A DELEGATION of Yorkshire hill farmers will today deliver a stark message to government - 'Intervene with immediate help or watch the entire upland economy collapse'.

"We are not whinging or whining, we are being realistic," said Alistair Davy, of Low Oxque Farm, Marrick in Swaledale.

"Our worry is that government has lost interest in the rural areas of England, it does not think about all the local businesses or the countryside which depend on our spend."

The financial impact of last year's twin foot and mouth disease outbreaks followed by Blue Tongue had devastated hill farms - Mr Davy lost £7,000 on his own lambs.

Now sky-high feed and input costs along with reduced single farm payments have crippled them still further.

Mr Davy, chairman of the Hill Farming Initiative, said he and the rest of the delegation had all diversified, taken second jobs, and done everything they could to survive.

He said: "But fertiliser has gone up 100 per cent feed and all our other inputs have gone up hugely, and we are not getting the returns to cover it.

"We cannot spend what we have not got and that means local businesses will suffer."

Many other hill farmers could not diversify and were in a worse situation, trapped on their farms with no way of getting out.

Mr Davy said modulation - where money is diverted from the single farm payment budget to agri-environment schemes - was not working.

The basic entry level scheme was originally supposed to be open to all farmers but instead operates a points system which means some farms cannot qualify.

The Higher Level Scheme is currently by invitation and only farms on Sites of Special Scientific Interest are being approached.

Hill farmers in Scotland and Wales were given more support than England.

Richmond MP William Hague has arranged for the delegation to meet members of the Parliamentary Hill Farming Committee.

They will then go on to Downing Street to deliver a 2,500 name petition and supporting dossier.

It calls for: * immediate and on-going positive intervention from the government * distinct policies to support the English uplands * ring fenced support for hill farmers * immediate re-formulated subsidies with greater focus on Less Favoured Area (LFA) and tenanted farms * a government minister for LFAs.