Farming is the last of the great industries to be wrecked

Yorkshire's hill farmers are facing their bleakest winter ever. Sarah Freeman reports on the crisis facing the countryside.

Alistair Davy has not slept much recently.

When not tending his livestock, the North Yorkshire hill farmer has been driving hundreds of miles across the county to sell produce at various markets, and the few quiet moments have been filled with writing letters to MPs and trying to make sense of figures which just don't add up.

With prices for lamb and beef plummeting, the single farm payment they receive each year is no longer enough to make up the shortfall and with many still hurting both financially and emotionally from the recent outbreaks of foot and mouth and blue tongue, many fear they have just 12 months before they, and the countryside they tend, are forced to shut down forever.

"I don't know what we would do without our wives," says Alistair, who came into farming 40 years ago after leaving the army. "We were told to diversify and that's just what we've done. I'm out much of the time travelling to farmers' markets, leaving my wife and my son to look after the farm. Other people have opened bed and breakfasts or are trying to make a go of contracting. People are doing everything possible to avoid leaving the farms which they love, but everyone has a

breaking point.