Small farm businesses across the dale are being invited to take part in the second year of the “highly successful” Farm Resilience Programme, run by The Prince’s Countryside Fund.
The programme will provide free business support, skills and planning tuition, and one-to-one guidance to 20 small livestock and mixed family farm businesses across the Durham dales. Applications close on October 31 and Utass (Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services) is helping to co-ordinate the scheme from its base in Middleton-in-Teesdale.
Other areas selected include Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway and Whitby.
Claire Saunders, director of the Prince’s Countryside Fund, said: “The skills training and expert advice provided by the programme help farmers cope with the many challenges that their businesses face, and allow them to plan for the future more confidently.”
Farmers will be given the skills to evaluate their viability and make decisions about the future. The programme also brings together like minded family farm enterprises in local networks so they can review their current activity, and identify opportunities and improvements.
Research commissioned by the fund and carried out by the University of Exeter into the future of the small family farm in the UK revealed a steep decline in numbers since the beginning of the century, and declining farmgate prices has led to the average UK farm income falling below £20,000 for the first time since 2007.
With uncertainty caused by Brexit adding extra pressure to farmers, the programme is more important now than ever, a spokesman for the scheme said. The scheme aims to tackle some of the biggest challenges being faced by small farm businesses across the UK.
Developed off the back of The Prince’s Dairy Initiative, which has helped strengthen the UK dairy supply chain, the £1.5million initiative will support up to 300 UK farm businesses this year.
Feedback from previous participating farms has been positive. One farmer in Northumberland said: “I’d definitely recommend the programme to others – it’s made us more focused. It provides a series of stimulating debates, and there’s great discussion in the group.
“Hearing the ways other people ran their farms was fantastic, and with help from The Prince’s Countryside Fund we’ve now established our own local network, which is great when farming can be so isolating.”
If you are interested in taking part in The Prince’s Farm Resilience Programme, or would like to find out more, contact Diane Spark at Utass, on 01883 641010 or diane@utass.org or visit www.princescountryside
fund.org.uk/farmresilience.
Developed off the back of The Prince’s Dairy Initiative, which has helped strengthen the UK dairy supply chain, the £1.5million initiative will support up to 300 UK farm businesses this year.
Feedback from previous participating farms has been positive. One farmer in Northumberland said: “I’d definitely recommend the programme to others – it’s made us more focused. It provides a series of stimulating debates, and there’s great discussion in the group.
“Hearing the ways other people ran their farms was fantastic, and with help from The Prince’s Countryside Fund we’ve now established our own local network, which is great when farming can be so isolating.”
If you are interested in taking part in The Prince’s Farm Resilience Programme, or would like to find out more, contact Diane Spark at Utass, on 01883 641010 or diane@utass.org or visit www.princescountryside
fund.org.uk/farmresilience.
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