A FARMER has been crushed to death on a farm he worked with his father.

Michael Rider, 35, who had a 15-month-old son, was working underneath a full grain silo when it collapsed on top of him yesterday.

He was pronounced dead at Barnaby Side Farm, Guisborough, east Cleveland, by a doctor who had flown to the scene with the Great North Air Ambulance.

Cleveland Police said the farmer was "carrying out work on the grain silo bank" when he was killed.

A spokeswoman for the Health and Safety Executive, in Newcastle, said: "We are aware of the situation and are investigating."

Firefighters fought for hours to free Mr Rider, who was buried under the ten-tonne silo and a mountain of grain.

The grain was for feeding the 200-plus pigs on the farm.

Tony Churchill, Grangetown station manager with Cleveland Fire Brigade, said: "We spent a number of hours trying various ways of trying to lift the silo and rescue him.

"We tried putting a hole in the side of the silo and tried to remove the contents of it in order to help us lift it.

"In the end, after trying various ways, we had to cut the silo in half to make it lighter to lift."

He added: "It was very sad. You try to distance yourself in situations like this, but we had worked very closely with the farm over the years.

"There are no words you can say about a situation like this."

Mr Rider was in partnership with his father, John, a former National Farmers' Union county chairman and pig producers' spokesman, on the two farms they ran - Barnaby Side and the 17th-Century Mill Farm, near Nunthorpe.

Last night, the east Cleveland farming community was in a state of shock over Mr Rider's death.

Gregg Proll, a friend and secretary of the Stokesley branch of the National Farmers' Union, said: "He was a very close friend. All I can say is Michael was a lovely, genuine person.

"It was a pleasure to be a friend and a pleasure to do business with him.

"It's a bitter blow to the local community in this area, a desperately sad tragedy."

Friend Peter Humphrey said: "He had fantastic ideas and plans for the future for the farm, for the family, having just moved into Mill Farm.

"He did not have a bad bone about him. I have known him all my life.

"And it has just been fantastic knowing him, all the time.

"We are all in a state of shock."

Farmer William Wardman, a near neighbour, said: "It's a tragedy for the whole farming community."

Mr Rider lived at Mill Farm with Lisa Woolhouse, their son, Barney, and Joss and Lily, Ms Woolhouse's children from a previous relationship.

Friends said the older children adored Mr Rider.

Cleveland Police said the coroner had been informed.