Up to 100,000 sheep on Romney Marsh face being culled because they cannot be moved to their traditional winter grazing pastures.

An estimated 90,000 lambs and 10,000 ewes which graze on the Romney Marshes in Kent and East Sussex are trapped because they cannot be moved from the bluetongue protection zone, farmer Frank Langrish said.

In winter the Marshes’ capacity to sustain sheep grazing reduces five-fold.

As a result sheep are traditionally moved west to winter before returning to their summer pastures to begin lambing in April.

Mr Langrish, who chairs the British Wool Marketing Board, said: “About 100,000 sheep are trapped, they don’t have anywhere to go.”

The trapped sheep are estimated to be worth £4m but until a welfare scheme is put in place, farmers will receive no compensation.

Mr Langrish, who is also a National Farmers Union (NFU) consultant, said: “This is more serious than foot-and-mouth. It’s not the disease that is going to kill the animals, it’s the control zone that is going to kill the animals."

An NFU spokeswoman said: “If the worst comes to the worst they may have to be culled. There may not be enough grazing to sustain them through winter.”