THE season when foot and mouth disease is at its greatest risk is fast approaching us, so every farmer and stockholder of cloven hoofed animals needs to be very vigilant, because of the migration of birds from Northern Europe to the British Isles, particularly vast flocks of northern starlings which are always eager to feed very close to any animal feeding on pastureland but have no hesitation venturing into semi-open buildings should the weather be severe.

The farmers particularly and our countryside in general cannot afford another outbreak of the magnitude and severity as the one experienced in the winter and spring of 2001.

There is a great deal more could be spoken of concerning our ultra-modern system of interference with our valuable countryside in this modern age, what is truly meant by the utterance of the word 'progress', progress to where? How much nearer to the abyss will we be taken? Where has the wisdom of the countryside gone?

G T WILLIAMS, (retired farmer and countryman), Lower Hook, Upton-upon-Severn.