Jimmy Acrigg was, until recently, a hill farmer in the Pennine mountains in Cumbria, northern England.

But he has sold his herd at auction, packed up his house and his family, and emigrated to Canada.

The farming industry is more stable there.

A new report shows that even the most successful farmers made losses this year.

Jimmy Acrigg: "I just have to grin and bear it"

Most are surviving on the subsidies from Europe which used to bring extra profits.

Sheep will sell for half the price they would have fetched a year ago.

Mr Acrigg is putting on a brave face: "I've just got to grin and bear it. I'm disappointed. But it's got to be done and that's it."

1,000 years in Britain

The Acrigg family came to Britain from Scandinavia with the Vikings a thousand years ago.

Now they say they can no longer earn a living.

Mrs Acrigg says: "It feels like you're letting your forebears down"

"You have a guilty feeling you're letting your forebears down," says Mrs Acrigg.

"There's so many generations of work gone into building up these hill farms. You build upon them - the work of fathers, grandfathers for generations back. And then suddenly you're abandoning it all."

The Acriggs faced the same problems as families all over Britain: the strength of the pound, the BSE crisis, a bad harvest and the collapse of the Russian sheepskin market.

Maurice Hall is another hill farmer who lives near the Acriggs. He has also sold his sheep. He got around £9 a lamb - a fraction of what consumers will eventually pay for the meat in the shops.

That is due to expensive new hygiene processes and profits in the shops - but this baffles him: "I just don't know the answer - there's something sadly amiss between me and the housewife."

Meanwhile more and more are farmers remain in debt or are following the Acriggs and selling up.