A furious farmer whose family has worked in Berkshire for 170 years spent four hours writing a pointed message to the in one of his fields. George Brown, 43, is a fourth generation farmer at Priors Farm in Newbury, and has been among the legions of agricultural workers railing against plans to impose a 20% on the already-struggling industry. He has been a regular attendee at protests in London, but Mr Brown's latest effort to express the anger of across the country has been somewhat more unconventional.

The 43-year-old earmarked four hours of his time to get in a tractor and mark out the message: "No farmers, no future, food for thought" into the ground of one of his fields last week. A friend's drone captured the impressive end result - a clearly visible and powerful message to planes flying above, and one that the Berkshire native thinks is even more important than ever ahead of the Government's upcoming spending review.

The review, expected in the spring, has been described by NFU President Tom Bradshaw as a "key moment" for Labour to "step up and deliver on its commitments to UK food production and economic growth".

But the Government announced plans this week to pause post-Brexit payments to farmers under the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), with plans to revise the scheme later this year.

Despite being heralded as a "successful" scheme for which "the maximum limit has been reached", the move sparked fresh backlash from the farming community, who are now unsure how to plug the financial gap left by the soon-to-be phased out subsidies.

The Government had paid farmers for biodiverse action including improving soil conditions and planting hedgerows, trees and wildflowers. DEFRA said existing SFI agreements would still be paid but it was no longer accepting new applications.

"It just feels like they continually want to kick us and kick us as hard as they can," Mr Brown told the Express. "These things seem to be motivated by absolute spite against British food production."

Against the background of an increasingly fraught global climate, the measures would only spark a rise in food exported from abroad and weaken UK food security, the farmer added.

"Land is an awful lot cheaper over there. We can't compete. The food in this country is the cheapest in Europe, and we're not making enough money. In the 1980s, a new combine harvester cost £25,000 and we got £140,000 in turn for grain. We get around £150,000 now and the machinery costs between £250,000 to £1 million."

The industry's prospects "hadn't looked great" before Labour took office last July, but the new administration has "hugely accelerated" an already dire predicament," the 43-year-old said.

"We've struggled with two terrible wet seasons, our yields are considerably down across the country. I just wish this Government would take it seriously. It's a deeply irresponsible and immoral approach."

Mr Brown hopes his eye-catching statement will reinforce the strong emotions felt around the UK, first about the inheritance tax rise and now reflecting opposition to the scrapping of SFI.

"I'd been thinking about doing something on a bigger scale for a while, but it was quite difficult in practical terms. You can only see the line in front of you, and it takes hours of focused work," he said.

"But it will be there for around two years, and hopefully Starmer and his chums will see it every time they fly over Berkshire. That will make it all worth it."

The NFU has also criticised the suspension of SFI, accusing the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) of being a "failing department".

"The chaos has got worse and worse and farmers are paying the price," Mr Bradshaw said. "Bad decisions, misdirection, promises broken, no transparency and yet more financial disaster for farming."

Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs Daniel Zeichner said: "This Government is proud to have set the biggest budget for sustainable food produce in history, to boost growth in rural communities and all across the UK, under our Plan for Change.

"More farmers are now in schemes and more money is being spent through them than ever before. That is true today and will remain true tomorrow.

"We have now successfully allocated the SFI24 budget as promised."