South East Farmer June 2023

The Vineyard & Winery Show is an unmissable event for anyone working in viticulture in the UK and abroad.

The Vineyard & Winery Show will provide vineyard owners, winemakers and growers with a fantastic opportuni to keep up to date with the latest technology, meet with suppliers & allied trades that are supporting the industry as well as having the chance to network with key players in the UK wine marketplace.

FREE TO ALL ATTENDEES

You will be able to meet with industry experts, learn about new technology and view demonstrations of the latest machinery. Come and taste some of the UK’s best wines – up to 100 di erent UK producers are making their wines available for tasting on the day.

FREE SEMINARS & WORKSHOPS

Giving you the chance to learn from industry leaders and hear about how they built their businesses. Expert speakers will cover viticulture, winemaking and marketing topics.

www.southeastfarmer.net

SOUTH EAST FARMER

Kelsey Media, The Granary, Downs Court

Yalding Hill, Yalding, Maidstone, Kent, ME18 6AL 01959 541444

EDITORIAL

Editor: Malcolm Triggs

Email: sef.ed@kelsey.co.uk

Photography:

Martin Apps, Countrywide Photographic

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MANAGEMENT

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Claire Aspinall

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DISTRIBUTION

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EC1A 9PT

Tel: 020 7429 4000 www.seymour.co.uk

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Tel: +353 23 886 3850

Kelsey Media 2023 © all rights reserved. Kelsey Media is a trading name of Kelsey Publishing Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden except with permission in writing from the publishers. Note to contributors: articles submitted for consideration by the editor must be the original work of the author and not previously published. Where photographs are included, which are not the property of the contributor, permission to reproduce them must have been obtained from the owner of the copyright. The editor cannot guarantee a personal response to all letters and emails received. The views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor or the Publisher. Kelsey Publishing Ltd accepts no liability for products and services offered by third parties.

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Cover picture: Agricare

©Martin Apps, Countrywide Photographic

FEATURES

27 AGRICARE

When it comes to supporting farming customers with innovative ideas, smart solutions and quality equipment, Agricare has set high standards in recent years, particularly amongst the nation’s fruit growers.

36 NEWS FROM THE VINEYARD

We joined Pleasant Land Distillery to celebrate one year of trading for this young but thriving business.

ULEZ PROTEST

Farmers have joined the protest against Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s plans to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) outwards in a move that could hit contractors, college students and equestrian enthusiasts hard.

Tractors and other farm vehicles were part of a protest at Orpington War Memorial that attracted support from a crowd estimated by organiser Ronnie Townsend to be around 500 strong.

The mayor’s plans, although currently facing a judicial review following a High Court decision in April, would see drivers of vehicles failing to meet strict emission standards entering the much-larger new ULEZ zone being charged £12.50 a day for the privilege.

While Transport for London has calculated that 90% of vehicles on the roads meet the required standards, campaigners point out that those who don’t are likely to be the less well-off, including students driving older cars because of the lower insurance costs.

The new rules, due to be introduced at the end of August unless the judicial review being brought by Surrey County Council and the London Boroughs of Hillingdon, Bexley, Bromley and Harrow changes the plans, will also affect farmers driving older or non-compliant tractors and other machinery.

David Gunn, a contractor based in Chelsfield on the proposed new ULEZ border, often drives two different farm vehicles through the zone so could end up paying the charge two or even three times a day.

“I might be baling in the morning and then go out with a sprayer in the afternoon,” he explained. "I will have to try to pass those costs on, so this charge will hit everyone, including people driving compliant cars. Farmers also take part in charity runs driving vintage tractors – this is going to hit those events hard, too.

“We organised the protest to make people aware of what is around the corner as it seems like a lot of people still don’t know what’s about to be introduced. Contractors like me are going to be charged to go to work, possibly several times a day.”

Organiser Ronnie, a horse owner, lives in Cudham and gets hay and straw delivered from outside the ULEZ in Kent. “Everything will go up as we will suddenly find ourselves inside the zone,” she pointed out. “Farmers and horse owners tend to drive old Land Rovers and pickups and will be badly affected, but many of them don’t seem to have heard about the plans.

“My car is a year too old to meet the emissions standards so I will be charged to go to work, but I am also very alarmed about the impact on young people. I work at Hadlow College and we have students coming in from Bromley and Bexley in older cars that won’t meet the regulations. They really won’t be able to stump up an extra £12.50 a day, particularly in this financial climate.

“It’s not as though we have the options that the mayor and his pals have in London. Our nearest tube station is Greenwich and the bus service is extremely limited, so we can’t just switch to public transport.”

