Great Yorkshire Show 2025: Sunshine and soaring temperatures - but inheritance tax debate dominates Great Yorkshire Show 2025

Eager show visitors have delighted in watching equestrian and livestock displays, sampled food and drink, shopped til they dropped at trade stalls, marvelled at working sheepdogs and done a little bit of celebrity spotting.

Television presenters Helen Skelton, Christine Talbot and Matt Baker, influencers Joe Seels and Olly Harrison have appeared throughout the week, along with celebrity farmers Rob and Dave Nicholson from Cannon Hall Farm in Barnsley and Peter Wright from The Yorkshire Vet.

Mr Baker attended the show on Thursday and was keen to watch the Young Handler classes.

“It’s an amazing celebration, of incredible stuff,” he told The Yorkshire Post.

“The people that are here, the tech, the animals – it’s just massive. You never forget that.”

The Countryfile presenter, at home on the showground and chatting with ease, was particularly generous with his time as he spoke with fans.

The showground was scorching as temperatures topped the high 20s, as it has all week in Harrogate.

In the pig rings, farmers were worrying about sunburn.

As Mr Baker said: “It’s wonderful weather for shows - terrible weather for agriculture.

“What a show though for British agriculture,” he added. “It’s testament to the brilliance of the show, and it just shows it will be here for a long time to come.”

Alongside this, there has been a flurry of political activity and debate amongst industry players such as the NFU, the CLA, RABI, the Farming Community Network (FCN) and a number of MPs, council leaders and Mayors.

The organisations have come together to talk about solutions and ways forward out of what is one of the most turbulent times in the farming industry for years.

West Yorkshire farmer, and the vice-president of the NFU, Rachel Hallos said the Great Yorkshire Show was the best of platforms to state farming’s case – and help the every day farmer with mental health.

It is a theme of this year’s show and Ms Hallos said just attending the show alone was a tonic for farmers who might otherwise suffer in silence.

She said: “The most important thing about a show like this is farmers will go and not feel guilty about not working because it is full of farmers. They will come and show, talk to other farmers, realise we are all in the same boat and that will give them a bit of solace. This is why shows are so important.

“This year, there is a focus on mental health and for this moment in time, you can lean over a fence, talk about other people’s animals because you do, and just have a conversation with somebody.

“This is a safe place for farmers. They are used to it, it is familiar, they can be totally honest”, she added.

The Great Yorkshire Show, also stands as a platform and sounding board for union and industry body representatives to really listen to and understand from farmers what is happening on the ground.

Ms Hallos said she was getting mixed feedback from farmers about what is their main concern. For some it is IHT, for others it is SFI payments and for others it is the success or failure of crops caused by a prolonged period of hot and dry weather.

The long-term effects of all this and the need to mitigate it, is now dawning, she added.

She urged farmers to write to MPs to state the effect IHT changes will have on the future of their businesses and family succession.

Ms Hallos was echoing the sentiments of Jonathan Roberts, director of external affairs at the CLA.

The CLA had hosted a breakfast meeting on the opening day of the show to a packed house of its members.

The debate was also attended by David Skaith, the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire who had earlier revealed the findings of a report he had commissioned. Shockingly it says more than half of farms in North Yorkshire are failing to make a profit.

Mr Roberts said the CLA was lobbying backbench MPs into a rebellion. Mr Roberts said Prime Minister Keir Starmer had backtracked on other policies, with the CLA claiming it has close to 30 MPs on board already and needed another 30 to make whips “nervous”.

It will be campaigning to urban MPs to take its side too, Mr Roberts added, as he also revealed the CLA is set to report the Government to the Ombudsman and Parliamentary Commission over refusal to answer Freedom of Information requests relating to tax changes.

Mr Roberts said: “We have been putting in a lot of FOI requests to the Treasury asking them how they have come to their conclusions. The answers coming back are saying it is not in the public interest. Our opinion is, it is in the public interest, but it is not in the government interest.

“We are now going to the Parliamentary Commission and Ombudsman to force the government to release that data.”

In a later briefing debate on Tuesday, NFU President Tom Bradshaw warned of the dark cloud of inheritance tax that hangs heavy over the sector while a major machinery dealer said the uncertainty was having a knock on effect beyond the farm gate.

Richard Simpson, of Ripon Farm Services, said there had been a ripple effect towards suppliers and the wider economy.

“Every business owner says the same,” he outlined. “It’s putting plans on hold, making them reshape their business plans. That is a travesty.”

And Mr Bradshaw, reiterating a phrase to say that “when farming sneezes the whole rural economy catches a cold,” added that it was critical to acknowledge this impact.

Just a year ago the industry was full of hope, said Mr Bradshaw. Now, that has turned to a “cloud” that hangs over the whole of the sector.

His predecessor, Minette Batters attended the show on Wednesday and spoke about her findings so far as she leads a review of farm profitability on behalf of Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

She revealed, “it has been one of the most fascinating things I will have ever done” but also how she was “staggered” by the lack of understanding in some sectors about how a farm actually works.

Ms Batters worked with three different Prime Ministers in one year and Robbie Moore, MP for Keighley and Ilkley and Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affair, said the message he was getting from farmers and businesses in rural areas is they want to see clarity and certainty from Westminster.

He said: “There is uncertainty around the willingness to invest because of the potential liability. Businesses want to grow and thrive but it is a really difficult time.

“What excites me is unlocking our rural economy further, but the problem is the ‘machine’ is not fit for purpose, common sense is not being applied.”