'This Government has effectively incentivised suicide' says Yorkshire farmer

“My dad is 82 in February. He’s done as he’s been advised over the years regarding the farm’s future but now he, like many others, has been thrown under the bus by the Government, who are saying it’s alright, you can plan.

“But how can someone in their eighties plan? We’re talking to accountants and solicitors, we’re looking at organising life insurance but you can’t get it easily at dad’s age.

“I’ve seen the piece by the Irish comedian and it’s no joke. This Government has effectively incentivised suicide. There will be some older people in farming now actively thinking that if they are not very well that, ‘If I do myself in before April 2026, I’m going to save my kids!’ How wrong is that?

“I know people that are not sleeping, feeling they’ve made a mistake and if these plans go ahead there are going to be many very unfortunate and desperately sad cases of farms getting broken up, regardless of anyone’s age.

Stephen and brother Ian, who farm on the 260-acre family enterprise at Common Farm and Walbut Mill Farm in nearby Thornton, are staring at a prospective Inheritance Tax bombshell and took part in the latest farmers’ rally held at York Livestock Centre and a Tractor Run around York a week ago, joining other farmers doing the same all around the UK in keeping up the momentum to make the Government think again.

“The overarching message from the farming community is that the Government are miles out with their figures of allowances needed for a family farm. A sub-£1m farm doesn’t tend to be a commercial farm. It’s a nice house in the country with 10 acres and 30 sheep to cut the grass. Actual commercial family farming businesses, which have and need more capital employed, are being hammered.

“Farmers have huge capital requirements. Tractors can cost upwards of £150,000; combine harvesters can be over £500,000; potato stores can cost around £200,000; a milking parlour £300,000; livestock herds and flocks can be worth hundreds of thousands. These are all included in your overall worth and are just capital requirements.

“The return on investment of cereal farms is around half a percentage point on capital employed. And now this. It beggar’s belief.

Stephen says their farming at Bielby and Thornton has changed in recent years with stewardship now part of the income alongside combinable crops and cattle.

“We don’t keep our own cattle anymore, but we were approached by a local dairy farmer and now rear Holstein heifers from 12-15 weeks old on a bed and breakfast arrangement. They return to the dairy farm at around bulling age.

“We are growing 50 acres of winter wheat variety Extase this year; 50 acres of winter barley Tardis; 40 acres spring barley Propino; and have 40 acres of legume fallow which has replaced oilseed rape. We have 20 acres of permanent grass with the rest down to either maize, winter bird food or other stewardship options.

“Last year’s wet winter saw our yields all over the place. We had a reasonable amount of straw, which we use for the cattle, and we now sell grass crops as hay because the silage we used to make is now being brought in for us from the dairy farmer.

“One thing we’re really pretty good at is not having blackgrass, touch wood, because we do all our own baling and combining. We do everything ourselves, myself and Ian.

Ian also runs a unique air conditioning and vacuum cooling business that adds to the farm’s income.

Stephen says that every family farm will be impacted in some way by the Government’s budget proposals and that they are extremely misguided. His hopes are that the action being taken through civilised protests may influence public support.

“I was just one of the helpers for the rally. We need as much exposure as possible for politicians to see they’ve got it wrong.

“We need them to see that if they truly want commercial farms to be unaffected by it, then the tax-free threshold for Inheritance Tax is woefully inadequate.

“We are trying to keep the issue in the spotlight, highlight the anger and the effect it’s having on individual farm businesses and mental health particularly of elderly farmers.

“This is also bringing out a wider discussion of what has gone wrong with farming? Why are we not profitable enough to pay this tax and how can we fix it? Because if we were then nobody would mind paying it, but we just don’t make enough profit. Perhaps that’s the one positive that has come out of it.

“One of ways farming still continues is down to continuity, built over generations. We are not cash rich. We are already hampered in profitability by cheap imports and now with massive Inheritance Tax bills farming is going to contract rather than grow, when the country wants growth.

“We want to be more profitable and if we were, we would pay more Income Tax, we all know the score, paying tax is what you do when you earn more.

Stephen is also the chairman of the British Farming Union but says the current plight needs all of farming working together rather than as separate factions.

“We are all working together, we all have the same goal. The NFU has a really tricky job. They’ve got to speak to the Prime Minister and Government and they’ve got to keep the NFU credible but what we are all doing right now is showing the frustration and disquiet in a positive way using publicity, showcasing what we do and why we do it.

“Every farmer needs the NFU to have as strong a negotiating position as possible. What we were doing at York and all around the country is our bit to help, but will the Government listen and will they understand that it’s true what is said, that if there are no farmers, there’s no food? Maybe, if we keep getting that message across.

“It’s bizarre! But right now they don’t seem as though they want food. They’re putting on the Fertiliser Tax that won’t help at all. Capital grants are being pulled but they’ll pay people to put half their farm down to bird food. I totally get that say 5 per cent of agricultural land should go into habitat, that’s sensible.

“If I were Prime Minister responsible for feeding 70 million people I’d really try to have a reasonably secure food supply, but all the Government has done is to feed Irish comedians.