Ronnie Townsend

David Gunn (left) with other protestors

“BROKEN” PORK SUPPLY CHAIN

The National Pig Association (NPA) has welcomed DEFRA’s commitment to take action to repair what has been widely described as a “broken” pork supply chain and acknowledged that its responses “address most of the key asks NPA put forward in October 2022”.

DEFRA’s consultation on contractual practices, which closed in October, received what the NPA described as a “hugely impressive” 374 responses from across the pig sector, most from independent producers, giving the department a clear mandate to pursue meaningful reforms.

NPA Chair Rob Mutimer said: “We are very pleased that DEFRA has taken on board the very clear messages from the NPA and the wider industry about what needs to be done to fix our broken supply chain.

“For too long, producers have been treated poorly and contracts have not been worth the paper they were written on – and we have seen some disastrous consequences of that behaviour over the past two years.

“We believe the measures set out today, including legal underpinning for contracts that delivers a fair, transparent and negotiable contract system, will help deliver a fairer and more sustainable environment for pig producers.”

DEFRA has also committed to developing and collecting more supply chain data, which the NPA believes will support the industry in understanding the market and forecasting.

NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson said: “We are pleased with the pace DEFRA has worked at to get to this point and are keen that this policy remains a priority. They have also committed to working with industry on the next phase of policy development and NPA are happy to be fully engaged.

“But the bottom line is that, while legislative changes can set the framework for reform between the producer and whoever they have their contract with, real change must also come from within the supply chain.

“We have lost almost one-fifth of our pig breeding capacity as a result of two years of crisis. Pig prices might be rising, but pig producers are still hurting badly, with huge financial holes to fill, and confidence remains low.”

How to be a sneaky wolf OPINION

I have vague memories of a playground game involving one child pretending to be a wolf creeping up on the rest of us as we stood with our faces to the wall. The idea was to turn quickly and catch the ‘wolf’ while he or she was moving. A sneaky wolf who was always stationary when you turned around would creep closer and closer until the end game. Turn too late at that stage and you were ‘it’.

Presumably Mayor of London Sadiq Khan never played said game as a child or, at least, has forgotten the fundamentals of how to be a sneaky wolf. If he knew how to play the game he would have extended his Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) by smaller increments, moving out steadily from London’s clearly polluted centre and into equally busy urban areas.

Instead the rapacious wolf, perhaps hungry for the charge income from non-compliant vehicles, has moved his thoroughly sensible anti-pollution campaign from the snarled-up centre of one of the world’s larger cities into the leafy suburbs of London Boroughs that are still essentially parts of Kent and Surrey. It’s akin to a nine year-old in our playground game screaming like a banshee while running towards his back-turned friends.

And yet, bizarrely, while local councils have noticed, and some are seeking a judicial review of the Mayor’s actions, many of the public seem not to have spotted the wolfish threat to their already stretched incomes.

The expansion of the ULEZ to places like Romford, Sidcup, Orpington and Kingston upon Thames will mean a £12.50 daily charge being levied on drivers of non-compliant vehicles, something which is likely to hit students and the less well-off, as well as equestrian and farming types driving old faithful Landys and the like.

It won’t just affect the drivers, of course, as those within the zone who buy materials such as hay and straw from farmers who deliver it in a non-compliant vehicle will no doubt find the price increasing to offset the additional cost of doing business.

It’s another burden in areas that, while officially London Boroughs, are to a large extent still rural and certainly aren’t the smog-filled pollution traps that ULEZ was designed to tackle. No-one can object to the Mayor doing his bit to improve air quality, but he would be well advised to do it in a more targeted way.

Farmers, of course, are fighting back. The peaceful protest at the Orpington War Memorial by a group of campaigning farmers is perhaps unlikely to stop the wolf in his tracks, but it might at least make him pause for thought and highlight the issue to a wider audience.

MALCOLM TRIGGS - EDITOR

EMAIL YOUR VIEWS, LETTERS OR OPINIONS TO: sef.ed@kelsey.co.uk or write to the address on page 3

®

HORTICULTURE INDUSTRY IS “ON ITS KNEES”

A Government admission that DEFRA has dropped plans to produce a horticulture strategy has come in for a raft of criticism.

With many commentators noting that the industry is “on its knees” as a result of rising cost pressures and a shortage of labour, the announcement by DEFRA Minister of State Mark Spencer that it had dropped a pledge made in the Government’s food strategy was not well received.

His response to a Parliamentary Question has closed the door on what campaigning organisation Sustain had hoped would “provide a blueprint for supporting the production and consumption of British grown fruit, vegetables and salad”.

It also came in from strong criticism from a local grower and former South East Farmer columnist. Nick Ottewell, production and commercial director at West Malling, Kent, growers Laurence J. Betts Ltd, said the industry desperately needed a food strategy that “shows some vision and gives clear direction for growers and consumers”, but said that “instead it keeps changing with the wind”.

