The BBC's Rupert Segar reports: "Farmers are so desperate they're dumping animals"

The move has put intense pressure on Agriculture Minister Nick Brown and was seen as evidence of a growing split between the newly-devolved Scottish executive and Westminster.

Welsh farmers unable to dispose of their own livestock have been dumping dozens of calves and ewes in telephone boxes and leaving them with the RSPCA in protest at low market prices.

Plaid Cymru, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives in Wales have all demanded an emergency recall of the National Assembly for Wales so that the crisis can be debated. However, First Secretary Alun Michael has resisted the calls.

Scottish farming minister Ross Finnie, a Liberal Democrat minister in Scotland's coalition administration with Labour, said he was determined to secure cash for a cull of ewes.

In an interview for BBC One's Countryfile he said: "What we are trying to see is if there is any way of actually producing a scheme that would take these cast ewes off farmers and have them disposed of humanely.

Finnie: "No closed doors"

"It has got a price tag to it, it is not an easy one, but I have closed no doors and I am still determined over the next two weeks that we will pursue that."

Mr Finnie will meet Mr Brown and his Welsh counterpart Christine Gwyther on 8 September when he is expected to press for funding from the government.

Sheep farmers are facing ruin with prices at a record low.

Environment Minister Michael Meacher admitted on Saturday farmers were facing their worst crisis since the 1930s.

"There is no doubt that we do have the worst crisis in agriculture for many, many years. That is a situation we inherited, we have of course got to deal with it, but it is not of our own making," he said.

Farmers' fury

But Mr Brown has ruled out cash aid and farmers facing plummeting lamb prices were furious at his suggestions that they were partly to blame for the crisis by oversupplying the market.

They said the damage had been caused by the BSE crisis, new health regulations and the strength of sterling.

The Conservatives claimed thousands of farms would be forced to close, causing millions of animals to suffer and making consumers more dependent on imports, if Mr Brown did not change his mind and launch a survival plan.

Tory Party chairman Michael Ancram urged the Government to bolster the ailing sheep market by taking action against imports from abroad.

And Liberal Democrat chief whip Paul Tyler wrote to Tony Blair and the Conservatives appealing for a cross-party initiative.