STORIES WE LOVE

Neither daughter wanted the farm, so they made room for someone who did

Every now and then I find a story that shows exactly what we're about at Cultivate Farms: real people finding a way to keep a farm working and bring someone new onto it. I share them here because seeing it done by others makes it real. Here's one I love.

From FarmingUK, 23 July 2024: "Young entrant given chance to becoming farm business partner", by the FarmingUK Team. Read the full story at farminguk.com.

Why I love it

A couple whose family had farmed the same upland place for two hundred years had two daughters, and neither of them wanted it. The couple were heading into their sixties, they'd had spells of ill health, and they could feel the farm going backwards. They said it out loud: they didn't want to be the generation that let it go.

So they asked a matchmaking service for help, and read what several aspiring farmers had to offer. One of them, brought up on a smallholding in the next village, ticked every box. He worked with them as a contractor first, so everyone had time to be sure. Then in April 2024 he came in as a business partner on a thirty four per cent share, with another one per cent a year for eight years until the biggest share is his.

Why it matters for towns like ours

This is the quiet version of a story plenty of families are living. The kids have gone elsewhere, nobody says it plainly, and the farm slips a bit each year. This couple didn't sell and they didn't hand it to a stranger overnight. They found somebody who farms the way they do, gave him a trial run, then gave him a real share that grows every year. They reckon they're far more enthusiastic about farming than they were, and they've already changed the flock and the herd.

One step you could take

If your children have made it clear the farm isn't for them, say that out loud to each other first. Then write a list of people in your district who'd want it, and start with a season's work together. Read what to do when the kids don't want the farm in our Succession Guide.

I share these stories because each one shows it can be done, by ordinary farming families, in places like yours. If you know a story like this, or you're living one, I'd love to hear it.