Grasslands across the countryside could turn to scrub as the farming industry collapses, according to experts.

More and more farmers are cutting back livestock herds and there could soon be too few sheep and cattle to graze the South Downs' grasslands and stop them turning to scrub.

A survey of 217 Sussex farmers carried out by The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England and published this week found 60 per cent had changed the use of their land to shore up profit margins.

Trevor Passmore, 55, who runs a farm near Lancing with his sister Jenny, loses money on every sheep in his flock and is considering reducing it from 800 breeding ewes to 700.

He said most farmers he knew were considering similar cuts. "People are saying what's happening now is comparable to the depression at the beginning of the 20th Century," he said.

"There is definitely going to be a big drop in the number of livestock."

Mr Passmore grew up on the farm and said he had never seen such tough trading conditions.

He has been running children's farm tours since the Seventies and cuts grass verges in the spring for Adur District Council but is still struggling to make ends meet.

He said: "Nobody is after a fortune, we just want to make a living. Unless we see farmers making a decent living, there won't be any left in a few years."

Mr Passmore's situation is likely to get worse next May when the Government will abolish grants reflecting the amount of food farmers produce.

A new grant, the Single Farm Payment, will be introduced, placing the emphasis on looking after the land rather than producing food. Critics are worried it will take away the incentive to raise livestock.

Michael and Cathy Fordham are tenant farmers at Bradford's Farm in Little Horsted, near Uckfield.

They have increased their profit margins on cattle by rearing them to adulthood, having them slaughtered close to the farm and then selling the meat to suppliers.

Mr Fordham said it was still a struggle to make the farm profitable. The value of crops such as wheat had dropped from around £150 a tonne to £60.

He said: "It is an extremely trying time for farmers and they are struggling to see a way through it."

Phil Belden, countryside manager at the Sussex Downs Conservation Trust, said: "The problem is if you take the subsidies away there is little incentive to carry on farming.

"The Single Farm Payment will give farmers similar payments to what they had before but will not be linked to the amount of food they produce.

"A farmer can go from hundreds of animals to none and receive a similar subsidy."

He said farmers who kept their land from turning to scrub would get higher payments and he plans to persuade as many as possible to keep grazing sheep as a way of maintaining the land.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005