THE news today shows in no uncertain terms what we always expected...that the foot-and-mouth crisis will have a far-reaching and significant effect on this county.

What is worrying is that it is beginning earlier than we first envisaged in this column, and the impact is being felt in areas not previously thought of.

The first strand of this concerns the combined agricultural county college at Hindlip, Pershore and Holme Lacy. It had to cull its livestock during the crisis and governors have now decided not to replace them.

Money gained from the Government as part of their compensation package will be ploughed back into the college to support other activities, leaving the livestock managers without jobs. We are sure that a case can be put forward to support the strategy, but we are stunned that the main college serving agriculture across the two counties and beyond will not now have the facility for students to gain first-hand knowledge of livestock and their handling. One would think that was why they went to college in the first place!

The second stunning revelation today comes from another unexpected source. News is filtering through that local vets could also be out of work when the crisis finally ends.

It would appear that although many qualified veterinary surgeons are flat out at present on foot-and-mouth business, they will have little or nothing to do when it ends. Especially hard hit will be the small practices that specialise in farm work.

They will have no animals to look after for some considerable time and even now are not being invited on to "clean" farms for fear of bringing the disease with them.

This paper hopes that the new Government, whatever shade it turns out to be, puts looking at the long-term effects of this very high up its agenda. We are sure there will be other tales of the unexpected - costly in both financial and human terms.