HILL farming will need financial support for years to come.

Chloe Palmer, Yorkshire regional director of the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, said the Government must recognise the sector is an “absolutely vital part of the rural fabric”.

Brought up in the South Yorkshire coalfields, she saw the devastation caused to communities by pit closures.

She told the Yorkshire FWAG forum at Bolton Abbey village hall that both hill farming and the coal industry were integral to their communities and required high skills.

She said: “Once those skills have gone, they have gone for good.”

Miss Palmer believed both industries worked in “fundamentally flawed” markets caused by unfair competition.

The privatisation of electricity had created an unfair market for coal and hill farms were up against supermarkets.

Miss Palmer was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship to see how other countries support their upland communities and landscapes.

She found most support their farmers to a large degree, only New Zealand does not.

Devolution in the UK means there isn’t even a level playing field between farmers in England, Scotland and Wales.

Miss Palmer found France had been the most useful country to visit.

One farm in Lussaine was 2,500ft above sea level and the cows were inside from mid- September to mid-March. The farmer produced milk-fed veal for a local butcher and received a good premium price.

She said: “I was impressed with his welfare standards and he knew exactly what his costs were.

He seemed very efficient, but without the single farm payment, he would not be in business.”

There was great support for local breeds and great importance is also placed on local produce with supermarkets and even service stations having dedicated shelf space.

Miss Palmer believes climate change will present opportunities for northern hill farms as other areas become unsuitable for livestock production.

There are opportunities to market upland meat as coming from extensive systems and to promote the health benefits of grass-produced beef.

But Miss Palmer said even the top performing 30pc of hill farms would not survive the next 10 to 15 years without financial support.

Miss Palmer said: “The Government needs to realise the uplands are vital to all sorts of people.

“With climate change so much in the news, upland livestock production will become more important – food production must remain central to the uplands.”