A survey of 199 farmers by local charity Rural Support has highlighted the financial and emotional strain on farming families as a result of the downturn in prices seen in recent years.

The work was conducted for Rural Support by David McConaghy who has been working as a volunteer for the charity while completing a masters.

The vast majority of respondents were dairy, beef and sheep producers, and nearly 75% were over the age of 55. Around 30% of farmers admitted that they had issues paying for goods and services related to their farm business in the last 12 months. This was more pronounced for larger farms, those who said that their sector had been severely affected by the downturn in prices and where more than half of total income came from the farm. Those who had issues with paying for goods and services reported significantly poorer mental health scores than those with no issues.

Concluding his report, McConaghy recommends that more resources should be made available to Rural Support’s Farm Business Mentoring Programme, which offers free, confidential advice from a mentor to help address farm business debt or financial problems. He also urges banks and finance companies to be as reasonable and flexible as possible, and government to ensure that farming families are aware of the support available (eg tax credits) through times of low income.

Longer-term, he recommends that schemes are made available to allow older farmers to exit the industry, and that financial advisers should reconsider the culture of debt, instead encouraging farmers to create financial cushions during profitable years.

He would also like to see clear guidance from government on support to farmers post-Brexit, more being done to ensure jobs outside farming are available in rural areas and more collaborative working between farmers, processors and retailers.

Reaction

Welcoming the report, Sean McAuley from Farmers For Action (FFA) said it should act as a wake-up call to Stormont, the agri-food industry and retailers. He maintained that the solution is legislation on farmgate prices to deliver costs of production plus a margin, inflation linked.