As farmers prepare for the busy lambing season, attention has been turned to how a new scheme will help North-East farmers adhere to the on-farm burial ban.

Farmers have been unable to bury or burn any dead livestock on their farms since the Animal By-products Regulations were introduced in 2003 laws and instead have had to dispose of their stock using licensed means, such as registered collectors.

To help farmers cope with the arrangements and costs of the on-farm burial ban, the Government has subsidised a Fallen Stock Scheme, whereby farmers pay an annual fee and receive a list of approved collectors and a 30pc discount on the cost of disposal, which will decrease to 20pc in 2006 and 10pc in 2007.

This delayed scheme was finally introduced in November last year and this will be the first time that farmers have used it during the lambing season - a time when casualties are almost inevitable.

The National Sheep Association has already made a plea to farmers to inform them of how the scheme works during this busy time and the Trading Standards Office has warned that it has already brought successful prosecutions against farmers who have broken this law.

In other parts of the country, the Fallen Stock Scheme has run into problems, with farmers in the South reporting that licensed collectors had hiked their prices up as much as £75 a ewe and farmers in the Midlands claiming they were having to wait days for collectors to come to the farm and by the time they arrived the carcases were rotting and the collectors were refusing to take them away.

But the North-East branch of the NFU says the region is well served and farmers should not experience these sorts of problems in Northumberland and County Durham.

Darlington farmer David Maughan, who is a member of the NFU's regional livestock board, said: "We are fortunate in Northumberland and Durham in that we have a first-class service operated by John Warren, although I understand this isn't the case in other parts of the country.

"A number of farmers have already registered for the Fallen Stock Scheme, which does give them a discount on the disposal of fallen stock, but of course they don't have to go down this route. They can contact the collectors directly, be it Warren's or any of the hunts that are still offering this service.Or they could have an approved incinerator on-farm, which may be an option for some of the bigger farms.

"There have been threats made by farmers in places such as Wales and Derbyshire that they will just dump their dead animals but we hope that won't be the case in this area where we have a good and reasonably priced collection service. Such actions will only place the farming industry in a bad light and we could do without negative publicity."

According to John Warren, many of his existing customers have joined the scheme and he has also taken on some new clients. But he said that the regulations had not had a big effect on his business.

"We are just carrying on exactly as before," said Mr Warren. "If a farmer has any fallen stock he just calls us up with his holding number and we pick up the same day in most cases. The only exceptions are far away farms in remote areas such as Kielder or Tarset, where we may pick up the following day. We have not changed our prices greatly since the introduction of the scheme. I know some businesses have pushed up their prices because of the subsidy being offered by the Government but our prices are much the same."

Barry Taylor, of Northumberland Trading Standards, said: "We have always taken the view that this legislation must be complied with and in the past we have brought a number of prosecutions against farmers who have breached the rules. There will be no change in our enforcement policy.

"We will respond to any complaints or other intelligence that we receive and all complaints will be fully investigated."