Achieving 2020 vision
Herefordshire Rural Hub and The Prince’s Countryside Fund's “2020 Vision for Farming Families” programme is well under way with members from 12 Herefordshire family farming businesses now carefully matched up with a mentor, a leading industry expert who will work with a key individual within each family over a three year period.
As well as engaging farmers in proactive workshops, the programme aims to improve attitudes towards planning for the future, making sure that farmers are ready for whatever the future may bring through training and enhancing their knowledge, benchmarking against other farms, improving technical skills and personal development.
Both the mentors and the farmers talk about their positive experiences of the scheme. The farms have recently been involved with a succession planning workshop led by Heather Wildman, one participant said, “We view the session as helping us to start the conversations that we know need to happen, but would have put off. It has helped us to plan forward starting now. Essential to ensuring fairness across the family.”
The farmers who have been involved in the programme have identified both personal and careers-based positive outcomes, including increased confidence, IT skills, and a new willingness to engage in planning for the future. In these uncertain times doing what you can to prepare for the future will no doubt reap rewards. As one mentor succinctly stated, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”
The Prince’s Countryside Fund was established by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2010 and aims to enhance the prospects of family farm businesses and the quality of rural life. The fund provides more than £1.2m each year in grant funding to projects across the UK thanks to support from partners, events and donations.
