JIM and Sharon Flashman are both fatalists. What will be will be.

Three times they sold West Prince Farm, and three times the sales fell through. Now they have decided to stay for good.

It is their dogged tenacity in the face of agriculture's overwhelming difficulties that has seen the Flashmans survive while others have given up.

Now, with good reason, a new mood of optimism pervades their home near Callington.

On the domestic front the couple are just celebrating the birth of their second child, Austin — a year after the arrival of one year-old Xavia. And next week the 80-acre dairy spread becomes officially organic, allowing them to produce milk for the growing organic market.

Jim was born and bred on the farm which is dominated at the back by the rugged sentinel of Kit Hill and at the front by a panoramic arc that sweeps down across the Tamar Valley towards Plymouth.

'My father started milking cows here in 1942 when he bought the farm. We have a closed herd. Nothing has been brought to this farm for 30 years,' says Jim.

'Everything has been born on the farm. Hence everything is non-BSE because we have fed the cattle whole-grain food with no additives or GM feed additives.'

He says they probably own the only herd in the country that is BSE-free. They can certainly lay claim to being the only organic dairy farm in South East Cornwall.

The decision to enter totally organic farming evolved from the thwarted sales of the south-facing farm which is 650ft above sea level.

Things had been difficult and to help make ends meet Sharon, 34, who studied at Bicton Agricultural College, has been doing a window cleaning round in the Okehampton area.

In her spare time between helping on the farm and doing her window cleaning she runs marathons —including the London Marathon twice.

A glass cabinet in the lounge is full of her trophies. The couple married three years ago and on their honeymoon Sharon ran the Jersey Half-Marathon in the fastest time ever of one hour 38 minutes, then they both took part in the Paris-Versailles ten-mile run.

'I ran eight weeks after giving birth to Xavier — and when I was pregnant I did the Doone Ten on Exmoor which is one of the hardest,' says Sharon.

'I think running a marathon is a lot easier than having a baby! It's certainly a lot quicker . . .'

Four years ago things were so low in farming the Flashmans decided to sell up and got rid of 50 cows.

'But with the price being so uneconomic we had to start from square one and breed a new herd,' says Jim.

'We'd sold the cows — but they nearly all had heifer calves so we reared them. Now we have a very young herd. The oldest are "third calvers" — which all helps the mastitis cell count.'

No fertilizers or sprays are used on the farm —and no antibiotics unless any of the cattle are seriously ill.

'Organic management is about letting the cattle build up its own immunity. Animals and humans need bacteria in their gut to keep healthy. And it is when it isn't there that everybody becomes ill.'

West Prince Farm has never been worked intensively. Jim says it has always been 'ground-friendly' and over the past 50 years nothing has been done to harm the land.

'It seemed very daunting when we first decided to go organic because the market is so unsure. It takes 27 months to become officially organic — and we didn't know if there would still be a market when we got there.'

But Jim says after taking the plunge 'everything seemed to fall into place'.

While many farmers have sold up and got out the Flashmans have taken adversity head on in the hope of finding a way forward.

'We have always struggled to get by. For us to tighten the belt a notch isn't a problem — but when you have people who have everything they find it much harder.'

Jim is resentful that he was unable to get compensation for his BSE-free herd while farms that had BSE did.

'That is wrong. We are suffering because we have had no compensation whatsoever. Others have got a fortune for having BSE while we have got nothing for not having it.

'Ultimately, we have to be optimistic — but other people often just look at the downside. Many farmers have sold up before their assets have been diminished — not because they haven't been making money but for the fear of not making money,' says Jim.

His organic milk will be delivered to the Somerset Organic Cooperative for distribution. Jim believes if more people went organic there would be less produced which would diminish the food mountains.

'If everyone produced half of what they produce we would all have a market. But farmers will never agree with one another — they don't work together.'

With their new family and entry into organic milking a new chapter in their life beckons for Jim and Sharon. One they are both delighted to embrace.

'Farming is a way of life. I wouldn't want to change it.'

'There are days when the tractor won't start and you wonder if it's worth it. Then the next day the sun is shining and you think it isn't so bad after all.'