Nick went on: “UK horticulture is very dynamic and resilient. Lots of people enjoy fresh produce that is home grown and world leading in quality and safety on a daily basis. But it’s not enough for people to enjoy it. We

need a strategy to support it.

“Everything is getting harder year on year for UK growers. Labour, or lack of it, is our biggest threat. Cost of inputs, extreme weather, red tape and lack of plant protection products are all factors that have got considerably harder rather than easier to manage over the past few years, but I can’t help feeling that all of this would be surmountable if we had a government that would recognise the benefit of food security and food quality for a nation and get behind us a bit.

“I don’t feel that we are getting this recognition at all, though. We are dynamic and resilient; we just need the right political environment and we will deliver for the British public. Government has shown absolutely no vision at all with regard to sustainable living and healthy living.”

Vicki Hird, head of farming at Sustain, “an alliance of organisations and communities working together for a better system of food, farming and fishing”, described the u-turn as “an appalling backwards step given the huge need for coherent and cross-departmental action on production and consumption of sustainable fruit and vegetables.”

She added: “The gains would be enormous, for public health, for the environment and nature, with more diverse and sustainably

grown produce, for good jobs and enterprise in new businesses.

“We urge Defra to rethink and develop a comprehensive strategy for this vital, and struggling, sector covering key areas including supply chain fairness, agroecological production support, training and skills, worker issues and energy costs, the development of better routes to market and a marketing and healthy eating policy."

Joining the condemnation was the Soil Association, where head of food policy Rob Percival said: “U-turning on the commitment to fix our broken food system with a horticulture strategy is a betrayal of both British growers and shoppers.

“Our shoppers are facing empty shelves, while our farmers and growers are struggling with fuel and electricity costs, labour shortages and dangerously low profits, and many are considering throwing in the towel.

“Droughts overseas and a delayed growing season in the UK threaten major food shortages. If we don’t act, things could get worse.

“These problems are solvable; we want to see UK fruit and veg production doubled to support British growers and healthy diets. To do that we need policy that joins the dots between these issues, which the Government is refusing to do.”

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The Earl De La Warr DL has been announced as the new President of the South of England Agricultural Society.

Lord De La Warr, a livestock farmer and businessman from Withyham in East Sussex, is a well-known figure in the agricultural world and has a deep-seated passion for the industry and the rural community.

Lord De La Warr’s grandfather, the 9th Earl De La Warr, turned Buckhurst Farm into a show farm with a pedigree Jersey herd, Wessex Saddleback pigs, sheep and arable land. He has continued the farming tradition with a beef herd and recently started the Traditional Sussex Cattle Club to promote the breed.

Under his stewardship, the Buckhurst Estate now has facilities including a doctor's surgery, affordable homes, office space, an awardwinning butcher's shop and a successful village pub in Hartfield.

As this year’s president, Lord De La Warr has selected Plumpton College Charitable Foundation as the Society’s charity of the year and will seek to raise awareness of its work through its network of members and supporters. The charity will also be able to fundraise at events including the South of England Show in June.

"I am delighted and honoured to be appointed as the President of the South of England Agricultural Society in 2023," said Lord De La Warr.

NEW PRESIDENT

"I have been an enthusiastic supporter of the South of England Show for over 40 years. I hope to do everything I can to support the aims and efforts of the society and to continue the legacy of my grandfather, who was twice President.”

NEW FREE AGRICULTURE SHOW

A new, free-to-attend farming and machinery show promises to “celebrate and support farming, innovation and enterprise” across the South of England.

The Southern Counties Farming & Machinery Show will take place at the Newbury Showground on 15 November 2023.

Created by Kelsey Media, the publisher of the UK’s top agriculture brands, South East Farmer, Agricultural Trader, Profi, Farm Machinery, Vineyard and Crop Production Magazine, the show will be an unmissable event for farmers and everyone involved in farming and farmingrelated activities across the region and beyond.

“We’re very excited to launch the Southern Counties Farming & Machinery Show,” said

show publisher Steve Kendall. “After the incredible success of our sister show, the West Country Farming & Machinery Show, earlier this year, we knew we wanted to bring the same knowledge and authority of our brands with our marketing reach and expertise to put together this new event for the southern counties.

“We’re looking forward to celebrating and supporting farming, innovation and enterprise and bringing all aspects of the farming industry together at the Newbury Showground in November.”

The Southern Counties Farming & Machinery Show will showcase agricultural companies large and small under one roof. It will offer a free, one-day opportunity to sample

and keep up to date with all things farming and farm-related, new products and services and the latest farm machinery from the region’s top manufacturers and dealers.

