The leader of the South West's farming union says his organisation should have considered vaccinating livestock at the start of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Thousands of cows were slaughtered, while the debate over vaccinations went on

The government blames farmers for scuppering their vaccination plans. But the NFU says farmers were frightened off the idea by the food industry.

In April, at the height of the crisis, Tony Blair called a meeting at Chequers. The proposal was to vaccinate up to 180,000 dairy cattle in Devon and Cumbria - but within days, the plan fell apart.

You are looking at a massive, massive bill... David Hill , Devon County Chairman NFU. Listen to the full interview Real 28k Real player required. Download here

Ministers blame the farmers for that. Animal Health Minister, Elliot Morley, said:"It was clear to me that the majority of farmers were always against it from the very beginning.

"I'm sure when they knew the food industry had concerns it didn't help, but the farmers on the ground both in Devon and Cumbria were at that time, the majority against."

But the NFU says the plan was dropped because of objections from the food industry, where there were fears that vaccination would jeopardise meat and dairy exports worth £1.4 billion a year.

Sheep on Dartmoor, which was effectively sealed off to keep out the virus

The regional director of the NFU, Anthony Gibson, said:"Farming opinion was divided almost 50/50. What turned farming opinion against vaccination was the noises coming from the food industry that they would either not buy at all or they would pay less for meat and milk from animals that had been vaccinated.

"That as far as the farmers were concerned put the tin lid on the argument for vaccination. It just wasn't on."

Foot-and-mouth restrictions mean exports of meat and milk may have been affected. Meat, for example, has to be de-boned.

The food industry also feared a consumer backlash - even though there is no risk to people from the vaccine.

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Mr Gibson says that these issues should have been considered right at the beginning of the outbreak when there was time to address any misgivings.

And he admits his own organisation was guilty of not considering vaccination as a possibility from the outset. However Chairman of the Devon NFU doesn't totally agree. Listen to what he has to say by clicking on the link above.

In all, 400,000 animals were slaughtered in Devon as a result of foot-and-mouth. Some of those were on the 73 farms which had confirmed cases, but many were on adjoining holdings.