PRESTON farmers insist they are at the end of their tether with the on-going crisis crippling the industry.

In a recent survey by the County Landowners Association, two out of 30 livestock farms between Broughton and Longridge had survived intact as a fully working farm.

Coupled with plummeting cattle prices and the lack of EU subsidy, many farmers throughout the region are contemplating throwing in the towel.

One ex-farmer, 80-year-old Jim Burrow, pictured, who handed Tunsteads farm in Barton to his son and grandson 20 years ago, described how many farmers throughout Preston feel as though their hands are tied.

Mr Burrow, an active NFU and CLA member, explained: "Well there certainly is a crisis in farming, make no mistake about that.

"The number of farmers who are contemplating giving up is staggering - there's absolutely no confidence in the farming industry.

"People are wondering how long they have got before they have to sell up. "A relative of my wife lost £100,00 in one year due to the falling prices of pigs."

Prime Minister, Tony Blair, recently told farmers that the only way to survive was to diversify, a notion ridiculed by Mr Burrow.

"Around this neck of the woods, there's nothing for us to do. We can't diversify into arable crops because of the hard soil.

"And I don't think the town's planning committee will agree to any changes to farmland either.

"So, what do farmers do? We are in a very difficult position at present, and I don't think it's going to get any better.

"It was BSE that started all this, but it was the way the Tories and this government handled the crisis that is the real problem."

Jolyon Dodgson, from The Country Landowners Association in Lancashire, added: "Mr Blair should visit this part of the world and he will find out that some of our members are having a real struggle to survive.

"When farm incomes are down, everybody in the surrounding area feels the pain. It seems to us that Mr Blair has not grasped the problems of rural life and just getting a bit of dirt on his shoes and driving off in the government-owned limousine is doing no more than scratch the surface of the problems country folk face."

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