Oxford Farming Conference 2012

This week I had the pleasure of attending my first ever Oxford Farming Conference, along with George Dunn.

The OFC’s mission is to inform, challenge and inspire. It certainly had that effect on me!

The conference began with three fringe meetings and the one that I joined was the launch of The Land Partnerships Handbook (www.LandPartnerships.org) which deals with different possibilities for young entrepreneurs to match up with landowners. George had written an article in it on selecting the right legal framework for a business relationship.

The theme of the 2012 conference was “Agriculture: Tomorrow’s power”.

A report had been commissioned called “Power in Agriculture”, looking at resources, economics and politics in a global context. Speakers from home and abroad gave their “take” on the report, and in the case of the farmer contributions, their thoughts on the threats and opportunities to their farming businesses. I recommend that you go to www.ofc.org.uk and browse through the papers that take your fancy. If you are interested in Dairy Farming, then Nigel Lok from South Africa makes fascinating viewing. How to treat each cow of a large herd as an individual each day!

Caroline Spelman was upbeat about the future of British Agriculture, stressing that we need to produce a lot more food; using a lot less land, water and fossil fuel. Jim Paice spoke of the Green Food Project- cutting waste, combining energy production and food production and influencing consumer behaviour.

Caroline wants us to focus on becoming climate smart, energy smart and water smart, and at the same time to grow more food to feed the ever increasing population.

The debate at The Oxford Union was “This house believes British Agriculture could thrive outside the EU”. A straw poll at the beginning showed a roughly 80% vote against the motion. However, some spirited debating with emphasis on the wording being “could thrive” i.e. not for certain, turned the voting on exit to a narrow victory for the proposition.

The final day attempted to answer the question “where does the power lie in global Agriculture?” Do the TNCs (transnational companies) hold the power with across the globe trading and the tying up of such things as GM intellect or commodity straitjackets for suppliers and consumers? Do the supermarkets hold too much power or are tomorrow’s farmers going to hold the key to food security? Will the “X factor” for your business be water security by having that limiting factor held in your farm reservoirs, as believes Andrew Blenkiron of the Euston Estate in Suffolk?

The last afternoon dealt with the food supply chain. Andrew Opie, Director of Food and Sustainability, British Retail Consortium, was extolling the virtues of stronger retailer/supplier relationships, but this didn’t ring true with the fact that my free range egg price has not increased for about 18 months, despite massive hikes in feed costs removing all hope of making a profit this year. His talk of long term sustainability did not ring true. The supermarkets ignored the plight of the egg producers.

The great thing about the OFC is the old friends you meet and the new ones you make. From a TFA perspective it is a chance to chat to members, ministers, land agents, bankers, industry leaders and numerous organisations with which the TFA has dealings.

George and I were approached by an Institutional Landlord’s chief executive, who related that one of their tenants had been negotiating a rent review with the Landlord’s local agent. The tenant had read the TFA notes, following our annual liaison meeting with the said institution, in which we had outlined the unrealistic rent demands asked by agents. He had been asked a doubling of his existing rent, but settled at a 20% increase! We agreed that this unrealistic demand did nothing for the credibility of local agent, nor for the chance of reaching a sensible figure by agreement.

I do hope you take a look at the OFC website and browse through the papers.

This month is LAMMA and we will have our usual stand there. I hope to meet as many of you as can make it to Newark.

Best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Jeremy Walker

Happy Christmas

It’s 6 months since my last blog and I’ve been reminded that I’m not a natural blogger! So what has been happening since May?

On the farm we have had a pretty good summer, with crop yields and quality considerably better than feared during the dry spring. The winter barleys did mature a little prematurely, but the bushel weights were good, even if we have had slightly higher yields in previous years. Winter wheats  managed to hold on and our robust fungicide programme helped to produce excellent  bushel weights and respectable yields from most fields. We are now starting to move feed wheat to a local mill and will do so through the winter months. Fortunately we have sold a fair percentage forward, which may well prove a good move as grain prices have been falling recently. This helps us with poultry feed prices, particularly as our hens consume an artic load per week. Getting back to crop results, our Oilseed rape crop produced our best ever results and averaged over 2 tonnes per acre on our not over strong soil type. Our oil levels reached nearly 49% which will give a good bonus over the pool price.

Our lamb crop has now all been sold as finished, through our local  Sedgemoor Market (J24 ,M5) and like most sheep farmers we were pleased that lamb and cull ewes have made good money. Purchasing some more Mule gimmer lambs from Wensleydale took place in September, but cost us predictably more than ever before. Ewes and some bigger gimmers have been put to our Suffolk rams and judging by the raddle marks we are in for a busy time in early March next year.

