Farms locked in livestock crisis

East Anglia's key outlet for finished livestock - Newark market - is still stranded just 100 metres inside the bluetongue restricted zone.

And yesterday, Defra extended the bluetongue control zone into Essex as nine more cases were confirmed bringing the total to 34. The line runs from King's Lynn to Cambridge then close to the M11 down in Essex, where more cases have been found.

As farmers highlight welfare concerns for livestock in Norfolk and Suffolk and part of Cambridgeshire, the closure of the weekly market at Newark is adding to the region's problems because stock cannot move outside the zone for slaughter.

Paul Gentry, director and auctioneer at Newark Livestock Market, warned last night that thousands of producers were trapped in the zone, unable to sell stock.

The Wednesday market for finished cattle and sheep has been closed since bluetongue disease was confirmed last month and a movement protection zone imposed across eastern England from Lincolnshire to Kent.