News

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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,…

  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…

OCTOBER ENTITLEMENT TRADING UPDATE – HOSTING & LEASING – PRE 21ST ENTITLEMENT TRANSFERS – HOW WILL CAPIS WORK? – 2015 DUAL USE UPDATE – AUTUMN RPA INSPECTIONS – MILK QUOTA – ACTIVE FARMER TEST     ENTITLEMENT TRADING UPDATE – NON-SDA     As we move closer to the 21st October transfer deadline, now only 11…