The economics of sheep farming have been dire for some time. Last year it was possible for the sale price of sheep not to cover the cost of their transport to auction. Similarly, to have a sheep sheared might cost 70 or more pence, the sheared wool making 40 pence - with luck. Things were just beginning to improve before the present plague struck. This year there seemed to be less talk of whether farmers could afford to keep triplets in view of the cost of weaning the third lamb, nor were those who also had beef cattle getting prices quite at rock bottom.
Many local farms are small, perhaps with a few hundred sheep.
As in the Health Service, where so much slack has been taken out of the system that it almost collapsed when last winter's flu struck, so there seems nothing left into which it is possible for the small farmer to diversify. A typical farm survives because the husband has part-time or occasional work elsewhere, while the wife does bed and breakfast. Now that little ready cash has stopped. The sheep that were going to market to make space for the lambing of the next three weeks are stuck where they are. All movements have been stopped.