FARMERS in the region are calling on the Government to ease foot-and-mouth restrictions in a desperate attempt to shift vast numbers of stock.

Many farmers are facing financial ruin because they cannot sell stock and are being forced to use fodder intended for the winter to feed their animals.

Alistair Davy, a spokesman for the Hill Farming Initiative from Marrick, in Swaledale, said: "The next thing we will have to do, as there is no way of selling the breeding stock, is to fatten them and if we have to sell it through fat stock there is no way it will cover the cost.

"The Government has to look at introducing some kind of interfarm trading. At least it would start the money moving again.

"With no income the debts are piling up and we're all in the hands of the banks."

It comes at the same time as sheep farmers across the country could see the culling of two million "light" lambs because they cannot be exported to their intended markets in Europe. Farmers are struggling to sell the animals in Britain because adequate supplies of lamb are already available from countries such as New Zealand.

But supermarket giant Tesco yesterday announced it would change its specification policy so that smaller lambs could be sold in its product range.

A spokesman for the company said it would be working with the Meat and Livestock Commission to produce a strong promotional package to help sell the new meat cuts to customers.

The National Farming Union said the only way to drive up prices was to persuade retailers to buy more British meat.

Rob Simpson, NFU North-East spokesman, said they were also pushing the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to lift restrictions quickly, but said Defra faced a "massive job".

The call to lift restrictions came as another 1,200 tonnes of pyre ash stored at the Freightliner depot on Teesside was moved to a landfill site in Buckinghamshire today.

A spokeswoman for Freightliner said another 60 sealed containers were loaded onto overnight trains for the journey.

Read more about the foot-and-mouth here.

Updated: 13.05 Wednesday, July 18