WHEN the bird flu virus was discovered at Bernard Matthews' turkey farm, it could have spelled disaster for Kevin Crocker.

The Bere Regis-based farmer was in hospital following a minor heart problem and, having just decided to stock free-range chickens in his farm shop, it was another worry he didn't need.

Thankfully the crisis had the opposite effect and sent consumers to small farm shops in their droves, reassured by the knowledge of exactly where their poultry had come from.

Potential catastrophe diverted, Kevin, 45, was left to recover in peace.

But it was just such everyday strains of farm life that put him in hospital in the first place.

"We had some labour problems, we had a very busy Christmas," he explained. "Halfway through January, my body said: That's it - I'm going to shut down'. We haven't had a holiday since we got married 10 years ago. We've now booked a long weekend away, but you can't leave the farm for more than that.

"It's always been a hard life but it used to be an enjoyable way of life. You start to think there's more to life than this."

Kevin owns Central Farm at Tolpuddle and rents Rye Hill Farm in Bere Regis. He also runs Pampered Pigs Pantry, which sells the farm's own pork, beef, lamb and poultry.

He is a fourth generation farmer, but said the industry had changed beyond all recognition over the years.

"We do everything other than farming - farming is almost a tag-on these days. I'm now really the manager. It's almost a day off if I get to spend a day on the tractor.

"We've got so much paperwork. Some of that's been brought on by us because we now sell everything in the farm shop so we have environmental health to deal with, trading standards, apart from all the Defra stuff.

"In father's day if you had something to go to market that was it, off they'd go. But now you've got to book them in with the market and the haulier, check their ear tags are correct, check the passports. Now they've got to be TB tested. It's just another headache, something else to worry about."

While the farm shop business is booming, Kevin insisted the millionaire farmer image was far from reality.

"On paper you're a rich man, but you've got to sell it all to release the capital. If you look at the stock there's no other business that ties up so much capital for so little income."

He added the pressure of maintaining an income was so intense that it just became too much for some.

"There have been local people that have committed suicide."

Figures from the Farm Crisis Network show that the number of general suicides in Dorset for 2003 and 2004 were 18 per 100,000, while farming suicides nationally account for around 50 per 100,000 for the same period.

Robert Hyde, 55, is the fifth generation to have farmed as a tenant from Manor Farm in Wool, which has been a family business since the 1830s and now farms arable and sheep organically.

He agreed the pressures on farmers today were greater than in the past.

"If you're taking on animals you have to be there for them every day, without fail. In the past, where there have been a number of people on a farm there are people to take up the slack. But now businesses can't financially support labour - so there aren't people to share the physical load.

"Farmers spend a lot of time working on their own, maybe dealing with sick and dead animals, on days when the weather's appalling. There are some very intense pressures.

"The sons or daughters of the family business can see so many better opportunities away from the farming industry. There's so much more out there than there was - some people's way of looking at it is there must be a better way of life."

Although it is undoubtedly a tough industry in which to survive, there have been changes in recent years which have affected farming for the better.

"People are very much more interested in food these days," said Robert, "so there's a really positive feel between the consumer and the farmer. The consumer seems to be more interested in where the food has come from, which is a good thing.

"Foot and mouth in 2001 was so heavily publicised that people are aware of that kind of thing, and people are more interested in green issues now, so that's a very positive thing for the farming industry.

"It is a very difficult industry to survive in, but I think every individual in a farming family would agree that it's a wonderful way of life.

"One is redoubling one's efforts to keep the family business, but I wouldn't want