A Record 6,365 UK Farm, Forestry and Fishing Businesses Closed in a Year. The Farms That Survived Did This

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UK farm closures: a locked, rusty gate and empty muddy yard on one side, and a thriving diversified farm with families picking strawberries, feeding lambs and visiting a farm shop on the other

In the 1980s, the bank gave the Nicholson family of Cannon Hall Farm, near Barnsley, a blunt warning: "if you don't sell up now, you'll have no equity left in the place."

They didn't sell. They spent four years getting ready for paying visitors and opened on Good Friday 1989. Day one takings: £20.

Remember that £20. We'll come back to it.

So why are UK farms closing now, and what are the survivors doing? Support payments are being switched off, the weather wrecked two harvests in three years, inheritance tax rules changed, and costs keep climbing. The farms still standing have built a second income that none of those things can touch.

Short answer: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) counted 6,365 agriculture, forestry and fishing business closures in the 12 months to June 2025, the highest yearly total since its quarterly records began in 2017. That figure covers all three sectors, counts gross closures (3,190 businesses opened in the same year), and was later revised down. The squeeze behind it is real. Defra's own farm accounts show diversified income made up 31% of the average English farm's profit in 2024/25, more than farming itself.

I'm Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. In this article, we will look at what the closure numbers really say, why farms are being squeezed, and what six real UK farms did to stay open. Then you'll get the low-cost first steps and the paperwork questions to ask before you start.

What the ONS numbers actually show

The 6,365 figure first appeared in the Daily Telegraph on 25 July 2025, the day after the ONS published its quarterly business demography release. Farmers Weekly, City AM, the BBC and others repeated it within a fortnight.

Most of those reports called it farm closures. That's close, but not exact. Here is what the number actually measures.

Question	The honest answer
What was counted?	"Business deaths": businesses removed from the ONS register of firms that pay VAT or run a PAYE payroll
Which sectors?	Agriculture, forestry and fishing combined (SIC section A), not farms alone
Which period?	12 months to June 2025 (July 2024 to June 2025)
Gross or net?	Gross. 3,190 new businesses opened in the same 12 months, so the net loss was 3,175
Is it a record?	Yes, it was the highest 12-month total since the quarterly series began in 2017
Is it final?	No. The ONS calls these "official statistics in development". The quarterly figures Defra gave Parliament in February 2026 add up to about 5,785 for the same 12 months, and the ONS cut agriculture counts again in April 2026

So the headline is true in a narrow way. It's a record for an eight-year-old data series, and it covers forestry and fishing as well as farming.

But don't let the small print fool you into relaxing. Every later count points the same way.

Period	Closures	Openings	Source
Calendar year 2023	5,535	Not given	ONS, via Defra written answer (Feb 2026)
Calendar year 2024	4,870	Not given	ONS, via Defra written answer (Feb 2026)
12 months to June 2025	6,365	3,190	ONS release, 24 July 2025
Oct 2024 to Sep 2025	6,270	Not given	Cynergy Bank index of ONS data (Nov 2025)
Calendar year 2025	6,390	About 3,300	ONS, via Defra written answer and government spokesman (2026)
April to June 2026	Up 28.4% on a year earlier	Not given	ONS release, 30 July 2026

These figures come from different ONS releases, so they don't add up exactly. The direction is what matters. Look at that last line. In the spring of 2026, closures in agriculture, forestry and fishing rose faster than in any other industry the ONS tracks.

Cynergy Bank, which turns the ONS numbers into a "health score" (openings divided by closures), put agriculture at 0.59 for the first half of 2026, the lowest of the sectors it listed. Anything under 1.0 means the sector is shrinking.

Bar chart of UK agriculture, forestry and fishing business closures by quarter, 2023 to 2025, from ONS data — ONS quarterly closures for agriculture, forestry and fishing. Calendar 2025 was the highest of the three years shown.

Here's a fact most reports left out. Only 67 farming companies entered insolvency in the whole of 2025, according to the official figures Defra gave Parliament. In 2024 it was 80.