I should also report that son Simon and his new wife Karen were married in September. It was a wonderful occasion  despite showers during the day and heavy rain in the evening. It was good to see so many friends and relatives of the couple having a great time. Our home paddock has now fully recovered!

Turning to my TFA National chairman role, may I thank all of you who came to our stand at the various events we attended around the country. We hope you used the opportunity to meet the staff and officeholders and air your concerns. We have to evaluate all our attendances at such events. Remember, if you don’t use it, you may lose it! Your Executive committee has been reviewing the format of our regional meetings and you may notice changes from our usual format of twice yearly meetings. We would like more meetings to be demand led. That is, if your area/region would like a meeting to discuss/advise on any particular subject  of relevance to tenant farmers, we will do our best to provide the necessary forum and expertise.

This autumn George Dunn and I have been meeting with the representatives of the various Landlord institutions, such as The Duchy of Cornwall and the Crown Estates. These have been most useful and help us to better understand their policies and thinking. We also hope that we have passed on your concerns and highlighted areas where TFA policy either agrees or disagrees with their way of operating.

The TFA has been fully involved with discussions on CAP reform and it’s interaction with tenancies and tenant farmers. We are particularly keen to see that only “active” farmers receive EU support under Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 in the future. Some of the so called “simplified” reform proposals seem far from practical or, indeed, simple!

We have also been fully included in meetings with the RPA. Their Chief Executive, Mark Grimshaw, appears to have been doing a good job in shaking up the Agency and setting realistic outcomes, including sorting out the more challenging applications early on, rather than leaving them to do later, as happened in the past. I’m delighted to report that I, and some of my neighbours, have received our SPS payment on the first two days of December. I do hope you have had a similar happy occurrence by the time you read this.

Many of you, like me, will be subject to a rent review in the coming year. These can be quite stressful for many tenants, particularly when Landlords and their Agents have high expectations of a large increase. These expectations are fuelled by the, in my opinion, unsustainably high tender rents being offered for FBT land recently. These offers are often made by owner occupiers who try to justify their figures by spreading the rent over all their land. Couple this with higher, but more volatile commodity prices and you have an uphill battle on your hands. Let us hope that sense prevails and that a fair resulting rent is agreed. It is better to have a tenant making a fair living and looking after the Landlord’s investment, than a tenant who is struggling to make ends meet. In the last 32 years that I have been a tenant farmer I have seen tenants go broke and, more worryingly, commit suicide on more than one occasion.

On a happier note, may I wish you a Very Happy Christmas and an enjoyable and prosperous New Year. The TFA will do it’s very best to serve you well in 2012 and in the future.

Best wishes

Jeremy Walker

Spring time

Firstly, a bit about what has been happening on the farm this spring…

March saw us lambing. Since becoming engaged to anExmoorfarmer’s daughter, my son Simon has shown much more interest in matters ovine! However, it is Dad who had to get up each night to check the ewes! Our flock of North of England Mule ewes, tupped by Suffolks, lambed well and were soon mothered up and out to grass. They are growing well, but we desperately need more rain. Shearing has been completed and we await the wool cheque. The previous tenant on part of this farm once told me that his wool cheque (just after the Second World War) actually paid the rent on 400acres! Now it hardly pays the shearer. Could I offer 2011’s wool cheque in lieu of this year’s rent?

We have been calving our small herd of purebred Herefords, about 30 head of cows and heifers, and surprisingly we have had 10% twins! We don’t know much of their history as we only acquired them last year. Is it the bull or maybe the female line?

Our 28,000 free range laying hens are performing well, but our feed bill at over £1,000 per day is crippling. Obviously, the price of cereals has shot up, but the major supermarkets refuse to increase our egg price. So far, it has cost me over £70,000 extra for feed this season; which comes off the bottom line. Our constant battle to exclude foxes is also very taxing. Last year we spent over £10,000 on improved poultry stock fencing, with a netting ground section and electric boundary wire. Basil still digs under this though and we have daily perimeter patrols akin to concentration camp protocol.

Cropping wise, the cereals and rape have looked well this spring but are now in urgent need of more rain. We had about 14mm of rain around 2 weeks ago, but hardly anything in April. The seed potatoes are just poking through the ridges. We dug our first early potatoes in the garden this week – lovely!

