Nursery World - Nurseries put farm crisis behind them

Early years practitioners have been counting the cost of the foot and mouth crisis both to business and to the children in their care, as farming communities in Dumfries and Galloway wait for the end of the month when it is hoped the area will be officially declared free of the disease. Ann McEwan, who runs the ABC Nurseries in Dumfries and Ecclefechan with her husband Malcolm, said, 'It started in March and it's been a terribly long haul. The children's parents think the children will remember and are waiting to see how it will affect them, come next spring. This year, lambing was going on and then those lambs were going to the slaughter.

Ann McEwan, who runs the ABC Nurseries in Dumfries and Ecclefechan with her husband Malcolm, said, 'It started in March and it's been a terribly long haul. The children's parents think the children will remember and are waiting to see how it will affect them, come next spring. This year, lambing was going on and then those lambs were going to the slaughter.

'Our Ecclefechan nursery was near a pyre, and we couldn't protect the children from that - you can't shield them from the smell of the pyres. However, all our children are now back in the nursery and everybody's trying to pick up the pieces. At our Dumfries nursery we have now once more got cows and sheep in the field next to us.'

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