WEST DEVON farmers have welcomed the major concessions on livestock movements won by the NFU from the Government following intense negotiations last week, but say the restrictions should be lifted completely.
The relaxation of livestock movement restrictions introduced during the foot and mouth crisis will allow farmers to move animals more easily.
At present, if sheep or cattle are brought onto a farm, no animals may be moved off the site for 20 days, other than direct to an abattoir for immediate slaughter.
Under the new rules which come into force on September 1, the standstill will only be applied to incoming animals, providing they are for breeding purposes, and provided they can be isolated from all other cattle and sheep on the farm.
This will mean that sheep farmers in the hills and uplands buying breeding ewes this autumn will not be prevented from selling 'store' lambs or suckled calves for further fattening on other farms.
Paul Griffith, chairman of the Okehampton and Hatherleigh branch of the NFU said: 'It's a great step forward, but a long way from what we want, which is a total lifting of the 20 day standstill.
'It could still be a problem for people to isolate cattle and stock they bring onto the farm.'
Mr Griffith said the 20-day standstill rule was now irrelevant and he hoped this would be a first step towards lifting it, and the 'start of something a bit better' for farmers in West Devon.
NFU South-West Regional Director, Anthony Gibson, said: 'It may not be ideal, but it is a vast improvement on the deal which was on the table even a few days ago, and that is due solely to the negotiating effects of the NFU.'
However, Mr Gibson said the NFU would still be pressing for an urgent risk assessment — as recommended in the foot and mouth inquiry — to establish what limitations on the free movement of livestock were really justified, and stricter border controls to prevent disease entering the country in the first place.