“New entrants” to farming are those that take financial and managerial over control of a farm business (either in their own right, or as majority shareholder in a partnership) for the first time. There are different types of new entrants to farming, namely:

• Successors (i.e. children of existing farmers)
• Farming Ladder (e.g. progression from worker to manager to tenant, etc)
• New blood (e.g. lifestyle purchasers / those choosing career change)

Children of farming families tend to fall into 2 categories:

1. Those identified as the successor to the family business, and;
2. Other children who may either:
   (i) choose not to farm and leave the sector in pursuit of an alternative career, or
   (ii) want to stay in farming and seek opportunities to enter the industry (through farm management, tenancies or purchase).

It is thought that the greatest opportunity for increasing new entrants to the industry comes from the children of farming families as they tend to have the prerequisite skills to become farmers, have been exposed to farming’s work ethos, have some exposure of the regulatory and support system, and may have access (through their family) to equity capital or a means of securing it (e.g. parents acting as guarantor). However, new blood entrants can also play an important role in bringing new ideas to the industry and it is important to help hem familiarise themselves with the regulatory and support systems in place for agriculture.