FARMERS are always beefing about something, or so it seems. Tomorrow, hundreds will set off from East Lancashire for a protest rally in London. Ribble Valley hill farmer Tom Robinson explains why BSE, European legislation and imported meat have blighted farming and endangered its future:

THERE is a saying in the Ribble Valley: "If it's snowing in Clitheroe then it's six feet deep in Slaidburn."

And hill farmer Tom Robinson should know. Because like most of his kind he is up at the crack of dawn in all weathers.

A "Tom Robinson" has farmed at Catlow near Slaidburn for centuries.

Tom's father, grandfather and great-grandfather all farmed at the isolated spot on the back road to Bentham where six feet of snow during the harsh winter months is not unheard of.

"It can be pretty bleak," he said.

"I remember my grandfather cutting tracks through the snow to rescue sheep.

"Another time we had to cut a hole through the snow to get out of the front door! But it's our job.

"We were born and brought up to do it and we aren't complaining."

Tom has usually been up for hours, tending and feeding his 250 cows and 2,800 sheep, by the time most of us stumble to work.

It's tough work and not for the faint-hearted, but then the weather is now the least of his problems.

First it was BSE, then a sharp rise in veterinary fees. Rules and regulations by the barrowload arrived from Europe, then the strength of the pound sent the price of imported meat plummeting.

The livelihoods of Tom and others like him have been knocked for six, he said, with many now hanging on for "sheer love of the land."

"We aren't fighting for more money, we just want a level playing field," he said.

"We are being subjected to countless rules and regulations from Europe, but are they being subjected to ours?

"South American farmers give their animals hormones, which have been banned in Britain for years.

"There has been some bad advice from scientists. They said it was OK to feed bonemeal to animals, now they say it has caused BSE. What are we to believe?"

Sales of Tom's cattle dropped substantially last year and he now receives on average £20 less for each sheep.

"You get over one problem then up crops another," he said.

"Farmers have received knock after knock. We are being subjected to endless red tape and our livelihoods are suffering, but it is sheer love of the land that keeps this business going.

"There's certainly no money in it any more."

Agriculture minister Jack Cunningham announced that the industry was to be "restructured with fewer producers," but the job is already being done for him, Tom warned.

He said: "My son Tom is currently working as a sheep shearer in New Zealand. I hope he will eventually come back and take over the farm, like generations of Robinsons before him, but you never know.

"A farmer I know recently sold a lamb at market for just £1 and another sold four calves in Otley and paid more in commission to the auction house than he got for them.

"When it gets like that I suppose it is time to go. Who knows what the future holds for farmers."

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