THE ray of hope the return of farmers' markets to the region has cast on many farm producers with their livelihoods wrecked by foot-and-mouth has shone on the Betney family of Broom Hill Farm, West Auckland.

Just 18 months ago, Mr Matthew Betney and his wife, Tracy, both aged 37, started a successful food processing operation from their 115 hand-fed breeding sows. They produced home cured bacon and hams on the farm and had sausages made by an outside processor.

Everything was going so well - they were selling at between 15 and 20 farmers' markets a month - that they took out a loan to buy more machinery and equipment earlier this year.

Little did they know that the spectre of foot-and-mouth was just round the corner and they would find themselves bang in the middle of it.

Their herd was destroyed on April 16, Easter Monday, as part of MAFF's contiguous culling policy and with it went the bulk of their income.

"The timing could not have been worse," said Mr Betney. "We had the mortgage and the bank loans to pay off and no money coming in. We had all the equipment set up, but we couldn't use it. It's been quite a struggle."

Mrs Betney returned to part-time nursing at Darlington memorial hospital to support her husband and their two young sons, William, aged nine, and four-year-old Thomas.

Mr Betney had to give up his second job with a local milk producer and is currently working for Defra doing all the cleaning up at the farm.

The Betneys finally received a lifeline when they were given permission by the Northern Association of Farmers' Markets to temporarily process meat from other local farms to sell at farmers' markets.

"It's not an ideal situation as we would like to keep everything within the farm," said Mr Betney, "but we did not want to lose our spot at the markets and it's keeping us ticking over until we can re-stock."

He added that all the support they had received had been invaluable.

"The bank has been brilliant and the one good thing that has come out of this epidemic is it seems to have brought the whole farming industry together; everybody is supporting each other."

The Betneys have remained positive throughout the crisis and are now looking to the future.

The operation is being extended to processing sausages on the farm with equipment from Leeds butcher Mr Robert Brown, who recently retired from his well-known pork shop in Guiseley.

"Mr Brown is training Tracy in the art of sausage making and comes up regularly to help us out and pass on his vast knowledge; we could not have got things going as quickly without him," said Mr Betney. "We are hoping to re-stock in about four months so Christmas could be a double celebration this year.

"We would love to open a farm shop or start a delivery service for people who can't get to the markets. We know we can't compete with the supermarkets on price but we can beat them on quality for not much more."

To order a delivery from Broom Mill farm, telephone 01388 834564.