So the vast majority of these "closures" aren't bankruptcies. More likely, they're farmers retiring, selling, handing over, merging holdings, or quietly closing a business and stopping trading. The farming minister told Parliament that "purely statistical factors" could explain some of the closures too.

That's actually more worrying for you, not less. A bankruptcy is a sudden failure. A quiet closure is a family deciding the farm no longer pays enough to keep going.

Reality Check: When you see "6,365 farms closed", read it as "around 6,000 land and sea businesses deregistered, while about half that number started up". The trend is real. The exact number will keep moving as the ONS revises it.

Why UK farms are closing: the five-way squeeze

No single cause explains the closures. It's five pressures landing at once, on the same families, in the same few years.

No. 1: The support cheque is being switched off

In 2020/21, the Basic Payment Scheme made up 55% of the average English farm's income. By 2024/25 it was down to 19%, according to Defra's farm accounts.

And it's falling off a cliff. Defra's delinked payments are being cut every year until they stop.

Bar chart showing a £30,000 delinked payment in England falling to £15,000 in 2024, £7,200 in 2025, £600 in 2026 and 2027, then nothing — What's left of a £30,000 reference payment under Defra's delinked payment reductions.

If your farm's payment used to be £30,000, you got about £15,000 in 2024 and £7,200 in 2025. In 2026 and 2027 the cut is 98%, leaving £600. Defra says 2027 is the last year of delinked payments.

That's not a trim. For many family farms, it's the end of the money that used to cover the bills between harvests.

No. 2: The replacement scheme slammed shut, then half-opened

The Sustainable Farming Incentive was meant to replace that lost money. Then, in March 2025, Defra stopped taking new applications without warning.

The revamped SFI26 reopened on 30 June 2026, but only for small farms of 3 to 50 hectares and for farms without an existing agreement, with £60 million in the first window and a cap of £100,000 a year per farm business. The second window, open to all eligible farmers, opened on 22 September 2026. Its £253 million budget was gone in less than six hours, after about 12,200 applications, Farmers Weekly reported. Defra says those who missed out can apply in 2027.

If you missed the boat in 2025, you lost more than a year of income you may have planned on.

No. 3: Two terrible harvests in three years

Extreme rain in the autumn and winter of 2023/24 gave England its third-worst cereal and oilseed harvest since 1984, according to analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.

Then came 2025. The spring was the driest in England for more than 100 years, and the harvest was the second-worst since 1984.

That's why Defra's own forecast for 2025/26 is so ugly for arable farms. Forecast, not final: the actual figures are due in December 2026.

Bar chart of Defra forecast farm business income changes for 2025/26 by farm type, with cereals down 66% and dairy up 45% — Defra's forecast change in average Farm Business Income for 2025/26, by farm type.

Cereal farms are forecast to average just £17,000, down 66%. General cropping is forecast to halve. Dairy is the bright spot, forecast up 45% on higher milk volumes.

If you want to see how visitor income helped farms through dry years, read how paying guests carried six family farms through drought.

No. 4: The family farm tax

In October 2024, the government announced that 100% relief from inheritance tax on farmland and business assets would be capped at £1 million, with 50% relief above that. That works out at an effective 20% tax on the rest.

The ONS closure count started climbing in the months that followed. Many reports linked the two, though the data alone can't prove why each business closed.

On 23 December 2025, the government raised the cap to £2.5 million per person from 6 April 2026. Unused allowance can pass to a spouse or civil partner, so a married couple can pass on up to £5 million of qualifying assets, plus their nil-rate bands, free of inheritance tax.

In December 2025 the government said up to 1,100 estates across the UK would pay more in 2026/27. At the Budget on 28 October 2026, Chancellor John Healey made no further changes to these reliefs.

So the threat shrank, but it didn't disappear. Land-rich, cash-poor families can still face a bill they have to pay out of farm profits that are thin to begin with. I covered the Budget fallout in the family farm tax article.