As National Chairman, I had the privilege to address the AGM of R.A.B.I. last week. My chosen topic was ‘The Farming Ladder’. What a wonderful gathering of inspiring people it proved to be. The charity does such good work and the help given to deserving cases is so crucial and much appreciated. The fundraisers who received awards gave an insight of the enthusiasm, hard work and ingenuity of their events. I wish to give a special mention of the efforts of the YFC who have helped at so many events, as well fundraising in their own clubs.

Another role of the Chairman is to attend meetings with RPA officials and the Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Jim Paice. Some of you reading this blog may still be awaiting your 2010 SPS payment. I fully sympathise with your situation – I received my payment in March, but it was a close call with rent and fertiliser to be paid. We try our utmost to stress to the RPA that this payment is crucial and needs to be paid on time, particularly when tenant farmers have often fully borrowed against their assets and lack the financial security of freehold land/property to borrow against. We will continue to press for timely payments to “active” farmers, and  an improvement in performance targets.

I hope to see as many of you as possible at the various shows and events that the TFA are attending this year – Beef Expo, Royal Cornwall Show, Cereals, Great Yorkshire Show, Dairy Event & Livestock Show and the Bath & West Dairy Show. We would really appreciate your feedback on our performance, good or bad and it’s great to meet fellow farmers from around the country. We are reviewing our Regional Governance and Member Meetings format and welcome your views when you receive our questionnaire.

With Simon’s wedding in September at the farm, I had better get back to “The Big Cleanup” operation!

Jeremy

P.S.  I hope it rains soon for all who need it.

This is the ex National Chairman

This is the ex National Chairman’s terminal blog! The TFA have come a long way very quickly over the last three years. I remember thinking that three years was a long term, it has not seemed so. It has been both an honour and a pleasure to be the TFA National Chairman. This has been because as an organisation we are blessed with such good people. I am grateful for the help and support I have received from the National Executive and particularly my Vice-Chairman Stephen Wyrill. The strength of the operation at Head Office and the calibre of the staff both past and present so ably led by George Dunn have made my term so much easier. I am proud that our offering to members is so much stronger now and that we can provide so much more with an extra adviser. Thank you all for your support and friendship and to the many friends of the association who attended the reception on Thursday night.

As I fed the sheep and contemplated jobs for the day the morning after I joked with Rosemary that I would not know what to do now my term has finish. She has since produced a list of jobs backdated three years! I am still going to be busy.

It looks like arable tenants with a pending review will be served notice to increase rent with the current wheat prices. Be aware of the risks of such great volatility when producing your budgets. Be the prudent tenant. There is the risk of double jeopardy in selling produce short and buying inputs long. Diesel and fertiliser prices are unlikely to come down.

We have had a successful lambing and sold the last store lambs. Prices have been good. Crops are starting to move ahead and we have applied ammonium sulphate to Warburtons wheat and the OSR, followed by extra urea on the rape to requirement. The temperature differential and the sharp frosts at the moment are holding us back from drilling our brown mustard. Actually the drill falling off the tractor and destroying two units is not helping. (Anyone got a stanhay rallye 592 we could buy for spares?) By the time the repair is complete the land should be good and ready.

We have finished tidying up blackgrass at Ermine, and T0 time is approaching. Potato seed will soon arrive. We are not growing beet this year as we took the opportunity of the out goers scheme, we will watch the margins and may grow again when the price is right. One less job but we still have plenty to do.

Thank you all for your support over the last three years. It really has been a pleasurable and interesting experience. I will miss the shows but intend to attend as a punter so I can have a proper look round! I wish Jeremy Walker the very best for his term. I am proud the TFA is in good heart and safe hands.

Best wishes to you all.

Greg

Merry Christmas

It has been a few weeks since my last blog and it is nearly Christmas.  The ground is solid, we have land to plough, but the plough won’t even penetrate.  We have sugar beet in the ground like so many others, and I fear that if it thaws we will lose it.  We have been as low as -15 degrees and with prolonged sub zero temperatures and being below sea level this has been very penetrating.  We even had some potatoes frozen in the bag in a shed where they are normally safe!  Needless to say that with a temperature differential of 25 degrees between outside and inside the potato store, condensation is a huge problem.  The bulk are sitting pretty at 8 degrees and having gassed them last week they look very well, I hope they keep as well as they look.

