HAMPSHIRE farmers still await news about the suspected outbreak of foot and mouth at Monkwood near Alresford. One of the farmers most affected is Steven Wren at nearby Barracks Farm who has kept a diary for the Echo.

His 100-cattle farm and hay and straw business has been paralysed. "There is absolutely nothing we can do at the farm now. We can't even take the dung heap and put it on the fields.

"Our biggest problem is that we have no money coming in. We can't sell our hay and straw. We have 1,000 bales in the barn doing nothing. The straw sells for £1.35 a bale, the hay for £2."