No. 5: Costs that won't come down, and farmers who are getting older

At the Budget, NFU president Tom Bradshaw said fuel prices were 65% higher than a year earlier. In June 2026 he blamed "spiralling costs of fertiliser, fuel and energy."

The Budget cut some fertiliser import tariffs and extended fuel duty cuts to July 2027. Helpful, but small. And it isn't only British farmers: in a US survey, 47% of farmers named rising costs their biggest concern.

Then there's age. In England, 40% of farm holders are over 65 and only 5% are under 35, according to Defra. The farm workforce in England fell 1.9% between 2024 and 2025.

When a farmer in his seventies looks at falling payments, a possible tax bill and no successor, closing quietly can look like the sensible choice. If that's your family's conversation, start with farm succession planning.

Reality Check: Farm incomes rose on average in 2024/25, and Total Income from Farming rose 20% in 2025. Averages hide a lot. Defra says 21% of English farms still failed to make a profit in 2024/25. If you're in that 21%, a good average doesn't pay your bills.

What the survivors did differently

Here's the honest truth. No dataset tracks what the closed businesses did wrong.

But Defra's farm accounts show exactly where today's English farms make their money. That tells you plenty.

Horizontal bar chart showing English farm business income in 2024/25 split into diversification £22,400, agri-environment £21,100, agriculture £14,200 and delinked Basic Payment £13,500 — Where the average English farm's profit came from in 2024/25. Diversification was the largest single source.

In 2024/25, the average English farm made £71,200. Only about £14,200 of that came from farming itself.

Diversification brought in £22,400, the biggest slice at 31%. Agri-environment schemes added £21,100, and the shrinking Basic Payment about £13,500.

Here are the other numbers every struggling farmer should know:

72% of English farm businesses had diversified income in 2024/25, up 10 percentage points since 2015/16.
Farms with diversified activities averaged £31,100 from them.
26% of diversified farms earned at least half their total profit from diversification.
Letting out buildings was the most common choice, used by half of farms, averaging £27,900.
On cereal farms, diversification brought in £32,600, while farming itself lost £27,400.

Read that last line again. On the average cereal farm, the diversified business didn't top up the farming. It paid for it.

Now let's meet the people behind these numbers.

Survivor No. 1: Cannon Hall Farm, South Yorkshire

You've met the Nicholsons already. In the family's own words: "In 1989, we were in danger of losing our family farm."

They took inspiration from Chatsworth and opened to visitors on Good Friday 1989. Day one brought in £20, day two £40. On Easter Monday they took £140.

By 2021, the farm normally drew around 320,000 visitors a year, according to the Yorkshire Post. In 2018 it first starred in Channel 5's Springtime on the Farm, and in 2021 it opened a dog-friendly café.

The lesson? They didn't start big. They started with open gates and animals people wanted to see, then built on it season after season.

Survivor No. 2: The Eastwoods, East Sussex

Nick and Anna Eastwood farm 200 acres in East Sussex. Nick told the BBC in August 2025: "Making money out of farming is nearly impossible."

He said they felt they had no other option but to start glamping and open a café, rather than sell up.

They're honest that it isn't easy. Anna said running the farm is still very hard, with business rates, national insurance and minimum wage costs all rising.

But they're still farming. Without the visitor income, by their own account, they might not be.

A shepherd's hut with its door open showing a cosy interior, illustrating farm glamping in the UK — Illustrative photo, not the Eastwoods' farm. Photo: phoebe lynch on Unsplash.

Survivor No. 3: Delph House Farm, West Yorkshire

Jeremy and Louise Holmes once milked 120 cows at Delph House Farm in Upper Denby and bottled about 1,000 gallons of milk a day.

In 2007 they started Yummy Yorkshire Ice Cream to use surplus cream. In 2008 they turned a redundant calf pen into an 18-seat parlour for teas, coffees and ice cream.

A grant took the café to 36 seats in 2013. It has since grown into the 85-seat Hide & Hoof restaurant, with a team of 38 and a Sunday market every other week from Easter to Christmas.

