This year harvest time is tougher and more different now than in many years gone by. ROB SIMPSON, of the Yorkshire and North East National Farmers Union, explains why

FARMERS are now in the middle of harvest and Business Press readers may well have spotted the combines gathering this year's crops in.

Harvest is probably the most recognised and familiar event in North Yorkshire's agricultural calendar.

The culmination of a year optimising the land's potential is being gathered in as we speak and the region's barley, wheat and oilseed rape will eventually be used to make bread, beer, biscuits, vegetable oil and animal feed.

Harvest started later than normal because of the cool temperatures and wet weather we have all had to endure this summer. The rain has also flattened some of the crops in the fields making harvest more difficult.

But these problems pale into insignificance when compared to the price farmers now get for wheat and barley, which is almost half what it was a couple of years ago.

And while farmers strive to improve their crops or livestock each year, many have concluded that they need something else to boost their incomes.

They are turning to a huge range of diversifications such as selling hats, ice cream, ostrich meat, organic food, or even bras.

Farm diversifications are all around us, with farmers embracing new markets and enterprises at every opportunity.

Last weekend I tucked into some delicious barbecued sausages produced by a pig farmer not many miles from York. Hammered by an unprecedented crisis in the pig industry, this enterprising farmer watched the rapid growth of farmers markets in Yorkshire and decided to take advantage of the opportunity.

There has been a move from what farmers have been doing in recent years - producing the primary products (i.e. pigs, cattle, milk, etc) and selling them on to someone else who would process them before marketing and selling them.

An increasing number of farmers are now realising they can get a better price for their pigmeat, beef, lamb or cheese by selling direct to the public. They now make and sell their own sausages, steaks and burgers instead of getting someone else to do it.

Consequently, farmers' markets have been re-born, and the public seems to love them. They love the freshness, the tastiness and the quality of the produce which can be found at the markets.

The NFU receives numerous calls to our regional office in York every week from members of the public trying to find their local farmers' market.

We have set up a computerised database of the markets in Yorkshire and the North East so we can direct people to them better.

The North and East Yorkshire farmers' markets to be held in September include:

York City Centre, in Parliament

Street, on September 27

York Livestock Centre, Murton,

on September 16

Ripon Market Square on

September 23

Malton Livestock Centre on

September 30

Malton Street Market, near the

town centre, on September 9

Knaresborough Market Place on

September 10

Driffield Showground on

September 2.

If anyone wants a full list of farmers' markets in the region, phone Faye Grove on 01904 451550 or e-mail her at: faye.grove@nfu.org.uk

PICTURE: Harvest time brings added worries for farmers this year