MARCH 25 is one of the key dates in the farming calendar, known as Lady Day since medieval times. It will not be very welcome in many parts of the countryside because is the day when the rent becomes due for many tenant farmers.

Aware of the acute financial distress of recent years now exacerbated by the tragedy of foot and mouth, the Country Land and Business Association is advising tenants in difficulty to raise the matter immediately with their landlords, rather than wait until Lady Day.

Dorothy Fairburn, regional director of the Country Landowners' Association, advises: "Landlords will listen to tenants because it is crucial that their tenants stay in business. We continually advise members to look upon their management as a partnership between landlord and tenant and it is impossible for them to flourish independently of the other."