I have of course not received my Single Farm Payment.  Despite applying on line, I see from the website and subsequent letter that I am still in validation.  Entitlements seem to be the problem, and though nothing has changed since last year, the RPA are determined to get them right, so expect delays.  If they do resolve as many as possible that bodes well for next year.  The RPA’s new Chief Executive is Mark Grimshaw.  Let us hope he is as successful at implementing the necessary changes to RPA as he has been at the Child Support Agency in his previous post. 

We have had our round of meetings with all the major landlords apart from the MOD who we will meet early in the New Year.  My understanding of what was discussed would be that all landlords are looking for the maximum return from agriculture, especially those landlords with urban property portfolios.  There is little willingness to extend the length of term of FBT’s, but on a more commercial basis, landlords are much more interested in co-investing with tenants to build better businesses and returns for both.  Also with the new Feed in Tariffs they are much more interested in the possibility of renewable energy – Photovoltaic and wind, and there is a discussion to be had if you are interested.  Please speak to Head Office for advice especially if your tenancy agreement is agriculture only as there may be some issues. 

For those of you who have not seen the newsletter there are some staff changes at Head Office.  The TFA’s Communications and Events Co-ordinator, Jenna Kirkpatrick and her husband Steve are expecting their first child early next year and Jenna will be taking maternity leave from the TFA from 10 January.  We wish you well.

Unfortunately Rowan Hill will not be able to take up the post as announced in the TFA news, but George has been able to secure the services of Larissa-Jayne Harmsworth and she will be starting on January 04 so Jenna will be able to help with a smooth transition.

Also Rebecca Marshall, the TFA’s National Adviser who has been with us 6 years, has decided it is time to branch out on her own as a Chartered Surveyor and will be leaving the TFA at the end of February.  Many of you will have spoken to Beccy about SPS and innumerable other things.  She has done a splendid job for us and we are very grateful.  We wish her all the best in the commercial world.

We are also losing Gemma Bumford who has only been with the TFA for 18 months.  In this short period she has really made her mark in the office, and proved that we needed an extra advisor, and how much more efficient the office has been with a full team.

I know you will want to join me in wishing them both success in the future.  I am sure our paths will cross in the future.  We have been working hard to find suitable replacements and have completed first interviews with second interviews in early January.  I hope there will be minimal disruption in the office and we intend to provide service as usual.  It has been a demanding time for George with all these changes and I am grateful to all staff for supporting George and their commitment to help facilitate this major change with minimum disruption.

Back to the weather, don’t forget to order your oil in good time.  The oil companies only seem to want to deliver heating oil and at a high price because of demand.  Orders made pre Christmas look like arriving in mid January.

All my sheep are still outside; we have no snow but are feeding silage barley and protein.  They look well, but keeping them watered is a problem.  I hope we can keep them out until just a few weeks prior to lambing.  We will have to see how the weather treats us.

All that leaves me to do is wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR, I would say prosperous, but who can predict where prices will be after the roller coaster of this year, perhaps a good time to sell forward for next year?…  We shall see.

It’s been a busy few weeks

All cereals are hopefully gathered in.  What an August!  

Bales waiting to be picked up.

More rain than the rest of the year and an increase in wheat price of 50%.  I like many others started my sales at £100.  Luckily as a seed grower I have some to sell at the higher price.  One of the compensations of being a milling wheat grower is that the high premiums have made up for the shortfall.  Yes, it would have been easier to just grow feed.  Now there’s a thought…

I was feeling the same about my potato contracts but the market has come back a long way.  Those who harvest early will have done well.  The rest of the season will be interesting.  The premium samples as usual will get the high prices.  Always best to go for quality.  Now there’s another thought…

What will this do to rent?  I expect there will be notices on both sides.  Don’t lose sight of all the increases in costs and the issues of volatility.  I expect landlord’s budgets will be at least £10 long on wheat prices.  Futures may be high, but we live in a volatile market.  There is also the issue of increased seed cost and the lack of availability of crop protection products driving the price up.  With increased grain prices the costs for dairy, beef and sheep will all rise as fertiliser and feed are all affected.

Fixing the sprayer

We have harvested sugar beet on the heavy end of the farm.  It has looked well all year despite the drought.  The late rain has bulked it up considerably and made lifting conditions ideal.  It has had a pretty disastrous effect on the sugar content, with the factory average at less than 16%.  Our own is about 15.6%, where we would normally expect much higher.  This has resulted in rounding down of adjusted tonnes and that will make it likely that we will not produce our contract tonnage.  I expect many will be in the same position after making decisions based on last year.

