HERE'S how to make hay while the sun doesn't shine.

Macclesfield's most romantic dairy farmer blazed a trail-er for all other country folk today on St Valentine's Day after popping the question to his one true love using... a tractor.

For Andrew Jackson expressed his feelings for his bride-to-be, not with poetry or beautiful music, but with his trusty tractor and trailer and a simple sign that was to be the final straw for a bachelor boy.

Amorous Andy, 35, who lives at New Barn Farm in Gawsworth, had secretly been painting his tarpaulin with the proposal "Will you marry me?" for weeks, hiding it in the loft of his barn.

He even went to the lengths of concealing ladders so his dad wouldn't discover his handiwork.

And the young agriculturalist did such a good job in not telling a soul, that his partner of ten years, Lynne Eardley, 32, herself a cattle and sheep farmer, of Sutton Hall Farm, was left completely in the dark.

Adoring Andy took his future wife out for a meal to the Fools Nook in Sutton, and the only time Lynne became suspicious was when he kept disappearing to the loo - a ruse to ring farmhand, Ben, to bring the tractor.

She said: "I thought something was up. Then he asked me to go outside a minute and I didn't know what was going on.

"There was a big trailer staring at me and a huge orange light flashing and I thought 'ooh blimey' and blushed. I said 'yes' straight away and Andy kissed me."

Not only did the cow-keeping Casanova go the whole ten barnyards, but he also did the old romantic gesture of asking Lynne's dad, popular local farmer and successful sheepdog trainer, Bud Eardley, if he could have his daughter's hand in marriage - all in one day!

Once Lynne had accepted, excited drinkers came out of the pub to raise a glass and a cheer to the newly engaged couple, who met 15 years ago in the very same alehouse.

Then, to top it all off, a bouquet of flowers was brought from behind the bar, just in time for both sets of parents to make their way to the watering hole to celebrate the momentous decision.

Andy said: "I think this makes me the most romantic farmer in Macclesfield, so that's my Valentine's Day present taken care of, so I hope Lynne's not expecting anything else.

"I do have something planned for the wedding day, however, but like the proposal - that's a secret too."

Had Lynne's answer been 'no' she is not sure what Andy would have done.

She said: "If I'd turned him down he would probably have driven his tractor into the centre of Macclesfield to see who'd have him - but I could never turn him down."