Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Farmers, it pays to plan for the day you retire
The issue of retirement is not high on the list of priorities for most farmers, according to a new survey. Even so, as Bridgwater and West Somerset Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger tells Defra Secretary George Eustice, careful thought needs to be give
DEAR George I don’t know if you watched – or can remember – the Island Parish TV series which followed the progress of a newlyarrived vicar on the Scillies.
At one point, evidently not conversant with every local figure of speech, he asked one of the fishermen what someone meant when they said they would do something ‘directly’.
“Well, vicar,” came the answer, “directly’s a bit like manana – only without the urgency.”
It would appear that a large section of the farming community has decided that it will consider the matter of retirement ‘directly’ because a study carried out by Exeter University has revealed that fewer than 20 per cent of working age farmers plan to retire completely once the official threshold is reached.
And half of them plan to hang on until they are at least 70 before doing anything about it, particularly if they are on smaller family farms.
This, to my way of thinking, merely underlines the statement that so many farmers repeat that agriculture isn’t a job; it’s a way of life. And a way of life which, it would appear, many a farmer can’t contemplate leaving until age and/or infirmity compel them to.
Farming is a pretty all-absorbing occupation, as I can testify from personal experience. One tends to wake up thinking about the farm, go to bed thinking about the farm and not do much in between except think about the farm. The outside world can seem a very strange and very distant place under those circumstances – and the prospect of a less engrossing life an unthinkably boring one.
The fact is that the advances in technology and equipment that have made modern farming a less physically demanding occupation have coincided with a general trend towards people remaining healthier and more active in the later years of their lives. Life expectancy in general is now far greater than it was even three generations ago and farmers are no exception.
So although the hours might still be long, the challenges of the weather still as tough and the rewards still far from the level they should be at, most older farmers are content to carry on past the official cut-off point, particularly since the alternative – being forced to go shopping – is so unpalatable.
On the other hand that can, of course, be somewhat frustrating for those sons or daughters who are waiting eagerly to take the reins but keep finding the date of the handover being forever pushed back.
But that day will eventually come which is why it’s so important that
the Government does whatever it can to persuade farmers to plan their succession arrangements well in advance – not least (not that the Treasury would ever say as much) because unless they do and it all has to be done on the fly there could be some unpleasantly painful tax implications.
And while I accept fully the need to keep HMRC’s coffers topped up, farmers deserve far more, given their years of service keeping the nation fed, than a retirement which offers them penury as their only reward. Yours ever,
Ian