MORE than 200 farmers and rural landowners came together to hear about the need for diversification.

They were told by consultants they may need to diversify their farming businesses if the UK crashes out of Europe with no-deal.

They were warned that industry exposure to world trade tariffs means that beef and sheep farmers may face some tricky times ahead if there is no deal.

Experts from Cooper & Tanner, Lloyds Bank, Old Mill accountants and Laurence Gould provided views on how farmers can overcome these difficulties.

All speakers were keen to let farmers who attended the seminar at the Cooper & Tanner market at Frome, that they were open for business advice. The speakers included Tim Hector, partner at Cooper & Tanner, and Mark Seager and Ricky Haines of Old Mill. Mr Seager and Mr Haines explained how important budgeting and tax planning can be when thinking of diversification.

Victoria Read and Neil Wright, of Lloyds Bank, talked about lending criteria.

Mark Shepheard, of Laurence Gould Farm Consultants from Langport, spoke about future subsidies and the effect of a deal/no deal scenario.