I don't think they want discouraging in any shape or form, they are a lifeline to us.

Eric Taylforth

He also has two friends that come, one 15 and the other 14 and they all help on the farm. They are a life line to us at the present time, with foot and mouth and everything else.

These young lads coming and being interested in the farm it's a great asset, makes me think there's a future for the young farming generation.

It's a very difficult time and I don't think they want discouraging in any shape or form at the present time because of the situation we find ourselves in.

It's going to be difficult to interest young people in farming because of the lack of income that we're getting, so discouraging them from using the vehicles or from trying to help us would be detrimental to the farming industry.

The vehicles on the farm aren't used as playthings, they're work vehicles. If there are jobs to do they are used, but as work vehicles and they are used sensibly.

There's less and less labour, so, they probably use the motorbikes, these four wheel drives that we have, they probably use them more safely.

They're more agile than us on them, you get set in your ways, stiff from walking the Fells everyday. I think it's a lot safer for the children to use them, as long as they don't go up the worst places.

Drill safety into them from an early age.

Most accidents seem to happen when there are two children, one trying to show off to the other.

It is one way of discouraging them from taking up the industry and that's something we should all be very concerned about, the countryside will not remain the same if we lose the farming industry.

Labour shortage

There aren't many people to hire, people aren't interested in farm work. The hours are long, the work is hard and you can't afford to pay them the going rate.

We give the kids some money for what they achieve over the time. Some of them that come and aren't any use to us, we feed them but don't encourage them back by paying them wages.

But those that are interested and do a good day's work we try to reimburse them with some money, it's not a lot, but it's something for them to spend and enjoy themselves at other times.

I think the problems of the countryside will be vast in the next few years if we don't encourage the younger generation to follow in our footsteps.

Neighbourly helper

If I couldn't use anyone under 16 to work on the farm then we might as well give up. There's a lot of jobs in livestock that need two of you to do it. If you're on your own, some help of one sort or another is essential.

Some jobs can not be done on your own, moving livestock on the road for example, I know we're not allowed to move them on the road at the moment, but the safety aspect is that you need one in front and one behind.

Now if there's no young ones to go in front or behind, then how are you going to safely move your livestock around, it's better to have two rather than one.

My son is out today helping a neighbour with some sheep. He was struggling on his own, we were finished flipping our sheep and he had three hundred left to do. So he's a benefit even to neighbours of ours as well.

We live in an area where we have to work together and we try and pool what resources we have.

Missing school

When the foot and mouth broke out, my son didn't go to school. He was off right up until the end of lambing time. He didn't go back to school until May and was off for nearly three months. He got his work sent home and did it at home and looked after most of the sheep.

We were forced to leave some of the sheep out on the Fells as we weren't allowed to move them. The rest were split between two farms.

There was no income, we were losing �3,500 per week to feed the animals we had and no prospect of selling them or moving them or anything.

So we couldn't afford to pay any other labour, we had to use what family resources we had.

The teachers were impressed with the work that he did at home. He knew that he had to keep up with his work, he has a computer so there was no problem with his school work.

It was one of those things that we didn't really want to happen but if he was going to school and mixing with other kids maybe he would fetch the disease and carry it on that way.

We must keep that interest there. If they aren't allowed to work on the farm they'll go away and do something else. They may well see a different way of life then and think that farming is too hard".