Farming in the UK, including York and North Yorkshire (YNY), has been undergoing a significant transition in recent years. Some of the challenges and impacts were initiated by Brexit and the agricultural transition it prompted has occurred alongside growing pressure for agriculture to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support nature recovery, both of which are becoming more time critical and, if delayed, more difficult to achieve.
Nationally, surveys identify farmers and the farming sector as feeling under pressure and challenged. Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), characterised it at the 2025 Oxford Farming Conference as: “The straws are piling up and up – and the camel’s back is close to breaking.”
The profitability of farm businesses has been exceptionally volatile in recent years, ranging from profitable years for some sectors to exceptionally low profits (if any) in others. That volatility is increasing with climate change (and will get more severe) and the withdrawal of Basic Payments, which had a smoothing and under-writing effect on profits.
There is also a wide difference in profitability between different types of farm and between the high performers, medium and low performers within farm types. Top performing farmers earn, on average, over £100,000 more per year than the other 75% of farms. This will become even more important as Basic Payments are phased out, the weather becomes more volatile and the sector faces the additional cost of paying IHT liabilities.
The new report was launched on the first day of the Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate. Read Mayor David Skaith’s speech here
