We talk honestly about what it’s like raising children on farms now, and why it feels less free than it did when we were growing up. We weigh up harvest pressure, social media comparison, and the real economics pushing farms towards diversification and away from pure food production.

• more rules and tighter safety expectations shaping farm childhood
• memories of harvest as a social family season versus today’s urgency
• larger farm businesses and fewer small family farms changing succession pressure
• diversification as the default way to make a farm pay in the UK
• social media creating “Instagram vs reality” stress for farmers
• instant replies and free advice expectations hitting small planning businesses
• pride in rural upbringing, responsibility, and knowing where food comes from
• how technology could reshape farming for the next generation

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The fastest way to waste money on farm planning permission is to chase a single idea without a strategy. We’re joined by Morwenna, our farm planning consultant and CAD designer at Foxes Rural, to unpack what “thinking strategically” actually looks like when you’re trying to develop a farm, protect the core agricultural business, and build new income streams under real-world rural planning policy.

We talk through what happens when a client calls with big plans but no clear route, especially around succession or taking over a holding. Morwenna explains why a stage one appraisal matters, how we look at the whole site and its constraints, and why the order you do projects in can make or break your long-term goals. We also get honest about the most common question we hear: can you build a house on a piece of land? Despite national “build, build, build” headlines, local countryside policy often says otherwise unless there’s a genuine agricultural need.

From there we move into practical farm diversification ideas that are showing up again and again, from commercial storage to paddle courts inside redundant barns. We compare full planning applications with permitted development rights, including Class R, and why PD routes can sometimes avoid costly layers like ecology surveys. If you want a clearer farm planning strategy, fewer surprises, and a better chance of success, this conversation will help you plan the next move properly.

If you find this useful, please subscribe, share the episode with a farmer who’s weighing up a project, and leave us a review so more people can find the Farmers Planning Podcast.

www.foxesrural.co.uk

The hardest part of farm planning permission is rarely the drawings, the policy, or the application. It is the people sitting around the kitchen table.

In this episode we sit down as a husband-and-wife team running a farm business together and talk candidly about what actually happens when your colleague is also your partner. The shared days and shared wins are obvious. The friction is just as real — different personalities, different risk appetites, and decisions that carry years of family history.

We unpack what makes family farm businesses work when the farm is asset-rich but cash poor and everyone has a view on what should happen next. We cover aligning goals before money gets spent, splitting responsibilities so strengths are actually used, and why naming a clear leader for each project stops decisions dragging on for months.

We move into succession through a practical lens: bringing the next generation into leadership early enough to build momentum, while still drawing on the older generation who have lived through the harder market cycles.

Then we turn to opportunity. If you have older buildings, hardstanding, or a yard that is no longer earning, there is often real rural planning potential sitting there unused. We discuss conversions, diversified uses, why pace matters, and when leasing a venture is a smarter first move than transferring assets or carrying the cost yourself.

If you are working through diversification, succession, or a tricky family decision around rural development, subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review.

What would you align first on your farm — goals, roles, or leadership?

www.foxesrural.co.uk