In the UK, especially in the upland areas in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, farming is a way of life. There are small sheep and cattle farms on high hills where the weather is challenging as and the quality of soil is poor. 

Agriculture in Britain, especially on family farms, is facing an increasingly uncertain future.

"It's very difficult now, more than ever. The costs… feed costs, fertilizer costs, have all gone up astronomically over the last few years, which does make it very hard to sustain a family farm," says Sarah Phillips, who hopes to inherit her parents' Rhysgog hill farm in Powys, mid-Wales.

Eighty percent of Welsh farming land is classified as "Less Favored" – a term used for land that is harder to cultivate. Of this, the majority is Severely Disadvantaged, hampered by low fertility, high rainfall and short growing seasons.

Farming for a living there is entirely different to arable or dairy farming in the lowlands of Britain, or in other countries across Europe.

Facing a 'perfect storm'

With rising costs, new regulations stewarding the environment, and a proposed inheritance tax on farm businesses valued at higher than $1.3 million by the current UK government, British agriculture seems to be increasingly threatened, especially for smaller family hill farms.

"We're facing this perfect storm. We have challenges in terms of the cost of living," explains Michael Lee, vice chancellor at Harper Adams University in Shropshire, England. 

He has expertise in sustainable agriculture with a focus on livestock systems, and has just returned from the COP30 climate negotiations in Brazil. He says maintaining the balance of sustainable food systems on land which is unsuitable for growing crops is a major part of the UK farming challenges.

"We need a smorgasbord of approaches and we classically and critically need our family farms but they've been pulled in many ways," says Lee.

"Are they there to protect the environment or to produce food? Well, critically they're there to do both. Farmers want to produce high quality nutritious food which is rated and wanted by the general population. But of course the narrative we're giving them is actually you're there for environmental prediction and stewardship and sometimes food production is secondary," he explains.

A bleak outlook

Thousands of smaller family farms in the UK barely make a profit. A McCain Farmdex online survey in November 2025 showed that 35 percent of farmers either make a loss or their businesses just about break even. A total of 51 percent respondents said they're considering leaving farming because of financial constraints, and 40 percent believe they may exit the industry within a decade.

There are 28 percent who have downsized their farms because of financial challenges, and 86 percent expressed pessimism about long-term food security in Britain. Meanwhile, 95 percent believe the number of family-run farms will decline in the next decade.

The outlook is bleak. Other surveys and reports have also emphasized the economic and environmental challenges facing family farms.

"I'll be honest, I think it's under threat. It's very hard to keep your head above water and keep thinking, yes we'll carry on," laments Phillips, despite lamb and beef prices being higher this year.

"Prices have been good this year… land prices have held pretty well. We had a good breeding season, we sell a lot of breeding stock, which massively helps our profit margins... that's been the only light at the end of a very dark tunnel," she adds.

Meanwhile, in the hills of western and northern Britain, the impacts of Atlantic gales are felt more and more. There isn't much choice of how to earn a living off the land. High rainfall is good for grass, but there's poor soil quality and steep slopes. Farming here is getting harder.

All British farms also face a possible inheritance tax on their business assets, and it's feared it could drive some out of business.    

A lot of challenges

Abi Reader is a third-generation dairy farmer, in a lowland region of south Wales. She has a 200-strong herd of cows to milk, on more than 3 square kilometers of owned and rented land in the Vale of Glamorgan. 

As deputy president of NFU Cymru, the National Farmers' Union, she's a prominent voice in British agriculture.

"Farming is facing a lot of challenges on a lot of fronts," she says. "We've got changing policy. People are facing cost of living issues and we're having to keep costs down when they are rising. There are a lot more people now who want to take an interest in how we run our farms because they want different aspirations from it."

Harper Adams in Shropshire is one of the UK's main agriculture universities. It offers graduate courses in farming, business, economics, food, land management, environment, and plant science amongst others. Vice Chancellor Lee says they are "looking at an agricultural transformation.

"And I see it on a day-to-day basis here the passion and the drive and the vision of our students to look at agri-tech and new ways of doing things. We need those individuals to be taking on those farms sooner and making that transition, that is a challenge."

Family farms need to be sustainable, but that's difficult without credible options to diversify their business, as well as adapting to a changing environment and evolving government policies. 

Despite these challenges, many students haven't been put off from pursuing a career in farming.

"Everything is adaptable and you've got to adapt to the external environment and the government policy that is being put in place. In essence that's quite exciting," says Grace Evans, a fourth-year agriculture student at Harper Adams University.

She hopes to return to her sheep and cattle at her family farm in Wales.

Murray Gates is also keen to work on his father's arable farm in Bedfordshire in southern England. 

"I've always had a massive passion for crops and I wanted to further my skills and learn how other farms do it, across the UK as well as in other countries," says Gates.

Currently the average age of a British farmer is 59 years old. These graduates could be a part of a new generation trying to change the fortunes of family farming in the UK.