There will also be a number of seminars throughout the day on topics relevant to farmers and farming today, plus a live farm machinery auction.

In addition to the show’s core farming and machinery content, there will also be a focus on construction and outdoor power equipment.

For more information on exhibiting or attending contact Rhiane Easton on 07501 228882 or email Rhiane.Easton@kelsey.co.uk

Earl De La Warr

2023’s Weald of Kent Ploughing Match will take place on Saturday 16 September at Reed Court Farm, Chainhurst, Kent, by kind permission of Fridays Ltd.

While ploughing is the main focus of the day, a range of activities will keep visitors entertained, including trade stands, a farmers’ market, main arena entertainment and displays, a gymkhana, dog agility competitions and clay pigeon shooting.

The annual ploughing match has a long history of fundraising, having initially been started after World War II to raise funds for The Red Cross. The 2022 event raised a total of

WEALD OF KENT PLOUGHING MATCH DATE ANNOUNCED

£9,400, which was shared between 15 different charities, including young farmers’ clubs, the Riding for the Disabled Association, RABI, Pukka Ponies Equine Rescue, Cancer Research UK and the Farming Community Network. Weald of Kent Ploughing Match Association chairman Guy Eckley described the match as “an important date in the farming and rural

calendar”, adding: “In addition to providing a great day out, we are delighted to raise funds to support the work of our local, rural charities. We look forward to welcoming everyone to our fantastic location in Chainhurst later this year.”

Bookings for trade stands and the farmers' market can be made by emailing the secretary Liz Miles secretaryWKPMA@gmail.com

ROYAL RECOGNITION

A Kent performing arts college with its own school farm was presented with a special award by an equally special visitor at the end of April.

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh visited Brockhill Park Performing Arts College to present the secondary school with LEAF Education’s highest accolade, the Gold Demonstration School award.

The award, presented by the charity LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming), recognises the school’s commitment to using food production, farming and the environment as part of a broad and balanced curriculum.

It makes Brockhill, described as a “beacon of excellence”, LEAF Education’s first ever Gold Demonstration School and follows the success of its GO (Great Outdoors) curriculum for students at Key Stage 3 (11 to 14).

Based around the school farm, the GO curriculum has now been extended to local primary schools and special schools, providing opportunities for pupils in the wider community to learn more about food and farming.

As well as giving students first-hand experience of the farm-to-fork journey, the school has encouraged its student council to work with LEAF Education and the charity’s

independent catering team on an ambitious project to raise awareness of sustainably sourced, local produce.

HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh spoke to students while touring the school’s farm and learned about their desire to help create a sustainable food system that meets the nation’s current and future needs. She also saw the pride the students have in their livestock and the produce sold in the college’s farm shop.

Charles Joseph, college principal, said: “It is vital that children learn about sustainability and food security. They will then be able to make informed choices that will impact upon food, farming, and the environment. Becoming a Gold Demonstration School inspires us to keep extending our provision and sharing our school farm and gardens with not

only our students and community but beyond to a national and even international scale.”

Carl Edwards, LEAF director, education and public engagement, added: “We are incredibly proud to announce Brockhill Park Performing Arts College as our first Gold Demonstration school, focusing specifically on food production and farming education.

“Our work with thousands of school children each year shows that providing young people with opportunities to learn about how their food is produced and where it comes from has many positive impacts.

“Farming is relevant to every aspect of the curriculum. We want to celebrate schools that are leading the way in embedding farming into their teaching and support them in developing a whole school ethos.”

https://leaf.eco/education/for-teachers/leaf-education-demonstration-schools

A CRITICAL TIME FOR SURVIVAL

Dear Sir,

A new study shows a 60% decline in the population of European farmland birds in the past 40 years. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that synthetic pesticides and fertilisers are the primary cause in the decline of 170 common bird species. Although it is often thought that species decline is multi-factorial, the study indicates that industrial agriculture has a higher impact than climate change.

Organic Farmers & Growers believes it is a critical time for the survival of the UK’s rural ecology. Agricultural intensification and continued reliance on harmful pesticides and fertilisers has been devastating for bird populations.

To address this massive decline within the wider context of biodiversity loss, OF&G advocates a joined up and transformative approach in our farming systems that effectively supports and enhances the natural world. Organic is scientifically proven to deliver benefits by prohibiting the use of synthetic agrochemicals and on average, organic farms host 34% more biodiversity than non-organic farms.

In a DEFRA-funded ‘test-and-trial’, the Cholderton Estate showed its organically managed land has at least five times the indicative biodiversity asset value on each hectare compared to the neighbouring non-organic estate, including 137 wild bird species being identified. Organic provides a clear and verified solution to delivering against environmental ambitions alongside food production. As such, the contribution of UK organic farming must be explicitly recognised within agricultural policy and Government’s Land Use Framework.

