Is this the end for the Lathams in the farming industry?

CGTN Europe

“It's time for farmers to stand up and be counted and to let the government know that they really are picking a fight they don't want to pursue.”   Jen Copestake meets farmers in Cheshire as protests rage across the UK.   #farming #farmers #uk   Read more ⬇️  https://tinyurl.com/yc65hm5m

Transcript

00:00This is the dairy herd. There's 480 Frisian crosses.

00:06The Latham family have been tenants here at Brookhouse Dairy Farm for six generations, over 150 years.

00:14But now proposed changes to inheritance tax threaten to break their cycle of generational farming.

00:20Well, the government seemed to have pulled the rug out from underneath farmers

00:24with changes to inheritance tax, changes to agricultural property relief and business property relief.

00:30They have removed our subsidies. We're feeling rather unloved at the moment.

00:36The inheritance tax is just one part of an increasingly bleak picture for British farmers.

00:42Rising energy and fertilizer costs, cut to export opportunities after Brexit and labour shortages have hit them hard.

00:50That's on top of the struggles over the last two decades, which included foot and mouth disease, a TB outbreak

00:56and selling milk for less than it cost to produce during the Covid pandemic.

01:01Farmers return on investment is about half of 1%. So it's the affordability of their tax that's the problem.

01:07There's low confidence in the UK farming industry among farmers.

01:11According to recent government numbers, 50% of farmers in the UK do not feel positive about their future in the industry.

01:19Phil's 86-year-old father, Robin, has worked on the farm for 70 years with no plans to retire.

01:26His 15-year-old grandson, Sam, wants to carry on the family tradition.

01:30But Robin worries about what the proposed changes would mean for him.

01:34We're asset rich, but cash poor. And now if we have to lose 20% of that, that means when Sam, if he takes over,

01:42he'll be responsible for paying this new tax, which has just been dropped on us out of the hat.

01:48Sam is the seventh generation of Latham farmers. He says the skills he's inherited are dying out.

01:54I know about two people who want to go into farming, but there's just not enough people in my generation

01:58that want to get their hands dirty, want to get involved.

02:01Like many farmers, the Lathams have needed to diversify their business,

02:05building an equestrian centre on the site of one of their former dairy farms.

02:09It took years of work and they needed a multi-million dollar loan to pay for it.

02:15For the Lathams, farming is not just a livelihood, but a legacy.

02:19All three will travel to London to join the protests again.

02:23The British government said it recognised the feelings expressed by farmers,

02:27but that it needed to make difficult decisions to cover the $28 billion hole in public finances.

02:33Jen Cobstake, CGTN, Cheshire.

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