MORE than 1,800 farmers in Yorkshire have a new union branch leader.

Rosie Dunn has been appointed as the first chairman of the newly-formed York and East Riding county branch of the National Farmers' Union (NFU).

Mrs Dunn and her husband Alasdair have run the 112-acre North Carlton Farm at Stockton-on-the-Forest, near York, for the past 14 years. They have a mixed operation including 140 head of beef cattle, 50 ewes, cereals and sugar beet. They also do contracting work for other farmers.

Mrs Dunn has been involved in farming all her life and has also been heavily involved in the work of the NFU.

She worked alongside union president Ben Gill in Brussels to put the case for the lifting of the ban on beef from the UK being imported into Europe.

She now sees the enlargement of the EU as one of the biggest challenges facing British farming, because of the cheap production costs in the old Eastern bloc.

And she is convinced of the NFU's influential role both now and in the future.

"Without the NFU, agriculture in this country would be in a mess," she said.