Foot and Mouth, again

I passed by Hay and Brecon Farmers this afternoon, and they have old pieces of carpet soaked in disinfectant across the entrance again, as a precautionary measure. We all remember the last outbreak of foot and mouth - and the sight of pyres of animals being burned. Up on Hay Bluff, rare orchids bloomed for the first time in years because there were no sheep to eat them. Pwll-yr-Wrach nature reserve, just outside Talgarth, was closed because the men who were rounding up bullocks from the next farm stampeded them into the reserve instead. Farmers who had spent years building up herds lost them in a day, and one friend had her horses' bedding used to strew across farm gateways soaked in disinfectant.
Outside the HSBC bank the other day, I overheard a man talking into his mobile phone. "...thank goodness we moved the ewes when we did...."