THE first farmer in East Lancashire to lose his animals to foot and mouth culls today revealed how the crisis had forced him to give up farming -- and start doing odd jobs for people.

Arthur Pooley's Ollerton Farm, off Blackburn Road, Withnell, was first confirmed with foot and mouth disease at the end of February. More than 1,000 of his sheep were culled and placed on a huge funeral pyre overlooking the M65.

Other farms deemed 'high risk contact' lost their sheep and cows, while hundreds of farms within three kilometres of the farm were placed in an exclusion zone.

Now, some five months on and with the crisis falling out of the national spotlight, Mr Pooley said life has yet to get better -- and he revealed he has resorted to doing odd jobs in a bid to make money.

He said: "Apart from the compensation I have received for the animals which were killed and some money for cleaning up the farm, I have had nothing.

"I have been told I can't even begin to think about stocking up before September which will be seven months after the animals were culled.

"They don't want to risk moving animals around here until then.

"I am not earning any money in the meantime. I need to earn money.

"It has got to the point where I am doing odd jobs for people, such as laying turf. It isn't getting better."

Mr Pooley had been farming in Withnell for 18 years before the virus -- one of the most infectious in the world -- struck. At the time, he spoke of the guilt he felt about the disease being discovered at his farm, although he said he had done everything possible to keep the disease away.

It is believed the Withnell outbreak was sparked by an infected sheep bought from Hexham market in the North East on February 13.

Mr Pooley said some of his sheep had been revealed to have been in contact with six sheep and a tup belonging to a man whose sheep were among the first infected sheep in the country.

He added: "I don't know if I will return to farming."

A spokesman for the NFU said farms the size of Mr Pooley's -- parts of which he rented out to other farmers to graze their sheep -- could easily have high turnovers which have been wiped out.

All Mr Pooley has left is his X-reg Vauxhall Omega, his farm equipment and his farm cottage, similar to ones being advertised locally for more than £100,000.

The spokesman said: "Farms with turnovers of in excess of £100,000 have just stopped trading. They have no money coming in. Stories like this are very common."

Steve Fawcett, from the National Farmers Union in Clitheroe, said: "This story is sadly typical of what is happening across the country.

"Farmers are finding themselves without incomes and do not know if they have a future in the industry whatsoever."

Local MP Lindsey Hoyle said: "I have every sympathy for people like Mr Pooley because life is very hard for them at the moment.

"But the worst thing we would do is allow for animals to be moved too soon or let farms infected by the disease start working before it is safe.

"It is important that, as a government, we work to make sure farmers can carry on and that there is a market for them."