Roger Kerr,Chief Executive, Organic Farmers & Growers

twitter WATER MANAGEMENT GRANT

The second round of the Water Management Grant, designed to improve productivity, water sustainability and the environment, is now live. To find out more and to apply: https://hlhltd.co.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2023/05/FTF-Water-Management-Grant-Round-2-.pdf Hutchinsons @Hutchinsons_Ag

twitter CROP MYSTERY

Winter barley looks promising, Borage rather less so. I have to say that after five years no-till winter crops seem to grow and yield well. Getting spring crops to grow without tillage remains a mystery on my soils. Question is: do I do tillage for spring crops or give up with them?

Michael Scantlebury @Farmer_Michael

twitter COLLECTING SILAGE

Another peaceful day collecting silage in our new forage wagon #fgsagri #silage #foragewagon

FGS Agri Ltd @FGSAgri

Declan Hughes picked his first hops at Tanyard Farm, Hawkhurst, Kent, in 1975 and within a few years was running a 20 to 30-strong picking crew from a variety of countries. He went on to spend the best part of 11 years in and around Bedgebury,

DODGING BOMBS IN KENTISH HOP GARDENS

including one year on a sheep and hop farm in nearby Goudhurst. Now living back in Ireland, where he founded the Irish Veterans military history charity, Declan recalls: “Pretty much all that I subsequently did in life was in some way rooted in my time on Tanyard”. Here is the first of an occasional series by him…

THE LAST KNOWN SURVIVOR OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN

Pub quiz question on British History: When did the last survivor of Churchill’s “Few” pass away?

Students of history – and many others, I hope – will be able to quote his famous words verbatim: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Stirring words which inspired a generation and which still echo through the decades. The Battle of Britain was mainly fought, and won, in the skies over the South and South East of England and over the hop gardens of Kent.

Ted, my old farmworker colleague, used to very occasionally reminisce

about hop picking during the Battle of Britain. He was, however, a master of understatement, and his most revealing comment was to the effect that “…it was alright, but you had to remember not to look up or you might get somethin’ in the eye!”

July to October 1940 saw Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe fail to overcome the courage of several nationalities of RAF aircrew. As August melded into September that year, Kent hop gardens filled with families, many of whom were down from London on their annual ‘holidays’, stripping hop bines into bushel baskets and being paid ‘by the piece’.

Among the Allied aircrew, which included a smattering of South Africans, Canadians, Poles and others, was a fearsome collection of ‘Paddies’ who believed in the righteousness of the anti-Nazi cause and who put their beliefs to the test by joining the fight as front-line combatants in the Royal Air Force.

There was Pilot Officer (later Wing Commander) Brendan Eamonn Fergus ‘Paddy’ Finucane DSO, DFC and two Bars, who was lost in the English Channel returning from a mission, body never recovered. He was three months shy of his 22nd birthday. ‘Paddy’ Finucane flew a Spitfire with a shamrock emblazoned on the fuselage, and at the height of his fame and notoriety model Spits, complete with shamrock, were on every kid’s wartime wish list!

Group Captain Francis Victor Beamish (1903–1942) was an RAF fighter pilot and World War Two ‘ace’. After flying during the Battle of Britain he continued to lead fighter operations until he was killed in action in March, 1942. Victor had been station commander at RAF North Weald and was leading the Kenley Wing when he was killed. He was awarded the DSO (plus bar), DFC and AFC.

Remarkably, his three brothers also flew with the RAF, and each of them went on to lead long and worthwhile lives (though none qualified as one of the Few by taking part in the Battle of Britain).

They were Air Marshal Sir George Beamish (1905–1967), Group Captain Charles Beamish (1908–1984) and Air Vice Marshal Cecil Beamish (1915–1999. All four brothers hailed from the small West Cork town of Dunmanway.

It is believed that 10 Irish pilots flew in the Battle of Britain, and with a life expectancy of just four weeks it’s surprising that those ‘Few’ survived so long. However, in answer to the Pub Quiz question on when the last member of that exclusive club passed on, I’m afraid it was something of a trick question.

The last man standing, the last member of ‘The Few’ who outlived his expectancy of four weeks, was – and still is – John Allman Hemingway DFC, who was born on 17 July 1919, in Dublin – and yes, he was known as ‘Paddy’ Hemingway, and is still known as ‘Paddy’ Hemingway at just shy of his 104th birthday - and he still resides in his home town. Winston Churchill would, I feel sure, recognise and appreciate the supreme irony that the last survivor of his famous ‘Few’ is still alive at almost 104, and is an Irishman who once flew in anger over the hop gardens of Kent!

declan@irishveterans.org

This well-known photograph seems to be posed but purports to show hop pickers' children in Kent during the Battle of Britain, taking cover while action was joined overhead

Chris Litchfield

COMPETITION WINNER

South East Farmer helped ease agri-inflation pressures for two farmers when it gave them each a 205l barrel of Agrimax UTTO 10w-40 Tractor transmission oil.