The ram is in and having had no grass we now have plenty.  We established stubble turnips as we looked short of feed.  They and the rape have established well.  Seedbeds look excellent having been sumo-ed and pressed.  Even after beet they have come down really well.  Potato harvest and drilling are just around the corner.  It really does amaze me just how quickly it all comes round.

Weather permitting all will be complete by November when I have a very full diary of meetings on your behalf.  I am looking forward to them as they have always produced so much.  The new team at Defra have cut their teeth.  We at last seem to have an opportunity to control bTB.  I realise from talking to members affected that with this opportunity comes great responsibility and even more difficult questions. We will do all we can to ensure whatever happens is effective.  I hope to welcome Caroline Spelman on to my own farm in November and we will be pushing forward with our 2020 Vision and much more besides of importance to tenants and the tenanted sector.

Harvesting the over wintered mustard

Apologies for being a bit lax on the blogging front.

I have been a bit lax of late in keeping up my blog.  Apologies.  A great deal has happened since my last entry.  Most important of which was that myself George and Stephen met the new team at Defra.  It was reassuring that they were all up to speed and we got straight on with business.  Let us hope they mean business with the difficult task ahead.  They need to make considerable savings in their budget, and Jim Paice has the difficult tasks of the RPA and BTb.  They have all seen our 2020 vision document, and were receptive to our particular issue of how legislation seems to ignore the tenant and the restrictions of a tenancy agreement.

Life continues to rush by on the farm, and still we have no rain.  It will be too late for most wheat and barley crops.  The speculators are in the market following wet in Canada and dry here, hence the recent price hike.  I have already sold 2/3 of my crop at below present levels.  More worrying is that all potatoes are contracted, and a reduced yield may mean we miss out on higher prices and struggle to fill contracts.  Only time will tell.

We have no grass so I have to decide what to do with the last lambs , creep is expensive so a mill mix of barley and protein seems the best option.  Lambs and cull ewes have sold well at market this year.  On this basis I am considering where we have the worst blackgrass of putting sheep back into the rotation.

The show season continues this week with the Great Yorkshire.  I will be sad not to be there, but Stephen will be pleased to see you.  It is his patch anyway.  I will be at the RAC for the Prince of Wales Farming and Food Summer School.  The programme looks stimulating but I shall be sad to miss the Great Yorkshire Show none the less.

Harvest is looming, though here it will arrive after the Game Fair where the TFA will present their Farm Business competition awards due to the demise of the Royal Show.  We shall desiccate rape next week, then in about 14 days all systems go!  Wishing you all a good harvest, let’s hope the rain we are due does not arrive until all is gathered in.

My experiences with Sheep EID

I thought it might be useful to record my experiences now that we have EID for sheep.  I have always tagged lambs at birth for various reasons.  I have always used small Ketchum curlocks with flock number and within flock ID on each tag.  You could count the lost tags on one hand.  Once done this allows me to identify all lambs, their dams and sires, and deliver to slaughter (under the old rules).  I do only have a small flock of 50 ewes. 

With the new EID rules, I researched the tags, took advice and bought button tags, EID and within flock ID for the other ear.  I decided on this route because I tag at birth and don’t know which females I will retain in the flock.  If I slaughtered all lambs, a slaughter EID tag is the simple option, but I don’t.  My button tags arrived half way through lambing so I had used some Ketchums already.  I used the new button tags immediately, at least the EID ones, as they were plenty big enough for small lambs.  I decided to add the matching flock ID tag at a later date on ewe lambs I retain.  This has to be done by 12 months of age.  The disappointing fact is that my lambs are ripping out their buttons (see photo) this leaves little ear to replace the tag.  This will not be a problem for slaughter as the EID tag can go in the other ear and be recognised as it is yellow.  For retained ewe lambs it does create a problem as EID should be left ear and within flock matching ID in the right.  Also to be strictly correct my slaughter animals could have EID slaughter only tags (just flock number), but they have within flock ID on their EID tags, and so in theory eventually require an individual record as so marked.

I could have waited the maximum allowed time (6 months) before applying tags, but this is not my policy as tagging and ringing is best done immediately post birth for welfare and management reasons.  I have concluded from my experience that I should have bought small loop type slaughter only tags for all male lambs.  I would apply these pre slaughter or before 6 months of age.  I would also use small loop EID with Ketchum curlock within flock ID for the other ear, for all ewe lambs, allowing records of dams and sires for breeding stock going forward.  I think I would apply the curlock non EID tag at birth, then applying the EID tag at slaughter or when the lamb enters the breeding flock (the time limit for this is 12 months).

