THE Yorkshire farming personality of the year launched a scathing attack on Government ministers and their officials.

Phillip Holden was addressing the Yorkshire County Milk recording herds competition in York. He accused ministers and their senior officials of not understanding how the livestock industry or countryside worked.

The sort of countryside they wanted was far removed from what those living in the countryside wanted.

Mr Holden's animal medicine business is based in Hawes, Leyburn and Barnard Castle. He was recently named Yorkshire farming personality of the year, largely for his work as a founder member of Rejuvenate, the self-help group set up in Wensleydale during the FMD crisis.

He told the awards dinner that since foot-and-mouth, 650 statutory instruments and regulations had been introduced.

It was almost impossible to work, and on top of that was the 20-day livestock standstill restriction.

He passionately described the northern uplands as a priceless resource, reliant on upland systems of farming.

Most hill farms could not diversify and had no choice but to farm they way they always had.

"There cannot be a healthy countryside without a healthy agriculture," he warned, "just as there cannot be a healthy nation without a healthy countryside."