Agrifacts March 2024

Agrifacts | March 2024

Your monthly roundup of news, prices and other farming matters

| Grain Market Report

The grain markets have been fairly flat recently to say the least, and the weather has certainly been putting a dampener on things. The monthly USDA report has recently been released, which had no big surprises to shock the market into life. Brazils equivalent to the USDA report has lowered both soybean production from 155mmt to 146.9mmt and corn from 124mmt to 112.8mmt, due to the hot, dry conditions they have had, is there a story developing here?

I’m not sure that any of us are surprised by the fact that French Spring Barley planting is currently only at 28%, at this time last year it was at 96%, could this have any impact on the market going forward?

So with the market off the bottom again – probably to the tune of £7.00 on old crop futures, does this mean that we’ve seen the bottom? I sincerely hope that we have, but though I’d love to be wrong, I’m not sure that it’s the start of a £50 rally either.

If you look at other stories in an attempt to create some balance, there are certainly some negatives kicking around too…….

• A third cancellation of US wheat by China – cancellations have now reached 504,000 tonnes.

• Russian wheat is getting cheaper – estimated to be as low as August 2020, private estimates suggest that this has traded under $200 FOB basis

• Demand is still sparse. The much anticipated Egyptian tender, which followed the Algerian tender was called off – the Egyptians thought it was too expensive and are betting on it coming lower.

• UK wise - the pound is still strong, a little over 85 pence against the euro. This makes old crop hard to export and imported wheat/corn cheaper to bring in.

• German Milling Wheat now competes into the UK and at least two mills are now suggesting this as a preference to UK

• Malting Barley buyers have completely disappeared leaving those holding quality barley nervously trying to discover markets.

For me – if we’re lucky enough to see this little rise in the base values continue, I think we should see it as an opportunity to keep trading. Old crop in particular.

The two upcoming reports that could move the dial further could be and what bulls could point to are -

• The AHDB Early Bird Report, which they’re going to have another stab at shortly. Essentially we’re looking to see how bad is bad.

• The US quarterly stock report and prospective plantings report which will be released on 28 March. This can, and has changed the narrative previously

For us to move significantly higher – we’re going to need something more fundamental.

A quick note on rapeseed which has had a couple of strong days recently – climbing from £325/t back over £350/t again in – the last little jump being helped by the CONAB report. In the past we’ve seen in move through this marker before losing ground back to £325 again. The recent USDA numbers don’t suggest a problem – but rapeseed can be like a firework as we’ve seen in the past. I’ve learnt through bitter experience though that you can also get burnt by this market also. If you a long holder of rapeseed, keep a very close eye on it!

On good days, let’s keep quietly going!

Alice Kilham, Openfield

Source: Farmers Weekly

| Capital Grants

Through a Countryside Stewardship Capital Grant, farmers can apply for a contribution towards various capital items on their land.

Some of the most popular items include

• Sheep Netting - £7.47/m

• Fencing - £6.34/m

• Hedgerow Planting - £22.97/m

• Hedgerow Laying - £13.52

With approval from your local Catchment Sensitive Farming Officer, you can apply for capital items that will reduce environmental risks, such as

• Concrete Yard Renewal - £33.64/m

• Livestock and machinery hardcore tracks - £44.63/m

| Farm Equipment and Technology Fund

The Farm Equipment and Technology Fund is now open for applications. Until 17 April 2024, farmers can apply for funding towards the purchase of new farm equipment to improve animal health and welfare, manage slurry and improve productivity:

FETF 2024 is competitive but if successful, you will receive:

• A minimum of £1,000 and a maximum of £50,000 towards productivity items such as direct drills, robotic silage pushers and variable rate controllers for seed drills, sprayers and fertiliser spreaders.

• A minimum of £1,000 and a maximum of £50,000 towards slurry items such as mobile slurry separators, equipment for real time inline nutrient analysis of slurry and robotic slurry pushers/collectors.

• A minimum of £1,000 and a maximum of £25,000 towards animal health and welfare items such as livestock handling equipment, thermal image cameras and cattle crushes.

The funding will contribute to between 50% and 60% of the cost of the item.

Your application will be scored based on the productivity benefit, the environmental benefit, and the level of adoption by the industry.

| Sustainable Farming Incentive – Hedgerow Options

This month we would like to shine a light on the availability of SFI funding for hedgerow monitoring and management.

There are three actions available under SFI for hedgerows:

HRW1

HRW1 aims to understand the condition of your hedgerows and effectively plan how they can be managed to improve their condition. This requires you to:

• Assess condition of all hedgerows entered into this action within the first 12 months of your agreement.

• Produce a written hedgerow condition assessment record for these hedgerows within the first 12 months of your agreement.

• Review hedgerow condition and record in each subsequent year of your SFI agreement.

HRW2

HRW2 aims to manage hedgerows so there’s a range of different heights and widths providing habitat for wildlife and food for birds and insects. If hedgerows are newly planted, or not fully established, you must lightly trim them incrementally. For fully established hedgerows, you must either:

• Cut each hedgerow incrementally in each year of your 3-year SFI agreement during the autumn and winter months;

• On a rotation, cut each hedgerow no more than once every 3 years, cutting no more than one third of hedges each year;

• On a rotation, cut each hedgerow no more than every 2 years, cutting no more than half the hedges each year; or,

• Manage them in a coppicing or laying rotation, which may mean they’re left uncut for the duration of your 3-year SFI agreement.

HRW3

HRW3 aims to maintain or establish hedgerow trees to help provide habitat for wildlife and carbon storage benefits. This is available where there’s an average of at least one hedgerow tree per 100m over the total length of hedgerows entered into this action. This requires you to:

• Prevent damage to existing hedgerow trees and prevent cutting unless there is a clear need for health and safety reasons.

Do any of these actions already present themselves in your general farm management routine? Do you feel one or more of them could be implemented on your farm or estate?

Here’s what these actions could earn:

HRW1: £5/100m for one side of an eligible hedgerow per year

HRW2: £13/100m for one side of an eligible hedgerow per year

HRW3: £10/100m for both sides of an eligible hedgerow per year

We are getting a lot of interest in SFI options to replace high risk break crops and spring crops. If you would like to know more about compliance requirements or find out just how easy it could be to secure this funding, please get in touch with a member of the team.

| Countryside Stewardship claim

The Countryside stewardship revenue claim window is now open. Claim window closes on 15 May.