The rise of the wrong type of farmer

IT’S agricultural show season and the farmers and land managers who gather for these events up and down the country, are virtually all of the same mind - times are as tough as any of them can remember for agriculture.

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A combination of difficult market conditions, challenging weather and - worst of all - a Government seemingly happy to take big chunks out of farm incomes at every turn, make running a profitable land-based business extremely difficult.

It's not surprising that the theme of the Devon Young Farmers’ debate at the County Show a couple of weeks back, sponsored by rural insurer NFU Mutual, was “There is no incentive for young people to join agriculture.”

It's not just the damaging practical measures Keir Starmer's Government has brought in - including costly inheritance tax changes, the early cancellation of the Basic Payments Scheme or the scrapping of its replacement to new entrants - it’s the clear indication that Ministers, up to and including the Prime Minister, neither know, nor care very much, about farming. Youngsters contemplating their future are understandably wondering if a farming career is for them. And where once they might have been swayed by the prospect of taking over the family farm without the burden of inheritance tax, now even that dangled carrot has been snatched away.