A GLIMMER of hope returned to the farming community in Wensleydale this week when a victim of the foot-and-mouth crisis began to restock his holding.

Mr Adrian Harrison took delivery of 25 in-calf pedigree Jersey heifers on Monday and began to look forward rather than back to April, when his prize dairy herd was culled.

Mr Harrison, who runs Manor farm at Thornton Rust with his wife, Gill, and father, Mr Maurice Harrison, lost 105 Holsteins and Jerseys, along with 200 mule sheep and lambs, when the disease was confirmed at nearby Aysgarth. Some of the Harrisons' animals were just a field away from infected stock.

Twelve farms at Thornton Rust were wiped out in a direct contact cull, many of which, like Manor farm, supplied the Hawes creamery with milk.

Mr Harrison was in the process of switching to Jerseys when the slaughterers arrived and has bought 25 animals from the Cherrywood herd in Nottinghamshire, owned by Mr Mike Denny and one of the top Jersey herds in the country. The Thornton Rust herd will have the prefix Hillside.

He hopes eventually to milk 100 and may decide not to venture back into sheep.

"The Jerseys are small animals which fit our buildings better, they have a better temperament and the milk is better quality," said Mr Harrison senior. "We were pleased with the few we had before the cull and we want to build up the herd."

Mr Adrian Harrison said: "We tried a few Jerseys running with the Holsteins before the cull and they did very well. It is very good quality milk."

He added that the Jerseys were hardy and would withstand a dales winter well, with good feet and legs and easy calving.

The Hawes creamery was due to make its first pick-up from the farm yesterday.

Plans to diversify into the tourist market, including creating a visitor gallery in the milking parlour, guided walks and cookery demonstrations, also went on hold in April. Now the Harrisons hope to press ahead with plans to open the farm to the public.

"We want to make it more attractive to visitors and show them what life on a Yorkshire dales farm is all about," said Mr Harrison senior. "We have had a difficult year but we are ready to look to the future now. We will be exploring all sorts of avenues."

l Sixteen infected sheep are believed to have caused the devastating foot-and-mouth epidemic.

Mr Jim Scudamore, the government's chief veterinary officer, told a Commons committee that they probably inhaled highly contagious air from infected pigs at the farm believed to be the original source of the outbreak at Heddon-on-the-Wall.

The infected animals were then taken to Hexham market, from which six of the sheep went to dealers in Lancashire and ten went to Longtown market near Carlisle.