News

August 2021 – “Diddly Squat” Flexibility in Some Support Schemes

I’ve been enjoying watching Clarkson’s Farm.  In fact, I haven’t spoken to anyone – even those not involved in agriculture – who hasn’t.

Yes, he sometimes acts the fool, but the show convincingly conveys how tough agriculture is and highlights the challenges farmers face – whether that’s technical, mechanical, meteorological or bureaucratic.

May 2021 – Information is Power

Instinct and experience are crucial in farming, but you need accurate information, too.

In practice, many farmers lack this, making it almost impossible to make informed decisions, and right now they need to be making these more than ever before.

A lot of businesses are at a crossroads, with the phasing out of BPS, the transition to ELMS, Brexit and the prospect of tax changes quite rightly making  many question what they are doing.

Christmas 2020 – It’s good to talk

Readers over a certain age might remember a BT ad featuring the catchphrase: “It’s good to talk”.

It was encouraging us, in a pre-mobile era, to pick up the telephone, but the adage remains apt – and no more so than when it comes to succession planning.

December 2020 – Great Expectations

In the end the finale was something of a disappointment.

Fifteen years after my appointment as Executor for the administration of what has felt like a modern-day version of Jarndyce & Jarndyce (the long-running legal dispute in Dickens’ Bleak House), we sat in splendid isolation on a Zoom conference.

November 2020 – “Stepping-Stone” support welcome, but let’s not reinvent the wheel

There has been much talk recently about the government’s Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

Billed as a ‘stepping stone’ scheme for English farmers, bridging the 2022-2024 gap ahead of the introduction of the Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMS), it hit the headlines in September.

October 2020 – Autumn planning brings Countryside Stewardship back into focus

This autumn will have come none too soon for many South East farmers.

It’s been a harvest to forget; wet weather last autumn left growers struggling to get wheat in the ground, and then the dry spring and wet weather during August took their toll.

September 2020 – Identify the key factors

It is hard to believe four years have passed since the UK voted to leave the EU. Many thought the referendum result would impact lifestyles in ways not experienced for generations.

Opposing points of view divided families and shortened political careers.

August 2020 – Shooting’s role, sporting community needs to highlight pursuit’s vital place in rural “ecosystems”

All eyes in the shooting community have been focused on Wild Justice’s demands for a judicial review into game bird release, but a lesser publicised planning decision could also have big implications.

The authorities recently rejected an appeal against an enforcement notice which restricted the number of shooting days on a much-respected South Downs estate.

July 2020 – Don’t miss “golden” opportunity PDRs present for building

‘Planning’ and ‘simple’ are two words that rarely go together.

As anyone who has had dealings with it will know, the planning system can be complex, confusing and costly.

The existence of Permitted Development Rights (PDRs), however, offer farmers a streamlined – and, yes, simple – process for erecting or converting buildings.

June 2020 – Diverse businesses better placed to prosper in post-covid countryside

“Up horn, down corn”  is an old agricultural saying that, like many old agricultural sayings, is as relevant today as it has ever been.

It is, or course, a clarion call for the benefits of mixed farming, highlighting how the fortunes of the various sectors are rarely in step and how tough times in one often coincide with periods of relative prosperity in another.