The Most Valuable Asset on the Farm?
As a Rural Chartered Surveyor and Agricultural Valuer, I’m often asked the question: “What’s it worth?” Usually, the question relates to a field, a range of buildings or perhaps the entire farm. The answer is based on market evidence, experience and a good portion of professional judgement.
After many years working alongside farming families across Cheshire and North Wales, I’ve come to realise that the most valuable asset on almost every farm is something no valuation report can ever put a figure on, and it isn’t the land.
One of the great privileges of this profession is that you’re invited not just onto farms, but into people’s lives. Some of the most important conversations I’ve had haven’t taken place in an office, but around a farmhouse kitchen table with a mug of tea and a biscuit or even the occasional cake!
Those conversations are rarely just about acres and boundaries. They’re about succession, family, uncertainty, opportunity and the challenge of balancing tradition with the realities of modern farming.
It’s knowing which field dries first after heavy rain, where an old land drain runs or why one gateway was moved many years ago. It is knowledge gathered over generations, that simply cannot be bought.
Then there is reputation. Farming remains a remarkably small world and a good reputation, built over decades with neighbours, contractors, landlords and advisors, is incredibly precious. Of course, every farm is different. I’ve visited immaculate holdings under financial pressure and arguably more untidy yards running highly successful businesses. However, what has struck me most throughout my career so far, is the resilience of the people behind the business. Farming has never been straightforward. Markets fluctuate, policies change, the weather rarely behaves as we’d like and every year seems to present a fresh challenge (or two!), yet every morning, someone still pulls on their boots and gets on with the job.
That resilience is impossible to value, but it is undoubtedly one of agriculture’s greatest strength. So, when someone asks me, “What’s it worth?”, of course I can value the land, the buildings and the business assets. That’s my job.
But the real value of a farm is often found elsewhere, in the experience passed from one generation to the next, in the relationships built over a lifetime and in the determination of the people who care for it. Land can be measured, mapped and sold. The people, their knowledge and their resilience are the assets that no valuation can ever truly capture.
A career in Rural Surveying?
Farming businesses continue to inspire me in my own career, and it is a privilege to work alongside them, helping to navigate the challenges, and opportunities, while building relationships founded on trust and respect. No two days are ever the same, and the opportunity to make a genuine difference makes rural surveying such a rewarding profession. So, on a final note, if you’d like to find out more about a career in rural practice, why not take a look at the CAAV’s Route to Rural initiative, which showcases the many and varied pathways into this wonderful profession!
To find out more about the Route to Rural initiative – please see the following link:
Welcome to Route to Rural – The Central Association for Agricultural Valuers