Steve Stead took over the running of Farfields Farm near Lockton on the North York Moors, from his father Eric about 5 years ago. Unlike for some, it was a smooth transition. Eric Stead had reached age of 65 and thought it time to hand over the farm his own father had bought in 1949. “My father hung on to the reins for quite a long time, and it sort of got in the way a bit… And I thought, that’s not going to happen to one of my sons." Indeed it didn't, as Steve explains: | "My father hung on to the reins for quite a long time, and it sort of got in the way a bit… And I thought, that’s not going to happen to one of my sons" | | Eric Stead |
“I thought I was very lucky really because my father made the farm what it is and he gave me the opportunity to carry it on, which I know a lot of farmers don’t do – they keep going on and on and on, and they won’t let their sons have a go.” Steve Stead hopes to do the same when he reaches 65, but his son Robert, who’s now sixteen and studying A-levels, hasn’t said yet if farming is for him. “I’m hoping he will, but you never know. He sees me working hard and long hours and I think they just don’t seem quite as interested nowadays. “What we’ll do if he doesn’t take over the farm is the million dollar question… I look at farming as just looking after the land for the next generation, you don’t look at it as an asset. But I suppose if you get to the end and he doesn’t want to farm, you’ve got to make a decision because you just can’t keep farming forever.”  | | Adam Bedford and James McCague |
So where is the next generation of farmers? One place is Askham Bryan College near York, but even here some students aren’t so sure that farming is for them. Adam Bedford from Huddersfield, Michael Wilson and Louise Lund, both from Selby, and James McCague from Scunthorpe, are in the last year of their course. They responded with the following answers when asked about what they’ll do at the end of their course: “I’m not so sure yet because the way agriculture’s going at the minute we need something definite to happen and the money to be right for me to decide,' yep, that’s where I’m going to go'.” “I'll do something in the countryside and connected to agriculture but not necessarily farming... I’m not from a farming family and I know it would be quite difficult to do farming on my own account. But I think there’s plenty of opportunity for me to work on farms, and that’d be enough for me I think." “I’ll keep the farm going, that’s my aim, bit it’s all about diversification so this was basically my diversification idea – come to college and then I’ve got the option of getting a good job hopefully on the side.” “I’ll maybe try to get a job with the Environment Agency, but not farming, due to the money and the situation of farming as it is now. I live on a farm and have 3 sisters. None of them are going to go into farming either. We’ll still live where we live, it’ll just be a case of the land getting rented out or sold.” The government is more hopeful about the future. It believes the freedom it says is now being offered, under reforms to the common agricultural policy, will make farming more attractive to a new generation. Mike Kemp | 
