Labourer causes £10,000 damage after ploughing wrong field

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The labourer ruined the expensive crop after he mistakenly set to work in the wrong field. He was asked to plough an area ready for strawberry planting but instead the driver managed to destroy the two-acre asparagus crop.

Farmer James Hadwin, 25, whose family own Mansergh Hall farm in Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, said: "My dad Jim came in and told us what had happened - he couldn't believe it.

"The contractor had been told which crop to plough and which field, but somehow he ended up on the wrong side of the fence and ploughed the asparagus crop into the ground.

"When we first saw it we were aghast but then we saw the funny side and started laughing. The poor guy who did it was absolutely devastated."

Around 1,400 bunches of asparagus were harvested before the blunder and are now being sold at the family's farm shop.

Mr Hadwin added: "We've had worse things to deal with than this, like foot-and-mouth and the single farm payments scheme.

"We are only a small producer, supplying the local area, so it won't have an effect on the availability of asparagus nationally. It's obviously a shame but you have to see the funny side of things sometimes."