13/08/2026
RANT ALERT!!!!!
It really grinds my gears when amid the crisis (plural) that are currently hitting farmers, people are stating stupidly on Facebook that it’s fine “they’ve never seen a poor farmer” or “well they get subsidies”, I have also heard “they have them great big tractors, they don’t need them do they”. I tell you what, you go and do your office work with a Commodore 64 then eh!!!
People need to get themselves an education.
I’ve done a bit of my own research and this is what I have concluded so far:
Although farmers in England continue to receive agricultural support, the nature and value of that support has changed considerably. The traditional Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), which provided payments largely according to the amount of eligible land farmed, has been phased out and replaced by a combination of rapidly reducing delinked payments and environmental land-management schemes. In 2026, delinked payments have been reduced by 98% on the first £30,000 of a farmer’s historic reference amount, with no payment on amounts above £30,000. This means a farmer whose reference amount was previously £20,000 would receive approximately £400 in 2026, while somebody with a £30,000 reference amount would receive approximately £600.
Farmers can access other funding, including the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), but these payments are increasingly linked to undertaking specified environmental and land-management actions rather than simply supporting agricultural production. Consequently, describing these payments simply as “farm subsidies” can obscure the financial reality facing many family farms.
DEFRA’s own Farm Business Income figures illustrate this particularly clearly. In 2024/25, the average Farm Business Income for a lowland grazing livestock farm in England was approximately £41,300. However, this figure is not equivalent to a farmer’s salary: it represents the return on the unpaid labour of the farmer and their family as well as the capital invested in the farming business, including land and buildings. Almost half of lowland grazing livestock farms either recorded a negative Farm Business Income or generated less than £25,000.
The position of upland livestock farms is even more striking. Average Farm Business Income was approximately £40,300, yet the agricultural element of those businesses made an average loss of around £2,700. Agri-environment income contributed approximately £23,600 — around 59% of total Farm Business Income. A farm can therefore appear asset-rich, with land, livestock, buildings and machinery worth considerable sums, while the actual business of producing food generates little profit or even operates at a loss.
Against this already challenging financial background, livestock farmers are now facing the additional threat of Bluetongue (BTV-3). Bluetongue can cause serious illness and death in susceptible livestock and can also result in reduced milk production and reproductive performance. Even where animals survive, illness and prolonged recovery can affect productivity. Farmers may face veterinary and treatment costs, vaccination costs, additional labour and husbandry requirements and, in some circumstances, losses associated with livestock movements and market access. AHDB has developed specific financial calculators for sheep, beef and dairy farmers precisely because the financial consequences and cost-benefit of vaccination can be significant and will vary substantially according to herd or flock size and individual circumstances.
The potential financial impact extends considerably beyond the immediate cost of a sick animal. A breeding ewe or cow that dies represents the loss of the animal itself and potentially its future offspring. Poor fertility or pregnancy loss affects the following production cycle, while reduced milk yield affects dairy income immediately. An outbreak can therefore create losses that continue well beyond the period in which animals are clinically ill. There is no single responsible figure that can be applied to every farm: depending upon flock or herd size, disease severity, mortality, fertility and production losses, veterinary intervention and the value of affected stock, the consequences can range from hundreds or several thousands of pounds on a smaller holding to tens of thousands of pounds in a significant outbreak in a larger commercial flock or herd.
There is also a human cost which cannot be captured on a balance sheet. Farmers may be caring for visibly sick animals, making difficult welfare decisions, losing livestock they have bred and cared for over many years, while simultaneously calculating whether their business can absorb the financial loss. In August 2026, the spread of Bluetongue in the UK has intensified concerns within the livestock sector, adding another layer of uncertainty to businesses already dealing with changing agricultural support, volatile input and market conditions and relatively narrow margins.
This demonstrates why farmer wellbeing cannot be considered separately from the economic environment in which farmers operate. A farmer may own substantial physical assets and still have very limited disposable income or cash-flow resilience. When an unexpected event such as Bluetongue is added to existing pressures, the consequences are not merely agricultural or financial; they can affect the farmer, their family, their livelihood and their mental wellbeing. Supporting farmers through periods of uncertainty therefore requires an understanding not only of farming businesses, but of the people behind them.
