Charity helplines have been inundated with cries for help as the county’s producers battle with the fall-out from delayed farm payments and the devastating legacy of last winter’s floods.

One major farming charity revealed how it had paid out more in financial help to the county’s struggling farmers in 2016 than any one year in the last decade.

The human cost of the cash crisis engulfing agriculture has been highlighted by farming charities as they revealed their teams were dealing with increasing numbers of cases from Cumbria.

“We paid out more than £110,000 to desperate county farming families last year. The last time we paid out a figure like that was the 2007 foot-and-mouth scare when it topped £100,000,” said Georgina Lamb, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution north west regional manager.

Georgina, who marks her 10th anniversary with the charity this year, says many farmers are struggling to put food on the table, and others are unable to pay household bills.

In some cases, farming families have even had to turn for financial help so they can bury dead relatives.

She said: “In the past the highest number of claimants were either retired or disabled farmers. Now it is from farmers who are still in business. It is massively bucking the trend.”

“Last year half of the grants paid out were to working farmers,” she added.

Of the £110,000 paid out to 54 families, £45,000 went on flood-related problems, while an additional £22,000 went to working farmers.

“Animals come first and there’s no money left for emergencies. Credit cards are maxed, and many are struggling with delayed farm payments,” said Georgina.

Last year saw the amount of money spent by RABI in the North West increase by 28.5 per cent from £179,452 to £230,000. Almost half of this money went towards helping working farmers, largely but not exclusively as a result of grants issued following the effects of Storm Desmond in December 2015.

The Cumbrian Farm Flood Action Group contacted 1,000 farmers, out of which 144 reported losses amounting to a total of £1.7m.

Defra has estimated that 650 Cumbrian farms suffered damage after Storm Desmond and Storm Eva caused severe flooding in December.

Of the 1,000 farmers contacted, 220 completed a detailed survey. The poll revealed that:

Thirty-eight farmers reported 701 sheep deaths between them and 16 farmers reported a total of 189 sheep missing, 63 per cent of those surveyed lost sections of watercourse bank sides, 37 per cent lost walls and 14 per cent lost hedgerows, 53 per cent reported river stone/gravel deposit and 22 per cent had landslips

Regionally, farming families supported totalled 127, with funding going to mobility aids, care home top up fees and grants for utility bills, to food vouchers and emergency grants due to a crisis on farm during illness or following an accident.

Nationally, over £1.6 million was given in grants.

The Farm Crisis Network painted a picture of farmers in crisis because of delayed farm payments.


Brian Armstrong Chairman, Kirkoswald farmer Brian Armstrong, said: “We have not dealt with masses of flooding calls. Ours have been mainly related to delays in the Basic Payment Scheme payments.”

“People have to be pretty desperate before they call us,” added Brian. “People are unable to pay their animal feed or household bills. These are people who rely on the farm payment to survive. But I will say on the whole banks and feed companies have been very sympathetic.”

Brian’s comments were backed by The Farmer Network, which is based at Newton Rigg College in Penrith.

Managing director Adam Day said there were some farmers in the county who had not received a penny of their farm payment for two years.

“The biggest single increase in the reason for people calling us has been the delayed Basic Payments. But there is never just one problem: farmers waiting for payment go through a lot of turmoil,” explained Adam.

“This is causing a lot of stress amongst the farming community, but it’s almost inevitable when there are financial problems. A number of calls to us are from people who just want to talk,” added Adam.

“I have one farmer who is in real difficulty in paying a bill to a local machinery company. Every time that happens there are 40 other businesses behind that farmer who rely on being paid,” said Adam.


Adam Day “Some farmers have been fighting for eight to nine months with the Rural Payments Agency over a small problem with their farm payment claim. For many it is a constant fight with the agency every year.”

RABI, The Farmer Network and the Farm Crisis Network all work together as a team. “We just do our best to support the farming community in the best way we can. What the future holds we don’t know. The farm payment is only guaranteed until 2020, and we have no clue what will be out there for farmers. They produce great food and the general public needs to know this.”

National Sheep Association chief executive Phil Stocker said: “The types of farms affected are those often living hand to mouth, with struggles enough already without the issue of settlement payments still not being made.

“This is creating real hardship amongst farming families, some of whom we have heard are turning to charities to put food on the table.”

Payouts to working farmers and their families by RABI more than doubled to £216,956 between January 1 and May 16, compared with the same period in 2015.

“There are various reasons why more working farmers are turning to us for support, including the hardship caused by flooding, particularly in the north of England at the start of the year,” said Rabi’s head of welfare, Trish Pickford.

“It has also been a bad year for many families affected by falling commodity prices and/or delays in Basic Payments. Such factors mean that there is less to fall back on when something out of the ordinary happens, such as illness or accidents.”

The Farming Community Network says calls to its helpline increased five-fold in the early part of last year compared with the previous year. Most were related to financial issues, particularly poor cashflow, often exacerbated by a delay in receiving BPS money.

Other issues were flooding, mental well-being and poor commodity prices, particularly for milk.

“We have a growing concern over the level of debt being carried by many farms – with some appearing to have levels of debt that cannot be serviced, let alone paid off, by the existing farm business activity,” says FCN chief executive Charles Smith.


Georgina Lamb “We are hoping for an easier year this year,” said Georgina. “But we don’t know what is round the corner for our farmers.”

Georgina praised the year-round work by the small army of RABI volunteers in the county, who raise funds for the charity. Last year saw £40,869.91 raised in the county, while in the North West, volunteers raised £70,000.

“These county committees work so hard organising events, attending shows and promoting the work of the charity. Raising awareness about the work we do is equally as important as raising funds, as we constantly need to alert or remind farming people that we are here to help whenever we can,” said Georgina.