- The Observer, Sunday August 5 2001
The trouble is not that his 100 cows, 700 ewes and 900 lambs contracted foot and mouth disease: it is that they did not. Owen cannot send his animals to slaughter, their value has collapsed and he has had to rent more land and buy in more feed. Worst of all, he's had to pay for all this himself.
If his animals had been infected he would have become a winner in one of the most incredible bonanzas ever to hit the countryside: he would have been compensated by the taxpayer.
'My heart bleeds for those that have this disease and have lost their animals, and I don't want foot and mouth anywhere near my farm, but at least they have assets that have been turned into cash,' he said.
Which is just what happened to Michael Wallbank, 45, who reckons his compensation payments will more than cover the £700,000 cost of replacing his herd of 449 prime dairy cattle in Skipton, Yorkshire. However, due to the continued spread of the disease he does not believe he can restock his farm before February next year.
But even he's not one of the biggest winners in Skipton, a new centre for the latest outbreak of the disease. 'There are three foot and mouth millionaires in Skipton - they got far more money than they thought and they've been out buying new cars, and sending their families on foreign holidays,' said one farmer.
When their livestock is infected, farmers routinely get twice the value of their animals, while greedier ones are getting tens of thousands of pounds for cows worth just a few hundred. Across the country there are dozens of foot and mouth millionaires, with the biggest payment going to a farmer in Scotland who received a cheque for more than £4 million.
All involved in the foot and mouth epidemic are seeing their bank balances swell. Valuers are earning up to £1,500 a day, slaughtermen earn three times their normal wages and vets are doubling their incomes.
Until last week those cleaning up farms were charging three times as much in England as Scotland, with farmers using the public money to rebuild decrepit barns and sheds. The Treasury has been concerned that lack of scrutiny has meant the bill, now over £2bn, is running out of control.
There is now widespread concern among farmers, government officials and academics that so many people are making so much money that some will do anything to ensure the crisis continues. There is mounting evidence that the disease is being surreptiously spread, either by farmers or slaughtermen, with a black market in infected animals and body parts.
Even honest farmers have little incentive to maintain the complex preventive measures needed to stop the disease spreading: the Government's top adviser on foot and mouth admits the main reason the disease is continuing is that it is being spread by careless farmers.
The National Farmers' Union has angrily denied any suggestions that farmers may have been involved in spreading the disease, but officials admit that getting foot and mouth can be a blessing.
Stephen Dew, the NFU's secretary in Skipton, said: 'The farmers who have been taken out, they are thinking they are the more lucky, they are the ones in the better camp because they don't have to suffer the immense problems the other farmers do.'
For Shirley Sowerby, of Terrys Farm in Appelby-in-Westmorland in Cumbria, foot and mouth means she no longer has to worry about feeding the animals and making a return on her investments. She got well over £500,000 for her 567 cattle and 1,138 sheep.
'The interest on the compensation will keep us going until we restock next year, although the rate cut has made it more difficult,' she said.
Reports of attempts to deliberately spread the disease are a daily event. Alan Thompson, of Southfield Farm near Shap, found a cow's left shin just outside his farm before it became infected.
Joyce Wharton, of Town Head Farm in Old Tebay, found a bag of sheep offal on her land which had been slit to allow the contents to escape. 'It is obvious that someone is trying to spread this terrible disease,' she said.
The Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs has investigated three cases so far, but found no firm evidence. But Philip Hosking, who farms near Ivybridge in Devon, has no doubt that people have been trying to spread it for some time. When the outbreak in the South-West was raging he got a phone call from a man near the 'hot spot' at Highhampton.
The man had claimed virus-infected sheep could be bought for £2,000 each. Though the caller never made an explicit offer, Hosking said, the implication had been clear: the virus was for sale for those who wanted it. 'It was obvious. If I had asked I know he would have given me a phone number and I would have been able to buy foot and mouth,' he said.
Others in the rural economy are also hoping to cash in. At the Midgely Motor Car dealership in Skipton, salesmen are rubbing their hands in anticipation.
'We're expecting a lot of sales in three or four months,' said one dealer. 'At the moment most farmers are holding back because there are still quite a few farms missed by the cull, and they'd give a hard time to any driving round in new cars.'
On average, academics estimate that farmers are getting about 30 per cent 'too much' compensation, but unscrupulous ones are getting far more. One farmer put in a claim of £ 28,000 for a bull, claiming it covered lifetime's earnings for the animal.
'The farmers are being over-compensated. They are getting more than market value - for example, they are getting £75 for a breeding ewe whose value at slaughter is £5. Even when you take into account the value of the lambs they could have, that is high, and sometimes farmers negotiate up to£ 300 for them,' said Peter Midmore, professor of rural studies at the University of Aberystwyth.
'The overcompensation is exposing them to moral hazard, although only very few would deliberately infect their farm,' said Midmore.
One farmer said: 'They should stop all compensation immediately, and then they'd stop foot and mouth. As long as there's money to be made, the disease will spread.'
Farmers insist it is slaughterers who are involved, to drum up business.
'Slaughtermen are spreading the disease because they get over £1,000 a week,' said one farmer. Vets also have a vested interest in keeping it going. 'The vets are getting £7,500 a month - the Australian vets are not going back because they are earning so much money here,' said the farmer.
'The disposal people are making huge amounts of money out of it as well. The civil servants in London have no idea what's going on.'
All this may explain why the disease is carrying on far longer than expected. Rather than finally being controlled, in North Yorkshire, Wales and Cumbria it is threatening to spiral out of control again.
Professor Roy Anderson of Imperial College London, the government's main adviser on the spread of the disease, said: 'The tail is much longer than we would have liked. The solution now lies in the hands of the farmers, which may not be a palatable message. Most of the mini-outbreaks can be traced to people and vehicle movements between premises - there is no evidence of airborne transmission.'
