News

April 2020 – Vineyards, planning and coronavirus

The Coronavirus outbreak has thrown many vineyards into crisis, but visitor-based revenues will still underpin incomes for many in the longterm, making site-selection ever-more crucial, says Matthew Berryman.

A lot of viticulturists can’t think further ahead than the next week – or even the next day – at present, as they fight to keep businesses afloat in these unprecedented times.

March 2020 – Look beyond land quality

What is the perfect vineyard site?

We all know the prerequisites for vines to thrive – south-facing, less than 300 feet above sea level, high average temperatures, low frost risk and free draining soils.

But often less appreciated is the fact that a successful vineyard has other requirements nearly as important as the quality of the land.

March 2020 – Farmers, the Caretakers of £1 trillion asset

Farming has received some bad press recently, which I felt the wider effects of while chatting with a grazier who was rounding up escaped sheep.

We suspected the poor animals had probably had enough of being pushed around the field by various dog walkers and had attempted the ovine equivalent of The Great Escape. 

February 2020 – Is your let property fit for human habitation?

In all the ‘excitement’ of Brexit over recent months, you would be forgiven for missing a recent and important new piece of legislation relating to let property, which came into force last March.

‘The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018’ received Royal Assent on 20 December 2018 and has amended the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.

January 2020 – Can we ignore climate change?

Cast your mind back twenty years to the dawn of the new millennium. The world was gripped with excitement and a sense of optimism marred only by predictions of planes falling from the skies, trains grinding to a halt and banks in meltdown as a result of a Y2K software bug.

December 2019 – Finding the right Contract Winemaker

Extra acres present industry with big processing challenge

The acreage of vines planted in recent years is encouraging evidence of the huge optimism in the sector, but it’s creating a challenge which the industry is yet to fully address – where do we find the processing capacity?

December 2019 – From Uncertainty to Opportunity

Charlotte Smith and her panel of experts were on fine form at the South of England Farming Conference at Ardingly on November 13.  One of the strong early memories of my working  career was attending this conference with Tim Calcutt. It has been a regular diary fixture ever since and it is matter of great pride that CLM is now one of the sponsors.

November 2019 – Driving change with mechanical harvesters

From smash-and-grab bushwhacking to an altogether more refined and sophisticated process.

Sam Barnes went to the SITEVI show in France two years ago with a very specific aim – to visit every machine harvesting stand and ask about potentially operating such a machine in Britain.

November 2019 – Act now as clocks tick down on new support system

The report into a pilot of results-based payments for agri-environment schemes, hot off the press, makes for fascinating reading.

Published last month by Natural England and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, it outlines the findings into a two-year trial featuring 34 farmers across 230ha.

October 2019 – If a job’s worth doing……..

When faced with a deadline, there are a number of common responses.

1. Get the job done as quickly as possible without much thought to what you are setting out to achieve.

2. Procrastinate, which often leads to missing the deadline or simply turns into a slower way of arriving at response 1.