News

June 2018 – Land subsidies: Help or hindrance?

For more than three decades farmers and land owners have been able to claim subsidy designed to support agricultural production and also to encourage environmental protection.  Recently these have been worth in excess of £3 billion per annum to the UK land-based sector but their future is less certain as we approach Brexit. 

September 2018 – Making the most of what you’ve got

Is bigger always better or is now the time to be making the most of what you’ve got? Jonathan Morris thinks about boosting on-farm productivity rather than simply getting bigger.

I think it is safe to say that most of us have goals and aspirations and on a day to day basis we are trying to achieve them.

August 2018 – 1981 or 1984… It’s much the same

From my own slightly hazy point of view these two years were indeed pretty similar and if I’m listening to any music from this period I invariably guess the wrong year. But fortunately perhaps for you I’m not proposing to talk about my entirely dubious musical taste; rather the altogether more prosaic world of rural legislation.

July 2018 – Does UK farming offer value for money?

As arguments rage between soft and hard Brexiteers and those entirely against the self-imposed divorce from our most important trading region, the farming industry is no wiser as to the likely impact on profitability. Many who voted will retire before the true impact can be assessed, let’s hope the next generation has no reason to question the wisdom of its forebears!

June 2018 – Time for the younger generation to take up the challenge?

Last month Anthony Weston stated “from the year after next BPS will be cut or capped very significantly and from 2024/25 it will be gone.”  He then posed the question “What will you do about it?”

The many potential answers to this question will range from sitting on your hands and waiting to see what unfolds to packing up farming altogether.

May 2018 – Poor, Poorer, Poorest; Rich, Richer, Richest

Just what is productivity anyway?

I have a love hate relationship with the Spring, I think a lot of people do. It’s exciting, it’s vibrant, it’s full of promise and new life, growth and renewal. It’s also been a long time coming, frustrating, already hinting at missed opportunities, not to mention exceedingly busy! 

April 2018 – Energy Efficiency Regulations

As many of you will have seen in the press, new regulations are coming into force on 1st April 2018 that will make it illegal to let a private rented property to a new tenant if the energy performance certifi cate (EPC) has a rating of F or G.

March 2018 – Love Thy Neighbour

As you stand on the ridge of Garden field and look South West across the Medway valley towards the Ashdown Forest with the sun rising over your shoulder you could be forgiven for thinking that all was right in the world.

February 2018 – Marsh Wars – A new hope

I noticed quite recently that an email I received from a member of staff at Natural England gave their job title in the signature at the bottom as a member of the Field Unit; a group so secret that most Natural England advisers I have asked since reading about it do not even know of their existence.

January 2018 – More grapes = more acres

Generating £20 billion in economic activity and £10.9 billion in sales, the UK’s wine market is the sixth largest in the world, the second largest trader by volume (behind Germany) and the second largest trader by value (behind the USA).  With UK sparkling wines sales up by 37% since 2012, there can be no surprise that the UK wine industry is bursting to increase its share of the market.