The situation is totally catastrophic.

'There isn't enough space to feed them properly, there's not enough space for them to move. We had five farrow this week, we have another five next week and when you bear in mind we've been restricted for nearly three weeks, if an animal delivers ten to 12 piglets you can work out the maths.'

She said her pedigree herd dated back to 1949 and had been exported all over the world. Being a pedigree pig, they grow very quickly, causing even more pressing welfare problems.

'We are normally checked every three months. I would be in trouble with the vets, the RSPCA would have every right to prosecute the way things are.

'Going out to see them is not an enjoyable chore when you've filled the pens to capacity.

'The situation is totally grim — it should have been looked at last week and now every day that goes by is more chronic,' said Miss Stephens.