The barrels of oil, signed by celebrity Guy Martin, were joint first prizes in a South East Farmer competition run in conjunction with Morris Lubricants, which donated the impressive prizes.

The competition was aimed at highlighting the launch of a series of videos featuring Guy Martin and giving end users and distributors in the farming and agricultural sectors an insight into how oil is made and the factors to consider when choosing a lubricant supplier.

Winner Chris Litchfield, of RJ Litchfield & Son, Dunsfields Farm, Burton

Upon Trent, commented: “Thank you to Morris Lubricants and the competition organisers… I never win anything! We have used Morris specialist oils in our mixed breed of vehicles over many years so we know how good they are.

“We were delighted to be told we were to receive a full barrel of Morris oil, one that I trust to use across several tractor manufacturers. My tractors will be in good hands for a while now. Just wish Morris made oils to work on my joints to keep me moving as well as my tractors!”

I’ve tried explaining ‘weaning’ to number four, but she’s not listening. Her hearing is selective, not defective. She can hear Shrek (ATV) at a distance. She certainly doesn’t need to go to Specsavers; she sprints towards you at speeds that would rival Usain Bolt when she sees you. If you’re in a vehicle she blocks your way until you open the door, then quick as a flash she’s inside, up on the seat and demanding her feed.

She’s a great fan of the ‘food on the go’ concept. By the time I arrive at my destination, where her mates are patiently awaiting their feed, she’s downed her bottle; her constitution is unrivalled. Such a determined character. If there existed a competition for the fastest bottle-drinking lamb, my money would be on her as a winner.

In an ideal world a ewe will produce offspring, rear them and live happily ever after. I’d describe this as easycare. In reality some ewes fall short of this description, so if fostering isn't possible I’d rather rear a lamb than see it die. However, mixing up milk, feeding, cleaning equipment etc. is time consuming, plus milk powder is expensive. Luckily this phase doesn’t last long, and meanwhile visitors to the farm are megaenthusiastic about the delights of feeding cute lambs. Looks can be deceiving and supervision is always required as lambs are artful creatures who can resort to ingenious methods to get more than their fair share of milk.

We’ve a handful of ewe-lambs left to lamb, the grass is growing, the sun shining and ground conditions improving. I’m counting our blessings while trying not to think about the mountain of work that needs catching up on. A Red Tractor inspection, applying fly repellant, cattle to get out, fencing, silaging

MARKET PRICES HAVE BEEN UPLIFTING

and haymaking equipment to get ready, sheds to muck out, paperwork, office, house and garden all need attention. My two young sheep dogs are great company; they’ve been very tolerant but now need some serious time spent training on sheep. Empty ewe lambs are destined for this task.

I’ve felt disillusioned with the performance of last year’s lamb crop. The dry summer followed by the wet winter culminated in us having more hoggets left to sell this spring than planned. Thankfully, market prices have been uplifting for both sheep and cattle; let’s hope it stays that way. Farmers need this to offset the high input costs.

I always enjoy a trip to market, meeting up with others in our industry. I wouldn’t be surprised if the auctioneer has done some theatrical training. Last week a coach load of Belgium students arrived in market to watch proceedings in action; I hope they were well entertained.

It’s both enjoyable and satisfying turning cattle out to pasture after a winter in the shed keeping them fed, bedded down and watered. It’s a much pleasanter task checking them when they’re outside. We had better luck with calving this year, with no losses, although some calves had scours, the faecal sample showing rota and corona viruses.

We were extra vigilant about ensuring all newly born calves had their fill of colostrum. Any that developed a scour we kept hydrated

by tubing with rehydion solution. Some did lose their appetites for a couple of days, which was an anxious time for us. Thankfully most recovered quickly with no after-effects; it makes seeing the herd grazing on the Pevensey levels all the more satisfying.

The UK Farm to Fork summit hosted by Rishi Sunak raised the profile of farming when it hit the news. Personally, I’m sceptical that all the hype will translate into real meaningful help for grass-roots farmers. I get the impression the Government is concentrating on ‘growing the economy’ with emphasis on big business and trade deals.

Apparently, food and drink exports bring £24 billion to the British economy. On www.gov.uk the summit is described thus: “Discussions focused on bringing great British food to the world; building resilience and transparency; strengthening sustainability and productivity across the supply chain; and growing an innovative, skilled food and farming sector.”

