DEFRA FIPL funded Business Skills Workshops for young farmers in the North York Moors National Park

“When Making Tax Digital was instigated by HMRC, many Next Generation farmers were handed the financial recording tasks as they already held the required IT skills.

However, they probably just continued to follow the same procedures shown without fully understanding the background to it all”, says Christine. As a result, a two-day course on this subject was developed and has been successfully delivered in various parts of the country both to individuals and members of farming networks and farm resilience groups.

ABT has now secured funding through the DEFRA Farming In Protected Landscapes (FIPL) Scheme to develop and deliver a series of business skills workshops aimed at those Next Generation farmers who will be taking over the running of their family farm businesses within the North York Moors National Park in the next 3-5 years.

“These young farmers will have excellent practical skills as far as tractor work and livestock husbandry are concerned however they may not yet have had much input into the day to day running of the business, the burden of regulatory procedures and business plans.

As farming is undergoing massive change, they may have some fantastic thoughts on how they can adapt the business to remain sustainable in the future but are perhaps just lacking the confidence and knowledge of how to implement change”, says Christine.

This funding has enabled a project that will provide essential farm business skills completely free of charge to it participants.

The project involves 5 workshops that will include:

• Looking at existing thoughts for the future of the business, opportunities offered by new DEFAR schemes, legislation and helpful software systems
• Accounting terminology and discovering why farm financial recording has its own many "quirks"
• Understanding the components of the farm accounts and creation of detailed performance margins, participation within industry recognised benchmarking
• Presentations from those who have already undergone this process and NYMNP officers.

These will be followed by a short assessment based on the learning and the production of an Action Plan for the future.

The 5hr workshops will be held over autumn/winter and, as places are limited, anyone interested in this project should contact Christine by September 23 - [email protected]