Some farmers won't let it be a pig of a Christmas in more ways than one. Rob Simpson of the Yorkshire and North East National Farmers Union analyses why

Farmer Grant Burton and his brother Mark have reared 72 turkeys this Christmas for local people, something they have been doing for the last 20 years.

They see it as continuing a tradition started many generations ago by farmers' wives, and it may be one of the few things they do this year which doesn't lose money.

But the farmers from Wilberfoss, east of York, refuse to be downbeat about the industry which has endured another difficult and penny-scraping 12 months.

The Burton brothers' main enterprise is pigs and few people who drive past the farm fail to smile at the sight of the sows rolling around in the mud, or lolling, sunbathing, on deep beds of straw.

The pig crisis has been well documented over the past few years, and has resulted in ruin for many producers.

Indeed, Grant himself admits that earlier this year they were just two weeks away from selling all the pigs.

He said: "My family has been rearing pigs for more than 50 years, but with the debt and the terrible prices for pigs, we were ready to give it all up. It would have meant having to lay off two full-time workers - something we were very loathe to do."

Luckily for Grant, and the dozens of other pig producers left in North and East Yorkshire, prices began to creep up. The prices have recovered to the point where Grant's business has finally started to repay some of the debt accumulated.

But the crisis has led to a big rethink of cash flow and risk, and Grant's pigs are now sent to other farms when they are about four months old for fattening. The number of sows has also been reduced by 15 per cent to 330.

The arable business has suffered as well. This time the weather has been the critical factor.

Hundreds of tonnes of sugar beet are left unharvested at the Burton's waterlogged farm, while this year's cereal and potato harvests were prolonged and expensive. Sodden straw lies unbaled and ruined in fields and there has been no opportunity to plant any of the wheat for next year's harvest.

Grant said: "My overriding memory of the Year 2000 will be the wet. Though the pig prices have started to recover, on the arable side it has been an incredibly difficult year and the legacy of so much rain will be with us well into 2001."

But the Burton brothers have refused to rest while their debts have built up. Spotting the opportunity opened up by the farmers' markets, they have diversified into selling sausages.

Grant is now a regular stallholder at Leeds and Driffield farmers' markets, and an occasional attendee at some of the North Yorkshire markets. He is also a new member of the food group Yorkshire Pantry.

"I really enjoy being at the markets," he explained.

"It's very interesting meeting consumers and finding out what they want to buy, rather than being told what consumers want by a supermarket.

"We offer full traceability of our sausages and consumers do ask how we rear our pigs. We now produce 10-15 pigs every month for the sausages, and the enterprise has proved worthwhile."