News
Hugh Townsend has for 25 years been the country's "go-to" commentator on farm quotas and rural surveying issues affecting farmers. Having become the country's leading and most innovative quota agent he was broadcast to 3.8 million listeners on Radio 4's PM programme interviewed by Eddie Mayer on the 1st April 2015 – the Dawning of Europe without Milk Quotas, click here. More recently BBC1 interviewed Hugh Townsend on the future of farming following the Referendum, click here.
Hugh Townsend has over the years developed the most creative arrangements to promote an efficient market in farm quotas, in the early eighties developing leasing milk quota without land before the Milk Marketing Board introduced leasing for a part of the milk year.
He represented clients in leading legal cases defending transfers of milk quota and developed the new system of second TQ1 forms protecting the transfer of quotas with land.
In 1991, with Farmers Weekly he produced the first sale price index countrywide and started to publish farm quota sales and leasing graphs which are still published by Farmers Weekly and other publications and can be seen on our Milk Quota & Entitlements pages.
On BBC television he has defended dairy farmers who have been taken advantage of by unscrupulous inpiduals in the farm quota market and was again on television to comment on the "footballers buy milk quota" rumpus.
He regularly writes for Farmers Guardian and the South West's Western Morning News and our experienced team is sought after for their comments on farm quotas.
06.01.15 – CAP NEWS UPDATE
Active Farmer Test The latest CAP update confirms that all farmers in England with at least 36 hectares of eligible land will qualify as an active farmer. We were already aware that farmers who received more than €5,000 (£3,886.50) in 2014 and who operate a ‘negative list’ activity which includes airports, railway services, waterworks, real…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 14.01.15 – Young and New Farmers under BPS
Slowly but surely farmers are being invited to register on the new online rural payments service and for those farmers with a computer and email address the procedure should be reasonably straightforward, however many have experienced complications. The service is currently very limited, so those who have managed to register can, at the moment, do…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 31.12.14 – CAP reforms in detail
The latest CAP update confirms that all farmers in England with at least 36 hectares of eligible land will qualify as an active farmer. We were already aware that farmers who received more than €5,000 (£3,886.50) in 2014 and who operate a ‘negative list’ activity which includes airports, railway services, waterworks, real estate services or…
Read MoreFarmers Guardian – 24.12.14 – Land prices upswing looks set to continue
After the manic rush as always leading up to Christmas, spurred on by Black Friday and Cyber Monday, thoughts traditionally now turn to looking back over the year and forward to 2015. Setting ones thoughts in the framework of agriculture which dramatically improved from 2008 onwards following a 16 year recession, and we are looking…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 03.12.14 – Good news and bad as stewardship rules are changed
At last we now have some more detail in respect to the new Countryside Stewardship Scheme which is due to replace Environmental Stewardship, the English Woodland Grant Scheme (EWGS) and capital grants from the Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) programme from next year. The October CAP update brought some good news for Environmental Stewardship (ELS, HLS…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 19.11.14 – Converting farm buildings to homes
Now eight months on following the implementation of the April 2014 amendments to the Town & County Planning (General Permitted Development) Order (GPDO), there have been a number of appeals in relation to Class MB, which considers the conversion of agricultural buildings to dwellinghouses as permitted development. Here we look at some recent appeal cases,…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 05.11.14 – The Active Farmer Test – Confirmed
Finally the news many have been waiting in anticipation for has arrived, details of who will qualify as an ‘active farmer’ under the Basic Payment Scheme from 2015. Overall it appears that smaller farmers and smallholders, farming about 20 hectares and below (down to five hectares) will, in the main, be eligible. The first part…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 22.10.14 – Sporting opportunities near Exeter
Some rare opportunities for sport on the edge of Exeter have come to the market with a beat on the lower River Exe which has some of the best salmon fishing in the region and some land adjoining the river with excellent wildfowl shooting. The 233 yards of single bank salmon and trout fishing on…
Read More21.10.14 – ENTITLEMENTS – END OF TRADING SUMMARY
ENTITLEMENT TRADING – 2015 FIRST WINDOW – MARKET SUMMARY – TRADING FORWARD BEFORE JANUARY 2015 This Tuesday saw the end of the first entitlement transfer window for the 2015 Scheme Year. The preceding period was a somewhat uncertain and frantic scramble for vendors looking to offload their surplus entitlements prior to the 21st October,…
Read More15.10.14 – ENTITLEMENT TRADING – 7 day countdown to close of first trading window
With only seven days to go until the end of the 2014 SPS entitlement transfer window, the market is furiously busy with last minute purchasers coming to the market. We are now seeing an influx of purchasers looking for large blocks of Non-SDA entitlements at the current market rates between £125 and £140 per…
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