A cattle auctioneer in Nottinghamshire says dealing with current restrictions on cattle movement has been “an absolute nightmare”.

Newark Cattle Market remains closed as farmers cannot move their livestock outside a restricted zone.

“Just as you think you are getting past foot-and-mouth we are hit by bluetongue,” assistant cattle auctioneer Andy Payne said.

He estimated the market had lost thousands of pounds due to the closure.

“It has been an absolute nightmare for the past few months,” he added.

Mr Payne said 80% of customers who bring livestock to the market are based in the zone and cannot move their stock outside the zone.

Mr Payne added the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) website was confusing and farmers found it difficult to get “simple, easy-to-read” information.

But Defra said it was presenting comprehensive information on the controls in a campaign run in magazines, on the internet and at livestock markets.

“We are trying to minimise the impact to the farming industry by not extending the (control) zones (for bluetongue) to whole counties whilst still meeting EU disease-control requirements,” a Defra spokesman said.

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Posted: 10|3|07 at 3:16 pm. Filed under: Auction News.