I WRITE in response to your front page article in which farmers said Herefordshire people are lazy and won’t do farm field work and prefer to be on the dole (Worker shortage is farming timebomb, September 25).

That is utter poppycock. Farmers employ Eastern European workers because they can get them to work piece rate wages which do not come under the umbrella of the minimum wage.

There are a minority of people who are long-term unemployed, but when you have to count every penny, you have to look at what jobs actually keep in touch with the ‘real cost of living.’ The average Herefordian who works, constantly has to count upon overtime just to live. One of the biggest costs for people who work in Herefordshire is petrol for their car, as the transport infrastructure doesn’t support working hours.

When you pay a mortgage/rent, council tax, water rates, electricity and gas bills, instead of living in caravans in farm shanty towns, there is a world of difference between Herefordians and migrant workers.

Then there is the fact that average UK wages are three to four times that of Poland.

I have done field work and my wife’s family did many types – hop tying, potato sorting and fruit picking – and they know how back-breaking it used to be before polytunnels and strawberry plants on stands at waist height. The work was always paid by the tray/box load and not by the hour.

One of my work references summed up my work ethic: “he leads from the front”. That’s something you don’t see ‘gentleman farmers’ doing.

Real farmers work ridiculously long hours to make their farms break even, and never have manicured hands or posh cars. I come from a real farming generation and know what a hard day’s graft is like.

As both an employer and an employee, I have worked with Herefordians from all walks of life and I don’t regard them as being any different to migrant workers, we are all motivated by wages and terms and conditions of work.

STEVE LLOYD Leominster