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