They sold the last of the cows in March 2022. Jeremy's verdict on dairy was blunt: everyone else in the chain was making money, and they weren't.

His verdict on the restaurant: "The restaurant has taken seasonality out of our business."

Survivor No. 4: Cumbrian Cow Ice Cream, Cumbria

When milk prices crashed in 2014, the Stable family at Bolton Manor, near Ulverston, went looking for a second income.

Mike and Denise Stable spent £60,000 converting their Edge Hill dairy into a shop, ice cream parlour and small café. Cumbrian Cow Ice Cream opened in May 2016, close to the tourist traffic of South Lakeland and Morecambe Bay.

By 2019, Farmers Weekly reported about 80,000 customers a year, 14 staff and 80 flavours, at £2.40 a scoop. The ice cream used only about 1% of the farm's milk.

Unlike the Holmes family, they kept the dairy at the centre. Mike says they still see themselves as farmers first.

His advice is worth gold: keep the core business stable first, and give each business its own person to run it.

Field-Tested Play: Two dairy farms, two paths. Delph House let visitors replace the cows. Cumbrian Cow used visitors to protect the cows. Decide which one you want before you spend a penny.

Survivor No. 5: Gingerly Green Flower Farm, Kent

Clare Readman farms with her father at Newlands Farm, near Dover. In late 2023 she set up Gingerly Green Flower Farm, a pick-your-own flower business on former arable land.

It uses just a few acres of a 390-acre holding. Yet by July 2026, Farmers Guardian reported it brought in about a third of the farm's overall business income.

The family were surprised to find that, on average, an acre of cut flowers made far more profit than an acre of wheat, oats or barley, she told the BBC. Her father now sees diversifying as close to essential.

Survivor No. 6: Pye Ash Farm and Trefaes Ganol, pumpkin country

At Pye Ash Farm near Macclesfield, the Gilman family grow about 20,000 pumpkins in more than 50 varieties on 1.5 hectares. They charge £12 per car and expected up to 10,000 visitors for the 2026 season, some from Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham.

Near Cardigan in west Wales, Hugh Thomas's family started a pumpkin patch at Trefaes Ganol during Covid. When a Facebook post about surplus pumpkins drew unexpected interest, in Hugh's words: "It went absolutely crazy." They now charge £10.48 per car and see about 100 cars a day at weekends.

Both were reported by Farmers Weekly in October 2026. A pumpkin patch uses a field and a few weekends, not a new building. Mind the weather, though, as one farm that lost 10,000 pumpkins found out.

Pumpkins displayed for sale at an outdoor farm stand under trees — Illustrative photo, not Pye Ash Farm or Trefaes Ganol. Photo: Janylah Etienne on Unsplash.

The pattern: what these farms have in common

Line these farms up and five habits jump out.

They sold an experience, not just a product. Animals, ice cream, flowers you pick yourself, a night in a hut.
They started with what they had. A calf pen, a dairy building, a field, a few acres.
They charged for it. Even Cannon Hall's first day brought in £20.
They grew in stages. Delph House went from 18 seats to 36, then to an 85-seat restaurant.
They built income that doesn't depend on Defra, the weather or the commodity price.

Wyken Farm in Suffolk tells the same story. Carla Carlisle's 2023 Country Life column was headlined: "Thirty years ago, our farm was on life support. It now thrives." By then it had a restaurant, its own wine, a weekly farmers' market and 45 people on the payroll.

For nine more examples, see the lessons from the 2026 British Farming Awards finalists. And if your bank manager is already calling, read what survivors did before the bank called.

Four mistakes that sink farm diversification

The survivors make it look easy. It isn't. The same sources that tell their success stories also show where things go wrong.

Mistake No. 1: Building first, asking the council later

In December 2023, Farmers Guardian reported that Sian and Kevin Rickard of Castle Farm in Bishton had been forced to close their three farm shops after a long-running planning dispute with their local council.

Three shops, gone over a planning row.

Ask the planning questions in the paperwork section below before you pour concrete, not after.

