The first customers came through the gates at F Drury and Sons slaughterhouse at Tockenham, Wiltshire, at around 8am yesterday.

Sixty beef cattle arrived in two lorries from Field Farm Fresh, in Oxfordshire, with a hullabaloo of mooing. The cattle were soon joined by 350 sheep.

The noise was a welcome relief for the workers at the plant, which had been deathly silent since the ban on animal movements was imposed. The abattoir, one of only two in Wiltshire, had been idle for three days.

The slaughterhouse had been on standby since the previous day when rumours began circulating that the ban on animal movements would be lifted. When it came at midnight, the lifting of the ban was only partial and there were strict restrictions.

Chris Drury, one of the “sons”, said: “The animals can only be moved direct from the farm to the slaughterhouse and there’s no picking up. We’ve had animals brought in by farmers and livestock hauliers but all the vehicles have had to be disinfected before they can go back to get some more.”

The price that the slaughterhouse is paying, of 195p deadweight for the average steer and 250p for a lamb, is about 5p up on the price before the ban. Mr Drury laid off half of his 40 workers for the duration. The other 20 remained to continue cleaning and dealing with carcasses from the previous week.

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