AHDB to shut down Farmbench as levy pressures mount

AHDB is to close its Farmbench benchmarking tool after falling levy income and mounting financial pressure forced the organisation to make what it described as “hard prioritisation choices” over future spending.

The service, widely used by arable, beef and sheep farmers to compare production costs and assess profitability, will shut down on 30 September 2026.

Farmbench has helped producers benchmark business performance against similar farms, analyse enterprise costs and identify areas where efficiency and margins could be improved.

AHDB said the platform would remain available to allow farmers to complete work relating to the 2024-25 production year and download reports and historic data.

The levy body said the decision followed a series of difficult harvests in the cereals and oilseeds sector, which had reduced available levy funding and increased pressure on budgets.

Declining beef and sheep numbers have also reduced levy income from the livestock sector, adding further strain to the long-term viability of the service.

AHDB said Farmbench relied on joint funding from both the Cereals & Oilseeds and Beef & Lamb sectors, making it increasingly difficult to sustain as budgets tightened.

The organisation said future investment would instead focus on developing new digital tools designed to make benchmarking more widely available across the industry.

However, AHDB has not yet outlined what replacement services or systems may eventually succeed Farmbench.

The closure is likely to disappoint farmers who relied on the platform to monitor business performance and compare costs during a period of continued volatility across agricultural markets.

Many farm businesses are already facing mounting pressure from rising input costs, weaker commodity returns and wider uncertainty across the rural economy.

AHDB said decisions on where remaining levy funding would be invested would now be made separately by the respective sector councils.

The organisation said those councils, which are made up of levy payers, had been consulted before the decision was taken.

“The sector councils were consulted and are charged with ensuring the greatest value for all levy payers so consensus decisions were taken,” AHDB said.

Farmbench users will continue to have access to the website until September 2026 in order to complete current production year activity and download benchmarking data.

Farmers with questions about the closure have been advised to contact AHDB customer services, which will direct enquiries to the relevant sector teams.

The closure reflects growing financial pressure across the agricultural sector as levy bodies and farm businesses alike face tighter budgets, falling incomes and rising costs.