DURING his visit to Okehampton last week Shadow Agriculture Minister Tim Yeo was told by angry representatives from the agriculture industry that a group of farmers could run the foot and mouth operation better than MAFF.

At a meeting in the White Hart Hotel attended by farmers, tourism representatives, residents and vets, concern was expressed over the lack of leadership and the delay in disposing of the carcasses, which were now creating a stench in the countryside.

West Devon farmer John Dawe said the kind of money that was being wasted was huge.

'There is nobody at MAFF in Exeter with any organisational skills — they have no concept of making the best use of available resources,' he said.

'Lorries turn up but without the low-loaders and vice-versa — if you ran a home like that you would not have breakfast until teatime.'

Mr Dawe said if a team of people were organised to be on site at once which included the vet, slaughterman, labourers and machinery and a representative from the Environment Agency, there could be a two-hour turnaround in disposing of the animals

'The job could be done and the animals could be buried on-site within a couple of hours,' he added. 'I could find ten farmers in this county to run this operation — but there seems to be nobody in MAFF or the Environment Agency who can do it.

Mr Yeo said one of the main concerns he had heard from farmers during his visit to the West Country was that nobody appeared to be in charge.

'It was March 11 when I called for the Army to have control — at that time we had 30,000 carcasses to be disposed of, now we have 565,000,' he said.

'There has been a reluctance by the Prime Minister and other senior ministers to acknowledge the seriousness of this situation and you cannot hope to get control of something like this unless you admit it is a national crisis.'

Chairman of Hatherleigh and Okehampton NFU James McInnes said he understood the concerns of the people of Petrockstowe about a mass burial site being built in the village but the carcasses had to go somewhere.

'The stench coming into my car on the way to this meeting was so bad,' he said. 'What happens when the temperature rises? It is not only the farmers that have to suffer but the general public as well.

'We have got to deal with the crisis now, but it seems whenever we have a real crisis in this country the Government does not seem to be able to handle it.'

Vet Roger Cunningham, who is currently working for MAFF, said the general feeling among local practices was that the policy for slaughtering animals should be looked at in a different way.

He said it was proving impossible to even implement the current contiguous premises cull let alone meet a '48-hour report to cull' target with the current resources.

'We feel the sheep cull should be extended and cattle on contiguous farms should be left and patrolled by vets,' he said. 'By doing this there would be a huge reduction in the amount of carcasses and manpower would be freed up.'

He said following two confirmed foot and mouth cases at Meldon, almost 2,000 cattle had to be killed and it was quite likely none of them would have been affected if they had been kept separate from the sheep.'

Mr Cunningham said sheep were easier to replace and farmers often pleaded with them to 'take the sheep and save the cattle.'

He praised the people on the ground who were 'working their butts off' to get the job done but he wished the senior staff at MAFF in Exeter would 'have the guts' to re-assess the policy in Devon.

'What is right for Cumbria is wrong for Devon and somebody needs to realise that,' he said.

Chairman of the NFU David Hill said the EU's 15-day rule which prevented any animals within a three-kilometre area of an infected premises being moved for at least 15 days was creating a 'catastrophic animal welfare problem'.

'If you want to move animals across the road, you cannot apply for a licence until 15 days have passed since the initial outbreak and that is assuming there have been no other outbreaks since,' he said.

'Animals' health is suffering terribly because somewhere in Brussels there is a piece of paper — I think it is about time we told Brussels where to stick their piece of paper.'

Mr Yeo said he would be voicing local concerns and practical suggestions to MAFF in Exeter.