A YOUNG Ryedale farmer has returned from America after a once in a lifetime trip to work in the States.

Adam Newell, of High Mowthorpe, Malton, spent nine months working on a vast 21,000-acre mixed farm in Montana. The 24-year-old, who has spent most of his life in a farming environment, said the trip was as much of a culture shock as he had expected.

He said: "Everything was just so much bigger, like the equipment I had to run and the amount of land they farm.

"It was a pretty good experience but working with the cattle was a bit hair raising. At the ranch I was at, they were quite calm, but some of the others were really wild."

Adam, who travelled to Montana just days before the foot and mouth outbreak, said he had kept in touch with worried friends and family farming in the UK.

He said: "The local radio in Montana was pretty agriculturally orientated and I could keep up to date with that. People were worried about it over in America because if they had got it there the effects would have been devastating."

Now he has returned, Adam said he was looking for a job in agriculture. But he is realistic about a future career in the industry. "The way things are going at the moment you have to look further than just tractor driving, maybe at an office-based job in agriculture.

"But it was a joy to farm over there and I'm looking to go to Canada next year."

Updated: 12:13 Thursday, December 06, 2001