A DISILLUSIONED farmer who has bred sheep for nearly 50 years is giving up his prized pedigree flock and leaving the industry because he says he is being overwhelmed by Government red tape.

Archie Smith-Maxwell says he has been left with no option but to disperse his 200-strong herd of Blue-Faced Leicesters as the whole sheep industry flounders under Government rules and regulations brought in to control future outbreaks of foot and mouth disease.

He has lived through four outbreaks of the disease since he began farming sheep in 1953 but claims the Government's current intransigence over a 20 -day standstill rule, which he says is completely unworkable, is the final straw.

The 20-day standstill prevents any animals brought on to a holding from leaving it for 20 days afterwards, except directly for slaughter. Its purpose is to slow down the disease's spread.

Unlike other intensively-farmed livestock, for instance pigs are generally kept in one place, sheep need to be moved around for different pastures and breeding. Often a farmer in another part of the country will 'finish off' a sheep.

Bringing in breeding rams is also effected by a standstill, which the industry wants capped at five or six days.

Mr Smith-Maxwell, who farms at Welland Lodge between Welland and Upton-upon-Severn, will sell his flock at auction in Worcester on August 30.

The 75-year-old farmer says the 20-day rule is a "bad law" because it was already being broken last year and points out that he and other sheep farmers have a workable farm movement book.

Nobody, he said, has even been to check his movement book over the past two years.

"The ministry seems to have forgotten we have already got complete control and here we are with one more stupid regulation," he said.

"Because of all this stupid red tape my flock is being dispersed. There is more nonsense being talked now than ever before.

"We are being run by buffoons who just fail to understand. There is a limit and I'm too old to play around with these people."

Mr Smith-Maxwell, who is critical of the Government's whole handling of the foot and mouth outbreak, employed seven people when he started farming sheep at Welland Lodge but that has dwindled to just one part-time worker. He will now concentrate on a small head of angus cattle.

The National Sheep Association, based at the Sheep Centre in Malvern, said the problem of people leaving the industry was an acute one. Chief executive and secretary John Thorley said the number of sheep farmers had fallen from just over 100,000 to around 65,000 in the last ten years.

He said the trend had particular consequences for pedigree breeding stock, which would take a long time to put back.

"One of the really sad things about this whole business is the fact the Government has clearly not understood the difficulties under which they are putting the industry," he said. "The consequences will be people voting with their boots."