By Edward Richardson, Rural Support Manager, Farm Cornwall
For over 25 years, Farm Cornwall has been a steady and trusted source of practical, realistic, and confidential support for the farming community across the county.
As a registered charity rooted in the realities of agricultural life, it has witnessed first hand the growing pressures facing farmers — from financial strain and long working hours to deepening isolation and the emotional toll these challenges can bring.
As we wrap up this year’s Mind Your Head campaign Edward Richardson of Farm Cornwall offers insight into some of the factors contributing to poor mental wellbeing within the industry and explains why farm support groups are not just helpful but essential to rural life…
“Public perceptions of agriculture today are often shaped by tractor protests in London, festive tractor runs, or images of farmers living in large houses set in idyllic landscapes. These images obscure a harsher reality – one of isolation, unrelenting pressure, fractured family relationships, and significant financial hardship.
Many farmhouses are in disrepair, with families unable to afford essential maintenance. Owner-occupiers may face complex intergenerational disputes, while tenant farmers often live with the constant anxiety created by modern Farm Business Tenancies. As tenancies end, families frequently find themselves without the capital to purchase a home beyond the farm gate, making the prospect of rehousing almost impossible.
Isolation
Farmers and farm workers can go days, even weeks, without meaningful human contact. I recall sitting at a farmer’s kitchen table for several hours and apologising that I had not achieved much that day. He replied, “You’ve achieved more than you think — I haven’t seen anybody for two weeks.” Disease restrictions, long working hours, and the disappearance of traditional farm visitors mean that the milk tanker driver may be the only person a farmer sees. Banking, calf registrations and compliance are now handled almost entirely online, further reducing human contact and, in some cases, increasing family tensions where control of the business is perceived to be shifting.
Business pressures
Changes to inheritance tax policy, alongside Baroness Batters’ report on farm profitability, have highlighted the stark reality that many farms operate on margins of around 1% return on capital. In the dairy sector, falling milk prices and global oversupply have led to immense stress. Farmers who have invested heavily in buildings, slurry storage, and livestock are now being asked to reduce production — in some cases by up to 10%. Others have had contracts terminated with little security; I am aware of at least 16 producers in the Southwest alone who have lost their milk contracts.
Debt
One farmer described debt to me as being like a spider trapped in a bath: no matter how hard it tries to climb out, the sides only get steeper and it slips back down again. The levels of debt we encounter are immense. Of 25 farms currently under discussion in our office, seven are struggling with combined debts exceeding £3 million.
Community and culture under threat
The social fabric of farming is also unravelling. A report commissioned by the then Prince’s Countryside Fund and the University of Exeter documented the gradual disappearance of farms from a single rural parish in the Southwest. What began as five farms in the 1960s dwindled to none by 2020, with land farmed by those outside the parish and only one smallholding remaining. This pattern is being repeated across the country.
Yet time and again, farmers prove their value to wider society — clearing fallen trees during storms, rescuing stranded school buses, reinforcing flood defences, and stewarding the land. In places such as Cumbria, however, tenant farmers are now being forced off land as estates prioritise tree planting, rewilding, biodiversity net gain, or carbon credits. Centuries-old farming cultures — hefted flocks, Herdwick sheep, shepherding traditions — are being lost in what many see as a modern form of clearance.
The essential role of farm support groups
This is where farm support groups are not just helpful, but essential. They provide human connection where isolation is greatest, and practical and emotional support when farmers feel they have nowhere else to turn. Breakfast clubs for elderly farmers, reminiscence groups such as “One Foot in the Grain” or “Plough On” and initiatives like “Cornish Ladies in Wellies” all create safe spaces for people to talk, share worries, and support one another.
These groups understand that a farm is not just a workplace – it is the family home, often for generations. When work and home are inseparable, stress becomes inescapable. Farm support groups step into that gap, offering understanding, trust, and continuity at times of profound change and uncertainty.
Demand for these services continues to outstrip capacity. Farmers simply want to produce food for a hungry nation and care for the environment, yet they face constant change with little sense of direction or security. As one farmer said to me, “During Covid, people waved at me when I drove my tractor down the A30 — I was a key worker then. Now I’m just a nuisance on the road.”
This year’s Mind Your Head week’s events – including Sam’s walk to Westminster – stand as a powerful reminder of visibility, solidarity and the urgent need to support the organisations that stand alongside farming families when pressures become overwhelming. Farm support groups are more than a safety net; they are a lifeline, and their work has never been more vital.”
To Learn More visit www.farmcornwall.co.uk
Tel : 01736 367589
