NFU Cymru president Dai Davies said the minister was given a “shopping list” of objectives by the Welsh farming sector.

These include isolation units, multiple pickups and drop-offs, and movements within a single occupancy licence.

The industry is also seeking assurances over the six-day restriction applying to stock destined for slaughter.

“I am beginning to feel like a marathon hurdler constantly reaching for the next barrier so that we can move forward,” said Mr Davies.

Green livestock markets resume on Thursday but the backlog of light hill lambs continues to grow.

An estimated 1.1m hill lambs would normally be marketed in the run-up to Christmas but with export markets closed, most have no where to go.

The recent suicides of two farmers in northern England has highlighted the terrible pressures now faced by upland producers.

Mr Davies said Elin Jones understood the need for a light lamb disposal scheme in Wales.

“I sincerely hope the Assembly will recognise the plight these producers face and introduce such a scheme,” he said.

“I hope that when I meet the minister again on Thursday, there may be some light at what seems, at the moment, to be a very long and dark tunnel.”

Meanwhile Defra vets are to cull animals at four farms which neighbour the site of Britain’s latest confirmed case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

The disease was identified at a farm near Wraysbury, the eighth case in Surrey since August.

Defra vets concluded that cattle on four adjacent premises had been exposed to infection to such a degree that they are likely to develop disease.

“In keeping with our strategy to stamp out foot-and-mouth disease, these cattle and any other susceptible livestock on these four premises will therefore be humanely culled as dangerous contacts,” said a Defra spokesman.