`We need all the help we can get to survive'

Picture a hostile environment for farming, 600 feet above sea level; your government is far more interested in industry than your small farm . . . and you have the Sperrin farmer.

Sean Clarke is the only full-time farmer in his area, just north of the market town of Tyrone. Although he is reluctant to admit it, the truth is that his wife's teaching job makes this possible. All his neighbours have had to seek part-time jobs over the years to supplement their income in the most difficult farming cycle since the Famine.

"No one in this area can remember more difficult times with BSE, a sterling rate which is too high and all the other restrictions which have been put upon us," he says. He milks 30 cows on his 85-acre farm and in recent years he has quickly sold off the calves - calves that he would in the past have turned into beef cattle or reared for replacements for his dairy herd. His upland farm also carries 40 ewes for which he draws an EU premium, which makes them one of the more viable enterprises on his farm, at Broughderg, Omagh, Co Tyrone.

Currently, he is being paid between 15p and 17p per litre for the milk he supplies to the Nestle plant in Omagh, far below the price being paid to his counterparts in the Republic.

"The market determines the price here and especially the strength of sterling. It is crippling us here in the North and we are suffering badly," he says.

"We don't seem to have the same kind of support from government that farmers have in the South. It has been the worst period in a long time for us." Fortunately, the Clarke farm, which has been in his family for generations, is in an ESA area, an area of particular scientific importance to the EU. This delivers extra payments from the EU to the Clarke household.

"The truth is that I am the only full-time farmer within 15 miles of here and were it not for the fact that my wife teaches in Cookstown, I would probably not be able to continue," he explains.

He says it has been very difficult over the years building up his milk quota, most of which he purchased, and this means that he has had to be very efficient in the production of milk.

"Milk quota should only cost twice the price farmers are paid from the creameries for their milk, but currently it is costing 52p-to 55p a litre, far beyond that. At that price it is nearly unviable to continue in milk which is the mainstay of farms like mine," he says.

"We would like more support from both government and the EU. We need it here because of all that has happened in recent times, especially the BSE crisis." There has been no BSE in his or his neighbour's herds but because of the ban on the export of beef from the UK, which has recently been lifted on Northern beef exports, the price of beef has slumped dramatically.

Sean hopes that some day his 16-year-old son may take over his farm but, he reckons, unless there is a real input from government, he will have to find outside work to support his farm income.

Frank Allen, a dairy farmer in Ballnamona, Galbally, Co Limerick who also happens to be the president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, concurs that there is more support for farmers in the Republic than in the North.

Milk production is the main activity on his 50-acre farm where he fills a 17,000-gallon milk quota annually from a herd of just over 20 cows. He rears some of the calves that he is not going to turn into milkers to weanling stage and on occasion, he will run some suckler cows.

Frank is paid 102p per gallon (that's 22p per litre) for the milk he supplies to the local Dairygold co-operative. He is involved in no other farm enterprise and needs to lease 12 acres to run his animals.

Before taking on the ICMSA presidency, Frank worked part-time off the farm and his wife still works outside the home on a part-time basis.

"We need all the help we can get to survive. We are in a disadvantaged area and that means there are higher premiums to be got on some of the animals," he says.

"This means, for instance, that I would be entitled to a payment of £84 for a suckler cow and that is a welcome support," he says. "There is no direct support from the EU or the Government for dairy farmers but the milk price is kept stable by the EU dairy intervention and export refunds for dairy produce. It would only be fair to say that for farmers like myself life would be even more difficult were it not for the levels of support we do get from the EU and the Government."

The Allens have three children of their own, one of whom is living away from the farm, and also two foster children. "There are a lot of mouths to feed and sometimes is can be difficult enough but we get by and get on with it," he says.

Over the years, Frank's organisation has established close links with farmers across the Border who are members of the Northern Ireland Agricultural Producers' Association.

The ICMSA, which describes itself as the "Family Farm" organisation, is the second largest farm organisation in the Republic. NIAPA is the second largest farm organisation in the North running second to the Ulster Farmers' Union, which has close links with Irish Farmers' Association. Frank hopes to form a united front with the NIAPS, and indeed with the other farm organisations on the island, to protect agriculture against the forthcoming reforms of the CAP proposed by the European Commission.

He believes these will cause serious difficulties to the whole of the island which has similar kinds of agriculture and structures. Having met his Northern counterparts and having worked closely with them, Frank admits that there is more support from the system for the farmer in the Republic than in the North.

"The complaint I hear most often from Northern farmers is that their future is determined by a British Minister for Agriculture who is in London and although there is a local minister with responsibility for agriculture, they feel there is not enough access," he says.

There are also a number of schemes operating in the Republic which do not operate in the North, he adds, although a winter beef premium, which compensates farmers for holding animals for slaughter until January, operates North and South.