Six months after foot-and-mouth outbreak, farming life began again with first cattle sale

For the Orcadians, the resumption of the weekly cattle mart was more than just a lifeline for business, says Paul Kelbie

An auction worker herds two cows around the sales ring (PA)

With a 6ft safety cordon separating buyers from the sales ring, liberal quantities of disinfectant for all animals, people and vehicles and at a safe 325 miles from the nearest outbreak, Scotland took a tentative, symbolic step out of the foot-and-mouth nightmare yesterday.

The first live sale of cattle since the disease swept Britain was held on Orkney, prefacing a more important milestone for Scotland, where tight control has kept new outbreaks away since 30 May. In nine days, Scottish farmers and dealers reach the more important deadline when they can apply for a resumption of overseas exports, because then they will have been free of the disease for 90 days.

The auction at Kirkwall, capital of the Orkneys six miles off the mainland, was seen as a trial run for the resumption of trade in other unaffected areas of the United Kingdom.