I have 250 EID and matching flock ID buttons, which are okay for adult sheep, but not suitable in my opinion for lambs.  Not cheap, so I will use them but hindsight is a wonderful thing.  I will do better, and frankly it is a lot of hassle for me, so what it will be like in larger flocks I dread to think.  What does worry me with individual records is inspectors turning up and wanting to see a particular sheep!  The issues of cross compliance if you cannot produce said sheep don’t bear thinking about.

Spring has finally sprung

Spring has finally sprung (we hope).  Lambing has finished, ewes and lambs turned out – no grass but a bite is appearing (just).  My final TFA AGM has happened, and the fine weather has allowed sugar beet to be drilled, top dressing applied and wheat rolled and treated against bulb fly where necessary.  I had wondered while walking across ploughed heavy clay land pre Christmas how we might ever get a sugar beet seed bed! Mother Nature, the best cultivator of all has taken care of that.  We have had to leave one or two wet holes, but you only get one chance up here, and it is raining today (Saturday).

We have a good crop of lambs and very low mortality and a tight pattern has made lambing a joy this year.  Although I can’t compete with Kate Humble, the publicity of lambing live is great for agriculture.

William Worsley, CLA President addresses the TFA's AGM 2010

The TFA AGM went well.  Your Association is in good heart, financially and in the number of members.  I cannot stress how important it is to support the team at Head Office, particularly Hannah, with their efforts to recruit.  It does not take much.  It is amazing how many people seriously consider joining us after hearing members extolling the virtues of the TFA.  So please do your bit.

William Worsley (CLA President) was our guest speaker at the AGM, and I feel we have laid firm foundations to progress our aspirations for our 30th Anniversary.  We will be meeting much more frequently I hope with William and his team as things develop.  I thank him for his address and fielding of many questions at the AGM.

I met William again last week with Peter Kendall and Mark Webb at the Eastern CAAV Centenary Dinner at Ickworth House.  Mike Alexander kindly arranged my transport with his office to and from the event.  It was good to sit with three other Presidents of National Agricultural Organisations in an informal and relaxed setting.  It was an excellent meal and a thoroughly good evening.  Thank you Eastern CAAV for your hospitality.  Good luck for the next 100 years.  We know how important our valuers are.

SPS forms have flopped onto the mat.  Many of you will have issues, no maps, incorrect data etc.  Please make use of the team at Head Office.  It is vital that you get the SP5 form right, so take advice.  We are meeting Jim Fitzpatrick and Tony Cooper next week so all the latest news from the RPA will be available.  I will reserve comment till after the meeting.

I hope all your spring work goes to plan and look forward to working for you and seeing you at the shows in this my last year as your Chairman.

LAMMA has been and gone

Chatting to a member at LAMMA.

It’s the end of January already!  The LAMMA show is over.  The TFA were in a new venue (hall 8), the show is now 20% bigger and with good weather, many people spent the time outside studying the shiny paintwork.  We did have a good show, but numbers on the stand were down.  Nevertheless, it was good to see those of you who called in.  We did also recruit several new members.  Trying to have a look round proved difficult, mainly because every few metres I met someone I knew.  I certainly didn’t get all the way round the event.  The atmosphere was good, much as I remember how agricultural shows used to be and the best ones still are.

DEFRA and the Government are still topping up the black hole in the treasury by any means.  Monday saw the draft bill for Cost and Responsibility Sharing in animal health published.  This proposes a tax on farming of £4.80 per dairy cow across to 4p per chicken.  There is also the proposed Community Infrastructure Levy that proposes a tax on the development of land (including agricultural) supposedly as a proportion of the uplift in value.  There will be no uplift for an agricultural building, just another tax.  Both will generate absolutely no benefit to agriculture and will just be a net cost.  The TFA will be lobbying hard to mitigate this, but there is no gas in the treasury tank and should there be a change of Government, I can see little change of policy because change equals cost and even with the will, there is no money.

On the farm, we have opened the potato store.  Loads are going daily to Kettle Chips via QV at pretty close to budget price.  All wheat contracts bar spring seed are complete.  We have one field left to plough.  The ewes will come in at the end of the week and are due to lamb at the end of February.  I have spent time this week finding lost land drains that are now all running as everywhere is at field capacity and then some!

Let’s hope we have a good spring as I have spring cropping on some difficult land, but mainly because we could all do with the best start in what looks like an uncertain year.  Who knows how weather, currency, politics and all the other variables will treat us.