'Red-blooded' male seeks wife to share farm with

GERMAN farmers know their onions and the best way to cultivate a crop of money from the EU. But when it comes to love they are often as appealing as genetically modified spinach at a Greenpeace banquet. Solitary, set in their ways, unable to tell Posh Spice from the pickling variety, Wellington boots and sileage bins - these, curiously, are not an automatic lure for millennium woman.

That is why the first marriage-finding service specifically for the sons of the German soil has been founded. Partners For Farmers is a fledgling marriage bureau with a double-edged agenda: to find brides for reclusive, lonely agricultural workers and save the multibillion pound German farming business from literally going to seed. Government officials in recent years have been alarmed over the number of farms that close because the single men who run them have no heirs.

These farms either end up parcelled into plots of land or are simply sold off to developers for commercial or residential building. Now Erna Biewald is hoping to change that a little in the Mittelfranken area around Wrzburg. "The crisis for the farmers is gigantic and very real," she said. Many of the men in their 50s and 60s, she said, have been so immersed in their solitary trade on the land that they are often virgins when they seek a bride.

"They're not looking for Sophia Loren," she added, probably because he knows they won't find her. "They want solid, respectable women, perhaps with families of their own from previous relationships, who they can share some quality time with and perhaps pass on their land to." Frau Biewald's "marriage bureau for muckspreaders", as one local paper branded it, is the first to be officially endorsed by German farming unions.

Hans Huber, 52, is typical of the farmers who have paid their #20 sign-up fee, plus #20 for each of the 10 introductions he has had so far - without success. Herr Huber, who admits he has never been with a woman, said: "I'm not looking for a townie sophisticate but a down- to-earth, good hearted woman to share my home and some of the chores with. People like me work all hours God sends so we cannot get out and socialise like we would like to do. That is why a service like this gives hope to lonely people like me."

Frau Biewald said the ignorance about the way farmers live and work is widespread among women.

"They think if they get tied up with a farmer they will be milking cows in the morning and spending the rest of the day trying to get the smell of manure out of their clothes," she said. "But farming has moved on since Heidi's times. All that really remains is that these men hang on to the soil like they have always done - they just don't want to be alone anymore.

"And it's important for the country too, to preserve traditional farms, to have them pass on to someone. Most of the age group we cater to means that partners already have a family."

Frau Biewald, 45, received the blessing of local church authorities and the local government for her unique marriage bureau which has accomplished two weddings - one between a 72-year-old farmer and his 74-year-old bride - and several other live-in relationships since it was established in June this year.

She holds regular seminars for farmers in a wide radius around Wurzburg and is seeking to expand the service nationwide next year. "But I warn the ladies that these men are not looking for mothers and neither should they expect to be seeking fathers," she added. "These are red-blooded men seeking a wife."

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