Mistake No. 2: Thinking it's passive income

Every farm in this article added work, not just money. Becky Wilson of Paws in the Park says her dog field is anything but passive income.

The Eastwoods still find farming with a café and glamping hard going. If you're already stretched thin, plan who will do the extra work before you plan what to build.

Mistake No. 3: One person running two businesses

Mike Stable of Cumbrian Cow Ice Cream told Farmers Weekly that keeping control of two separate businesses is extremely hard.

His fix was simple. Tom and Anna Stable, the next generation, concentrated on the dairy herd, Denise made all the ice cream, and Mike stepped back to co-ordinate both. Each business had its own people running it.

Mistake No. 4: Ignoring the weather in your forecast

Visitor businesses swap one weather risk for another. Denise Stable put it perfectly: "If the sun comes out, within half an hour, business can have doubled."

The reverse is also true. A wet weekend can wipe out your pumpkin takings. Plan your cash flow for a bad season, not a good one, and see what one storm weekend can cost.

Field-Tested Play: Before you start, write down three numbers: what you'll spend, how many paying visitors you need to cover it, and how many bad weekends you can survive. If you can't answer all three, you're not ready to borrow.

Start this season: low-cost first steps

You don't need a restaurant to begin. Most of the farms above started with one small test.

Comparison table of six farm diversification ideas in the UK with real start costs, prices and example farms — Six ways UK farms earn from visitors and space, with costs and prices as published.

Here's the same comparison in text, with real figures reported for real UK farms.

Idea	Start cost reported	Price or income reported	Real UK example
Pumpkin or pick-your-own patch	Not published; uses a field you already crop	£10.48 to £12 per car	Pye Ash Farm; Trefaes Ganol
Secure dog field	At least £50,000 for a quality set-up (adviser estimate)	£8 to £20 per slot is typical; Paws in the Park charges £12	Paws in the Park, Leicestershire
Pop-up campsite	Portable toilets and waste point	Not published	Allowed for up to 60 days a year in England
Ice cream parlour and café	£60,000 conversion (2016)	£2.40 a scoop (2019)	Cumbrian Cow Ice Cream
Glamping pods	£100,000 loan, five pods planned	Not published	Thornton Park Farm, Yorkshire
Let a spare building	Varies with the building	Average £27,900 a year (Defra, 2024/25)	John Dale, Surrey

Now let's turn that table into action.

Step No. 1: Test with a weekend, not a loan

In England, most land can be used for temporary purposes for up to 28 days a calendar year without planning permission, under Part 4, Class B of the permitted development rules. Markets are limited to 14 of those days, and camping isn't covered (that's Class BC, below).

That's enough for a pumpkin weekend, a farm open day or a pick-your-own trial. The Trefaes Ganol team needed about three weeks of preparation for their patch.

My 60-minute test guide shows how to check demand before you spend real money.

Step No. 2: Try a pop-up campsite

Since 26 July 2023, English landowners can run a temporary campsite for up to 60 days a year with up to 50 pitches, under Class BC.

You must provide portable toilets and waste disposal, and tell your council in writing first, with a site plan and your dates. Flood zone 2 and 3 sites need prior approval.

Platforms like Hipcamp can bring the bookings. Here's what Hipcamp hosts on farms really earn.

Step No. 3: Put an empty building to work

Half of English farms already let out buildings, at an average of £27,900 a year. John Dale in Surrey rents old farm buildings to a brewery and a boxing gym.

If you've got a barn going to waste, here's why old buildings may be your best asset.

Step No. 4: Consider a dog field, with your eyes open

Registered dog fields grew from fewer than 600 in 2018 to around 4,000 by the end of 2025, Hannah James, founder of British Dog Fields, told Farmers Weekly.

Paws in the Park, on the Burrough Court Estate in Leicestershire, opened in April 2023 on 0.8 hectares. It charges £12 for a 50-minute slot for up to three dogs, has paid back its investment and grew 59% year on year.

Founder Becky Wilson warns it is "definitely not passive income." Customer service, maintenance and reputation take constant work. More in my private dog park guide.

