But their farm in the North York Moors illustrates the uphill struggle facing many rural businesses which help to preserve the treasured character of the national park and a way of life that has survived for generations.

When the couple took on 400 acres at Danby, where they keep 200 sheep and a herd of suckler cows, they were not expecting an easy life, but now they run a parallel business to help to keep them afloat.

When they arrived in 1996, all the farmers locally were working on the land full-time, said Mr Kelly. "Now pretty much someone from every farm is away working," he said.

"Without animals and farming keeping the countryside the way it is, I dread to think how it would look."

Mr and Mrs Kelly have five sons – Jack, nine, Patrick, seven, Arthur, five, Nicholas, three, and one-year-old Joseph – and almost immediately diversified from farming into running a bed and breakfast business.

However, after starting running the café at the nearby national park visitor centre in 2005 they found it difficult to juggle the holiday accommodation with their family commitments.

Now, alongside their animals, they concentrate on the café, baking cakes, making soups and trying to source as much food locally as they can.

Like her husband from farming families, Mrs Kelly said she could not imagine doing anything else and still hopes her sons will consider careers in agriculture.

She said the farm's prospects initially were promising – before crises such as BSE "mad dow" disease and foot-and-mouth – but she remained optimistic for the future.

"I'd love to think the boys would go into farming – I imagine by the time they grow up things might be a bit more prosperous," said Mrs Kelly.

"That's one of the things that's kept us going. We have no intention of giving up.

"We don't want to come across as whingeing – we have a very happy life here.

"We live in a lovely location, in a very nice community to be bringing up our children."

The family's situation is repeated in many farms across the region and the country, said the Tory Euro-MP for Yorkshire and the Humber, Edward McMillan-Scott, also from a hill farming background, hopes to secure a fairer deal for British hill farmers when the Common Agricultural Policy is reviewed next year.

At present, Britain receives the second lowest payment rate per hectare out of its 15 European counterparts in spite of the fact the UK has the largest surface area of hill farming to cover. Only Spain's is lower.

"Hill farming plays a social role, too," said the Euro-MP.

"It keeps the hills populated with animals and people, preserves the environment and is essential for tourism which matters so much to Yorkshire."