IT has been yet another very worrying weekend for farmers here in Yorkshire as foot and mouth has started to spread from yet another new site in the county.

Hopes which had been raised last week by the news we had had one day without a new case were dashed with the news that the disease had spread nine miles from Settle to Coniston Cold, out of the Ribble valley towards Skipton and there had been a number of new cases over the weekend.

Around the new outbreak in the Settle-Skipton area there were at time of going to press 18 confirmed cases, with another 120 farms in line with livestock to be slaughtered because they are regarded as dangerous contacts. More than 69,000 animals had been slaughtered and farmers expect that figure to rise significantly.

As well as the fact the disease is appearing to jump long distances, also emerging is the very worrying fact that in the latest outbreaks the clinical symptoms in the livestock which have been confirmed appear to be over three weeks old, rather than the three to four days which is the normal situation. This is very worrying indeed for both the farming population of the area and the Ministry of Agriculture officials who have the task of containing the latest outbreak.

If the disease has been present in livestock for this length of time and has become well established amongst the sheep and cattle in the Skipton-Settle area we have another Cumbria situation all over again.

Farmers and country folk had been relaxing in the hope that things were under control and numbers had been going down steadily over the last week or two as assurances from the Government had been to this effect for the past three weeks. Today we are all wondering just how much of this good news had been the truth and how much of it had been deliberately misleading because of the forthcoming election.

Two very worrying thoughts come to mind. The first is the increase in the number of visitors who have reappeared in the countryside in response to Tony Blair's message that the country is open once again to visitors and please come back again. The disease seems to be being spread by contact with people in this outbreak.

Thanks to the Prime Minister,s remarks, many people think that both farmers and the county council are being obstinate in refusing to reopen footpaths and bridle ways. This is far from the truth. The wider farming community has also been revolted by the harrowing scenes of destruction which were shown every day on TV but in many cases we had friends and relations amongst the very people whose livestock and businesses were being destroyed as the population watched with horror.

Farmers too want a return to normality in the countryside because many of us are also very dependent on tourism for a large part of our income. But we want this dreadful disease to have been beaten before we are able to relax never mind the election.

When we get a new Government the changes in farming practises, which are currently, being called for will most certainly appear, but not the changes most non-farmers are calling for. Smaller family farms will disappear and most will be replaced with massive Americanised industrial-type farms run by city companies and the countryside will never be the same again. But who cares about a few peasant farmers from the hills and dales.

Updated: 09:17 Thursday, May 24, 2001