A letter from Rishi Sunak to farmers reads: “If we are to stop a repeat of the shortages we saw earlier this year on our shelves, we need food security. So we have got to meet our target to continue producing 60% of the food we consume.” Farmers can be innovative and skilled, but regardless of this we need to make a profit to stay in business, a fact that appears to be incomprehensible to the powers that be.

Suckler herd on Pevensey levels

Are farmers an easy target? It’s said that most people spend four times as much on rent as they do on food, but what is being done to make rents cheaper? Food prices are a vote catcher.

It’s great that the Government is implementing a “review of planning barriers to farm diversification” because that will save a lot of stress for those trying to improve their income via other means. I personally feel sad that many farmers are forced down this route because they find their income from producing food isn’t sustainable, and yet supermarkets are able to pay large dividends to their shareholders. Is this a fair food chain?

The summit was lacking encouragement for those supplying their local domestic market. I’d much rather see the food we produce sold locally, so that quality and traceability are accounted for, with the added benefit of less environmental impact. The government’s lack of concern about the dwindling agricultural infrastructure, such as small abattoirs, has cost implications for those trying to market their produce locally.

Apparently there will be a mobile abattoir at Groundswell this year; it will be interesting to see it and get a comparison on costs. As for the Government’s promise of cutting red tape, I see no evidence; regulations are stifling our industry.

On a lighter note, I recently attended an evening birdsong academy walkshop at Herstmonceux Castle. It was great fun and informative and we heard/saw 26 species of birds, including a barn owl hunting. I’ve now downloaded the free Merlin bird ID app onto my mobile. Some new technology is worth embracing.

Looking forward to the show season.

This ewe has her lambs sorted

Triplet field, lambs learning to trough feed

Chilling in the woods

Sorting hoggets, Mollie is keen to help

No peace with four to look after

A site appraisal in a small area of woodland on a farm outside Staplehurst revealed a considerable amount of standing oak timber amongst the hornbeam coppice, a discovery which came as a welcome surprise to both South East Forestry’s Jon Davies and the landowner.

Jon, who owns South East Forestry with business partner Dave Holmes, had been expecting to find relatively low value hornbeam coppice within the eight-acre site.

“As I walked through the wood, I found

PREMIUM PRICE PAID FOR TIMBER

it actually contained a large amount of overcrowded mature oak trees, which made it much more valuable to us,” he said.

“That was particularly good news for the

landowner as it meant we could offer the business a much larger sum for the timber than we could had it just been low-grade coppice for firewood or for chipping.”

With an ability to assess the value of woodland honed over many years, Jon is able to pay a premium price for timber, particularly for sought-after species such as oak, ash, Douglas fir and sweet chestnut. Because South East Forestry has its own woodyard and sawmill at Hawkhurst, the company can store valuable timber until it can be put to the best possible use.

It means that landowners with neglected, unmanaged woodland that has not been worked for a number of years can call in South East Forestry to work and improve it, allowing the trees left behind to flourish, and be paid for the timber at the same time.

“Clearly what we pay depends on what the wood contains,” Jon explained, “but in many cases we can thin, coppice or selectively fell areas of timber, depending on what is required, and pay the landowner for the crop. The landowner at Staplehurst was pleasantly surprised when we were able to offer him far more than he was expecting.”

As part of that agreement, South East Forestry extracted the lower value timber and stacked it conveniently at the entrance to the wood, from where it can later be chipped and used in a solid fuel boiler, while the brash was tidied into habitat rows to support and encourage wildlife.

The result is a much more open, healthier area of amenity woodland, with the remaining oak trees now enjoying the light and space they need to flourish. As part of the arrangement, Jon and the team also installed a new gate at one end of the woodland to allow easier access to the site and to the neatly stacked future woodchip supply.

“Woodland needs to be thinned to keep it healthy, but it needs to be looked at carefully,” said Jon. “Too much competition

WANTED LARGE QUANTITIES OF ENGLISH OAK

for light leaves trees stunted, prevents the better trees from achieving their potential and means that other plant and animal life is crowded out by volunteer saplings and invasive species.

“South East Forestry has the experience and knowledge to leave the right trees standing while taking out the timber that is getting towards the end of its life but which has enough value to fund the work.

“It’s also important to remember, from an environmental perspective, that while trees capture carbon from the atmosphere, younger, more vigorous trees do that far more effectively than more mature ones.”

Where possible, South East Forestry uses better quality wood for furniture or building projects, keeping the carbon locked up for as long as possible. “We do our utmost to avoid sending timber for firewood or woodchip, not least because it is the least profitable option both for us and for the customer,” said Jon.

When the owner of woodland that needs improving approaches South East Forestry, Jon will walk the land, using his knowledge to spot potential uses for the timber it contains before producing a site appraisal and agreeing a price.