Step No. 5: Start a customer list on day one

Every visitor who leaves without giving you a phone number or email is a customer you'll have to find again next year.

A simple sign-up sheet at the gate, or a WhatsApp list, costs nothing. It turns a one-off visitor into a repeat buyer.

A wooden farm shop sign on a wall, illustrating farm shop and direct sales diversification — Illustrative photo, not any farm named in this article. Photo: karl muscat on Unsplash.

For a full breakdown by activity, see what it really costs to start an agritourism business.

Flowchart of five steps from squeezed farm income to a second income: name the squeeze, test small, measure, ask the paperwork questions, scale what paid — A simple five-step path, drawn from the UK survivor farms in this article.

The paperwork: questions to ask before you open the gate

This section isn't legal or tax advice. Rules differ in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and they change often.

What I can give you is the right questions. Take them to your council, your insurer and your accountant before you spend money.

Planning permission

"Can I use the 28-day rule (Class B) or the 60-day campsite rule (Class BC) for my first test?" Check whether your land is excluded, for example near a building, in a flood zone or on protected land.
"Does Class R cover my barn?" Since 21 May 2024, Class R lets agricultural buildings in England change to flexible commercial uses, including shops, cafés, hotels, outdoor sport and recreation, on up to 1,000 square metres. Conditions and prior approval rules apply, so check with your council first.
"Is Class S any use to me?" Probably not for farm visits. Class S covers converting an agricultural building into a state-funded school, on up to 500 square metres. The nursery part was withdrawn in 2021.
"Do I need full planning permission for a change of use?" Glamping pods, a permanent café or a wedding barn usually do. Ask for pre-application advice.

Business rates

"Will my shop, café or holiday let be rated?" Diversified buildings usually are.
"Do I qualify for small business rate relief?" In England today, a business using one property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less pays no business rates, tapering to £15,000.
"Does the April 2027 change help me?" The October 2026 Budget raised full relief for retail, hospitality and leisure properties in England to £18,000, tapering to £21,000, from 1 April 2027. Here's how your shop or café could pay zero business rates.

Insurance

"Does my farm policy cover paying visitors?" Many farm policies don't cover the public on site for a fee.
"How much public liability cover do I need, and does it include food, animals and overnight guests?" Read what agritourism insurance you need before you call.

HMRC and VAT

"Will this push me over the VAT threshold?" You must register if taxable turnover passes £90,000 in a rolling 12 months.
"Am I in Making Tax Digital?" Since 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 must keep digital records and send quarterly updates.
"Is my letting income trading or property income?" It matters more from April 2027. The October 2026 Budget set property income tax rates of 24%, 44% and 49% from 6 April 2027 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, subject to Parliament passing the law.

Inheritance tax: APR and BPR

This is where diversification can backfire, so ask carefully.

"Will taking land or buildings out of farming cost me Agricultural Property Relief?" A barn let to a gym isn't farming, so APR may not apply to it.
"Does my new business pass the 'wholly or mainly' trading test for Business Property Relief?" Letting is usually treated as investment, not trading. A large letting business can put relief at risk across the whole business.
"Are my holiday lets still a business?" The special furnished holiday let tax rules were abolished from 6 April 2025.
"Should the new venture sit in a separate business?" Advisers sometimes suggest this to protect the farm's trading status.

Reality Check: Services change the picture. In a 2017 tax case known as Vigne, a livery business won Business Property Relief because it offered real services, not just grazing. A café, guided tour or pick-your-own day looks more like a trade than a field let to someone else. Get specialist advice before you sign anything.

What a durian farm in Malaysia taught me about short seasons

I'm the founder of Bloopy Durians in Bentong, Malaysia. Our durian seasons run about four to five months a year, roughly December to February and June to August.

That's a short window, a bit like a British pumpkin or soft fruit season. So we learned to earn from more than the fruit.

Visitors come to the farm from all over the world. They reach us by a four-wheel-drive adventure, which is part of the fun. Many companies send their staff and management to the farm.

