Farmers were amazed and appalled today after a "crazy" report claimed that Yorkshire and Humberside's farming sector actually GAINED through the BSE crisis.

The Government-commissioned report said the region's net gain in 1996 came from bigger compensation payments and subsidies, together with a switch by consumers from beef to pig and poultry products.

And the UK beef industry suffered only modest overall losses of output and employment in the 12 months after the shock announcement of a possible link between BSE in cattle and CJD in humans, said the report by economics and management consultancy DTZ Pieda Consulting.

It estimated that the crisis cost the UK economy between £740 million and £980 million, considerably less than earlier estimates of the economic impact.

But the report left North Yorkshire farmers and their leaders raging today.

"Absolute rubbish," said farmer Ken Harrison, of Hovingham. "No farmer has done well out of BSE - it's been a monumental cock-up from start to finish.

"I find this report unbelievable. Farmers - and I've had a dairy herd for over 50 years now - have never before lost out so much financially. And then there's the stress we're all experiencing, which is horrendous."

Farmer Geoff Bean, of Kirkbymoorside, branded the report "cruel and stupid".

He said: "It's absolutely heartbreaking. Never before have I heard such rubbish. Farmers are committing suicide - is that an indication they're doing well? I don't think so."

Kevin Pearce, senior policy adviser for the National Farmers Union in the north-east, said: "I am completely amazed and quite appalled. The report is absolutely crazy and lacks any sensitivity to farmers hit by the BSE crisis."

He said farmers had suffered huge drops in the value of their herds.

But Ryedale MP John Greenway said the report's conclusions reflected the high levels of support given by the Conservative Government in 1996 to ensure the beef farming industry survived the BSE crisis. He claimed that farming was suffering far more now because of the high level of sterling, the continuing export ban and reductions in support.

The report claimed that, regionally, the biggest losers from BSE were in Northern Ireland, followed by Scotland, and parts of northern and south west England.

Farmers gained in the eastern counties and lowland areas of England, where pig and poultry farming is important, while their counterparts in the upland and western areas lost out.

Winners included:

* those that could switch to alternative products; meat manufacturers; retailers/wholesalers.

* those whose incomes were maintained by compensation schemes; renderers; abattoirs.

* dairy farms (in the short term)

Losers included:

* specialist hauliers

* specialist exporters of meat, livestock and genetic material

* specialist beef and mixed livestock farmers.

Professor Roy Anderson, of Oxford University's Centre for Infectious Disease, will tell the BSE inquiry on Monday that 250,000 cattle were needlessly infected with the disease. He will say that herds were given contaminated feed despite mounting concern over the safety of offal-based foodstuffs.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.