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.
Western Morning News – 27.08.14 – Farm Business Tenancies
With Michaelmas fast approaching, negotiations between landlords and tenants are likely to be well underway in respect to new rents to apply from autumn this year. The default provisions for both the old style Agricultural Holdings Act tenancies and Farm Business Tenancies is for rent reviews to take place on a three year cycle subject…
Read MoreFarmers Guardian – 22.08.14 – Waste materials confusion
An increasingly common problem in the final stages of selling farms is confusion surrounding pollution and waste materials on the property. These problems not only delay sales but can in some cases incur disproportionate costs at the last moment to rectify, and sometimes the loss of the sale. As with the good management of any…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 13.08.14 – Cut in budget and changes in rules moves goalposts on farm grant schemes
Defra’s budget for the New Environmental Land Management Scheme (NELMS) for the next six years will be less than a third of the agri-environment scheme budget for the current period and payment rates under the new scheme, which is set to be launched in 2015, are likely to be significantly lower than those under the…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 30.07.14 – Take special care on farm with health and safety
There will by now be few farmers unaware of their duties in respect to the health and safety of their farm workers. There have been all too many cases in recent years of farm workers being killed or seriously injured and their employer subsequently being prosecuted for health and safety breaches. Only last week a…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 16.07.14 – Tougher cattle movement restrictions could hit SOAs
TB has continued to be at the top of the agricultural agenda for some time and various proposals to eradicate it have come and gone with varying levels of success and public support. Included in some of the latest DEFRA consultations are proposals to stop the free movement of cattle from Sole Occupancy Authority (SOA) holdings…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 09.07.14 – Hedgerows count under new cross compliance rules
We are now seeing, as promised, more information filtering through about the 2015 Cross Compliance regulations and the RPA have been running briefing groups throughout the country to try and put the message across and answer many of the queries agents and farmers have about the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS). So what does it all…
Read MoreNews Release – 01.07.14 – BPS briefing – the latest
We are now seeing, as promised, more information filtering through about the 2015 Cross Compliance regulations and the RPA have been running briefing groups throughout the country to try and put the message across and answer many of the queries agents and farmers have about the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS). So what does it all…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 18.06.14 – Defra decision to reject ‘no plough’ rule may have come too late for some farmers in West
There has been much talk over the past year regarding the new Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and the increased bureaucratic ‘burden’ in relation to permanent pasture. Under European Legislation, and incorporated into the ‘roots’ of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), there is a requirement in England to maintain a set area of permanent pasture. The…
Read MoreTCS – 12.06.14 – Ashley Taylor appointed Partner at Townsend Chartered Surveyors
Ashley Taylor BSc (Hons). MRICS. FAAV. ACIArb has been appointed Partner of Townsend Chartered Surveyors. He is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a Fellow of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Since joining the company in 2010, he has had great success…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 04.06.14 – Entitlement trading for 2015 makes a strong start
Entitlement trade for the 2015 Scheme Year has already begun, with interest in Non-SDA emerging at a very early stage this season. The ink on the 2014 RLE1s is barely dry and we are already dipping our wicks to prepare them now for 2015. The first transfers have been agreed at £140 per unit plus…
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