We supply durians for corporate events. We supplied a Mayor of Kuala Lumpur tourism event, and Kuala Lumpur City Hall gave our team a plaque of appreciation.

And we built a WhatsApp list of loyal customers who buy durians whenever they're available. That list is a reliable source of income. It doesn't depend on a subsidy or a middleman.

The lesson for a UK farm is simple. Your crop has a season. Your customer list doesn't.

Field-Tested Play: Before your next season, decide on three things: an experience people will pay for, a group you can sell to (companies, schools, clubs), and a list you own. Those three made the difference for us.

Frequently asked questions

How many farms closed in the UK in 2025?

The ONS counted 6,390 agriculture, forestry and fishing business closures in calendar year 2025, in the figures Defra gave Parliament in February 2026. About 3,300 new businesses started in the same year. The ONS has since revised agriculture counts for 2023 to 2025 downward, so treat these as estimates.

Is it true that 6,365 farms closed in a year?

Not exactly. The 6,365 figure counts agriculture, forestry and fishing businesses that left the VAT and PAYE register in the 12 months to June 2025. It includes forestry and fishing, it ignores the 3,190 businesses that opened, and later ONS releases revised it down. It was still the highest 12-month total since the series began in 2017.

Why are so many UK farms closing?

Five pressures at once: delinked Basic Payments being cut to almost nothing by 2027, the Sustainable Farming Incentive closing to new applications in March 2025, poor harvests in 2024 and 2025, inheritance tax changes from April 2026, and high input costs. An ageing farm population adds to it, with 40% of English farm holders over 65.

Does diversification really help farms survive?

Defra data can't prove that diversification saved any one farm. It does show that diversified income was the largest single part of the average English farm's profit in 2024/25, at £22,400, and that 26% of diversified farms made at least half their profit that way. On cereal farms, diversification earned £32,600 while farming itself lost money.

What is the cheapest way to start diversifying a UK farm?

Testing on the land you already have is cheapest: a pick-your-own weekend, a pumpkin patch or a farm open day under the 28-day temporary use rule, or a pop-up campsite under the 60-day rule in England. Letting an empty building is another low-cost option if it's already sound.

Will diversifying affect my inheritance tax relief?

It can. Land or buildings taken out of farming may lose Agricultural Property Relief, and a large letting business may fail the "wholly or mainly" trading test for Business Property Relief. Businesses that provide real services, such as cafés and guided visits, are more likely to count as trading. Always ask a specialist adviser first.

Is the inheritance tax threshold for farms still £1 million?

No. From 6 April 2026, full relief applies to the first £2.5 million of qualifying agricultural and business assets per person, transferable between spouses. The October 2026 Budget made no further changes.

Your next step: find out where your farm stands

You now know what the numbers mean and what the survivors did. The question is which first step fits your farm.

That's what my free Farm Readiness Quiz is for. In a few minutes, it scores your farm on location and access, your story and experiences, people and time, facilities and safety, rules and insurance, and money and marketing. Then it shows you your strongest areas and the gaps to fix first.

No guesswork. Just a clear picture of where your farm stands before you spend a penny.

Take the Free Farm Readiness Quiz

Want ideas you can test this season? My free ebook, "150 Ways to Unlock Hidden Wealth From Your Farm", gives you 150 ways farms earn from the land, buildings and equipment they already own, sorted into categories so you can find yours fast. Each idea shows how hard it is, how you might price it and what it could earn, so you can stop relying only on unpredictable harvests.

Get the Free 150 Ways Ebook

P.S. Remember the Nicholsons' £20 on Good Friday 1989? The bank had told them to sell. They opened the gate instead, and by 2021 the farm normally welcomed around 320,000 visitors a year. Your first day doesn't have to be big. It just has to happen.

Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun, is the founder of Bloopy Durians in Bentong, Malaysia. This article is general information, not legal, tax, planning or financial advice. Figures are from the sources below as published at the time of writing; check current rules with your council, insurer and a qualified adviser before you act.