A DESPERATE East Lancashire dairy farmer has revealed he is earning as little as £4,000 a year.

Gordon Whitwell spoke out as a report revealed how hundreds of small farms in the area are under threat as profits continue to plummet.

The decline in dairy farm profits is highlighted in a survey published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

It revealed profits in the North West fell by 23 per cent in eight months leading to the end of April, on top of a 58 per cent drop last year.

A spokesman said the figures "did not reveal the truly alarming scale of the fall in farm profits."

"Compared to the unprecedented falls last year, it looks as though the crisis is bottoming out. But this is a fallacy, because farmers have made deep cuts in their costs and yet have still seen their profits drop by up to a half," he said.

He added that the plight of farmers should not be dismissed as a problem for the few and called on the Government to act.

"Thousands of jobs in towns and rural areas depend on farming. Food processing, agricultural services and tourism are already being hit as farmers cut and cut again," he added.

Mr Whitwell, 55, a Waddington dairy farmer, said his profits plunged by 50 per cent last year.

"It's not just the price we get for milk that's falling, but also the price of cows and calves. There is no market for them now. The Government is having to buy them, just to destroy them. There have always been troughs in farm profits, but never anything like this." Mr Whitwell, who has been farming at Carter Fold Farm all his working life, said his salary had dropped over the past four years by 66 per cent from around £12,000 a year.

"I now have to work very long hours and there's no money for luxuries. We have to survive as best we can and it is in the hands of the gods. When I show my accountant my books, he just shakes his head, but I can't walk away, this is my life," he added.

Farmers' chiefs blame the crisis on the BSE scare, cheap imported meat and the strong pound. National Farmers' Union spokesman Veronica Waller said the survey's findings did not surprise her.

"We have plenty of anecdotal evidence to show how the crisis is impacting. This survey is based on actual farm accounts and is extremely useful in illustrating the depth of the depression.

"It proves what we have been telling the Government all along. If the pound continues at its current level, we are going to see the depression continue. Something must be done," she said.

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