Farmers must review their business strategies and work together to cope with deepening financial pressures - as well as seeking inspiration from outside their sector.

That was the message from the boss of Norfolk-based buying co-operative AF Group after it published figures showing an "eye-watering" 23pc rise in agricultural inflation in the last six months.

The AgInflation Index is generated using data from the group's buying office at Honingham Thorpe, which sources more than £250m of agricultural goods for its members annually.

Animal feed, fuel and fertiliser saw the greatest increases, as rising commodity prices escalated further due to the war in Ukraine.

AF Group chief executive David Horton-Fawkes called for greater collaboration between individual farmers - and buying groups - to maximise their leverage at both ends of the supply chain, to ensure the right price and availability of products.

And he said it was important for all farms to undertake a fundamental review of their business to help them navigate a "dramatically changed market".

"Cashflow is going to be a huge issue for our membership this year," he said.

"I know it sounds patronising, but make a plan, understand what your cashflow is going to look like. Will you have enough cash to buy your fertiliser if you also buy a big shiny tractor this year? You may well not, so you can't have both.

"I think it requires a fundamental review of every aspect of every farming business.

"How do we sell our outputs, who do we employ, what fixed costs are sustainable, can the farm continue to support the entire family in the future, or how do we need to adapt the business so the whole family can be supported? How do you work better with your neighbours? Can you share costs?

"There are all sorts of questions that any business would ask itself when confronted with a dramatically changed market.

"I think sometimes there is a perception that farming is somehow different from every other business.

"But the fundamental disciplines of timeliness, tidyness, attention to detail, strategy, planning - they apply to farming just as much as they apply to any other business.

"I am not saying that farming is not the most important work on the planet, because growing food and looking after nature is about the most important thing anyone can do, but I do think farming needs to learn from the wider business community.

"And look outside your sector, that would be my advice. Some of the best inspiration I have got is by looking at people with nothing to do with my world."

Mr Horton-Fawkes said a good example came when he was a manager at the Althorp estate in Northampton, which was exploring diversification ideas for a café and visitor centre.

He said: "I remember thinking: 'Who does it brilliantly?' This was in 1997 and there was a little outfit called Pret a Manger which had just started and I looked them up and found the guy who started it called Julian Metcalfe.

"I picked up the phone to him and said: 'Hello, you've never heard of me, but I like your shops, I am thinking of opening a café, and can you tell me how to do it?' He said: 'Of course I can, come up to London', and he was delighted to help. People love to help other people.

"So it is important to find inspiration. Look at people doing really exciting things and ask how you can apply that to what you do.

"It does not mean if you are a farmer you can be brilliant at everything - you need to understand the risks as well as the opportunities.

"But look outside your sector for inspiration. Ask what a non-farmer can bring to this situation."