£150m for British farmers who lose healthy animals
A £150 m scheme to compensate British farmers who lose healthy animals as a result foot-and-mouth has been announced.
Around 500,000 healthy animals are currently stranded in areas infected with foot-and-mouth.
But Mr Brown said generous tariffs would now be introduced to compensate farmers.
He said they would be paid at up to 90% of market value for animals, with farmers typically receiving £81 for a breeding ewe and £42 for a new season's lamb.
The minister also announced a new scheme, to start immediately, introducing a fixed rate for the value of all animals which need to be culled as a result of the virus.
It is hoped the scheme will speed up the currently lengthy process of valuing livestock before slaughter.
The scheme is non-compulsory and the ministry claims the value of the livestock would be 100% of the normal market value.
Mr Brown said farmers would receive £90 for a breeding ewe, £60 for a new season's lamb and £1,100 for breeding cows.
He said the welfare package which covers the stranded animals would be worth £150m and would run for two months.
But he warned that only animals genuinely deemed to pose a welfare risk would be covered by the scheme.
