Checklist launched to provide farmers with a business and wellbeing MOT

It aims to help farmers and agricultural firms review some of the common components of business and personal resilience – identifying strengths and highlighting areas where additional information or support may be beneficial.

The Greenzone Checklist is available from FCN’s FarmWell website – farmwell.org.uk/greenzone/ – and contains helpful information around a wide array of topics relating to business, health, forward-planning and community connections.

Users can download or print off the checklist and examine which areas are ‘in hand’ and where they might benefit from investigating further.

The FarmWell website provides a wide range of resources and information, helping farmers to explore their options and providing helpful insights or ideas.

Topics include partnership agreements, business objectives, work-life balance, diet and exercise, succession planning and links with local communities.

FCN’s FarmWell website launched in 2019 and has since seen more than 50,000 visitors to the platform. It contains a wide range of information designed to support health, wellbeing and business resilience.

Dr Jude McCann, Chief Executive Officer of The Farming Community Network (FCN), said: “Since launch, FarmWell has supported thousands of farmers in exploring their options and planning ahead.

"We are delighted to now be launching the Greenzone Checklist through FarmWell, which is an easy-to-use way of assessing what’s going well on the farm, and areas that might be beneficial to explore further. This is part of FCN’s proactive work to support farmers’ health, wellbeing and business resilience and to help people to explore their options.”

Mark Suthern, Chair of The Farming Community Network (FCN), said: “FCN’s new resilience checklist will help farmers and farm businesses to review a wide range of both business and personal resilience components – helping them to identify strengths, as well as to highlight areas where additional information can be accessed. It also provides a wide range of resources to help people to access further guidance and support.”

One farmer who utilised the checklist with their family members described it as a 'fantastic tool' to alleviate a lot of stress.