A public meeting to discuss family farm tax and other pressures in Bridport attracted a bumper crowd.
The meeting, organised by Hardy Farmers Breakfast Club, was chaired by local journalist Dr Paul Lashmar.
The panel included Trevor Cligg, who runs Pipplepen Farm, South Perrott with his wife Penny.
Having farmed elsewhere they moved to Pipplepen 20 years ago. They moved out of dairy farming and now raise beef cattle, sheep and manage 60 acres of arable. They have diversified with a daughter running glamping for holiday makers.
Rebecca Hill was also on the panel. She runs North West Farm, Winterbourne Kingston, an arable farm. She is the fourth generation, having inherited the farm when she was 20.
Dorset NFU chair Tim Gelfs, who runs two chicken farms near Beaminster and Weymouth with 16,500 birds, producing 100,000 eggs a week, tackled the issue of tax and regulations, which he says are working against growth.
Panel member James Bowditch farms near Bridport– dairy farming, plus arable and sheep.
A spokesperson for the meeting said: “Protests have been over changes to inheritance tax for farming businesses, which limit the existing 100% relief for farms to only the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business property.
“For anything above that, landowners will pay a 20% tax rate, rather than the standard 40% rate of inheritance tax (IHT) applied to other land and property. IHT is something of a last straw for farmers who report many changes that impact on them making any profit.”
The group says farm profits are relatively low, mainly due to low prices at the farm gate, and that the average age of the British farm holder was about 60 in 2016.
They say British farming provides 61% of the food consumed in the UK and that for every £1 invested in farming, £7.40 is delivered back into the economy.
The spokesperson said: “Non-farmers bought more than half of the farms and estates sold on the open market in England in 2023, according to Strutt & Parker’s Farmland Database. Farmers accounted for the lowest level of transactions on record, making up 44% of open market transactions in 2023 with non-farmers making up 56% of the sales.
“Last year, England suffered its second-worst harvest on record, with farmers losing crops to relentless downpours and cold snaps.”