Hundreds of farmers and dealers are expected to gather at a Scottish auction mart tomorrow for one of the strangest sales of the year: a livestock auction without animals in the ring.
Instead, Aberdeen and Northern Marts, based in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, has sent six auctioneers into the hills and glens to video animals for sale.
Their shots of 1,200 individual cattle as well as ewes and lambs will be screened in the main ring of the mart's agricultural centre at Thainstone, 20 miles west of Aberdeen.
A spokesman for the mart said: "It's going to be a bit like a pub with no beer: a mart without livestock."
The video sale is a response to demand from farmers across the north of Scotland, who have animals for sale but cannot send them to market under foot-and-mouth regulations.
But the Scottish Rural Affairs Minister, Mr Ross Finnie, has agreed to limited farm-to-farm livestock movements from Monday, which means animals bought tomorrow can be moved directly after the weekend.
The area north of the Clyde-Forth line is classed a "provisionally free area" from foot-and-mouth disease.
Buyers who cannot get to the sale can hook into video links on their home computers.
Mr Paul Morris (36) and his father, Ted (72), who farm 300 acres in Aberdeenshire, will be selling 50 animals by video.
"We would normally have had them away six weeks ago but there have been no sales because of foot-and-mouth. There isn't any grass yet and now we are in the middle of calving so we need the space," said Paul. "We just don't know how prices will be. Everyone's in the same boat. I just hope this sale gets things moving . We are keeping our fingers crossed about prices."
A spokesman for the marts said: "It is not as hit and miss as it may sound. The agricultural community tends to know who has a track record of producing good animals. So buyers will be looking for animals coming from proven producers. Likewise, sellers will be relying on their reputations."