“With oak woodlands, that can be a useful sum,” Jon said, adding: “We then deal with the Forestry Commission, having built up a good professional relationship with the agency over the years, and organise any necessary felling licences.

“We are at the moment particularly keen to purchase oak, but we are always happy to talk to landowners about how best to maximise the value of their timber and regenerate their woodland, so please get in touch.”

Unmanaged woodland?

Overstood coppice falling over?

Timber growth stopped due to too much competition?

South East Forestry can provide financial returns from unmanaged and neglected woodland.

We are looking to purchase large volumes of woodland grown standing timber.

All hardwood and softwood species sought

Forestry:

HOOKED ON MOB GRAZING

Arriving at Pickham Farm, I meet farmer

Tim Jury at his home, Freshwinds, located at the top of the farm drive. Before heading out for a tour of the farm, we sit down for chat over a coffee in the kitchen, with a view out onto his herd of Sussex cows and calves.

Like many farmers in the UK, Tim is well into his sixties and has spent all his working life farming. His grandparents, Henry and Janet Jury, originally took on the farm tenancy at Pickham in 1926, he explained, and it wasn’t until 1977 that he and his brother Nick were able to buy it. Around the same time, they decided to get out of dairy and increased the

sheep flock and arable enterprises instead.

Tim preferred the sheep job and over the years built up a flock of 900 breeding ewes, renting additional grazing locally. They used every tool in the box and he can remember applying a bag of nitrogen a month (up to 50kg an acre between April to Oct) to keep seven ewes and their two lambs per acre.

Sheep farming was hard physical work, but he was able to make a decent living when everything went to plan, he said. Then in the early 2000s, with falling farm commodity prices, both Tim and his brother sought work outside the farm. After a few years a more permanent arrangement was found, with Nick

finding a full-time job and Tim carrying on farming.

During that time Tim ran a herd of 30 continental sucklers and Will, one of Tim and Anne’s sons, tried selling meat boxes from a butchery on the farm, a farm diversification that ultimately didn’t work out, he said. It was after this that Will went out to Australia on an exchange programme working on a cotton and beef farm in New South Wales (NSW). Ultimately Will settled there, having fallen in love with his boss’s daughter; they now have a young family and farm on the Liverpool plains in NSW.

In 2011 Anne hit upon the idea of setting up a separate camping and glamping business

This month Nigel Akehurst visits Pickham Farm, situated in the High Weald AONB in the village of Pett, near Hastings, East Sussex, to meet Farmer Tim Jury, a recent convert to mob grazing. He and his wife Anne also run a successful camping and glamping business on the farm.

on the farm as she wanted to find a way of retiring from her role as a community nurse. Freshwinds Camping was duly set up.

More recently Tim decided to scale back the livestock enterprise and tried letting some of his land for sheep grazing. “Everyone has different standards, but they weren’t very well looked after so the arrangement was ended,” he said.

After reading more about regenerative farming, he decided he wanted to try restoring the ecology of the farm. After discussing his options in a meeting with Christine Meadows from the High Weald AONB office in 2020, he decided that mob grazing cattle would be the best course of action.

Christine put him in touch with Kent-based mob grazier David Cornforth (featured in the July 2021 edition of South East Farmer) who became his mentor as part of the government-funded Pasture For Life (PFL) Pasture and Profit in Protected Landscapes scheme in 2022. Tim was hooked and the rest, as they say, is history.

Tim Jury

NIGEL AKEHURST VISITS: PICKHAM FARM

FARM TOUR

We headed out to see Tim’s cows and calves in the field next to the house. He explained how he divided up his fields with lanes of permanent electric fencing and installed lots of moveable poly pipe for his drag trough. He then sub-divides the lanes into paddocks with mobile electric fencing kit from Kiwitech.

He first started mob grazing his herd of 21 native breed cows and followers last spring. It’s early days, but he’s already noticed more diversity in his sward and even some of his old sheep-sick pasture (which he says still struggles) is beginning to recover a bit quicker.

At the time of visiting, everything looked very lush, with his mob of Sussex cows and calves happily grazing the long grass.

We stopped to take a few photos of Tim giving the matriarch of the herd a neck scratch and then he pointed to the previous day’s paddock that he had grazed too hard.

“In the beginning I read that the theory was you want the cattle to graze a third, trample a third and leave a third,” he said, though in practice and following his mentorship with David this is far from being rigid and can vary quite a bit depending on the weather conditions, time of year and whether he wants to open up the sward a little to allow different species to come through.

When you graze you put the plant under stress, he explained, which is why it’s important to rest the paddock for at least 60 days before grazing it again. This rest period is vital and what regenerative grazing is all about.

To prevent grazing re-growth, you need to move your cattle to a fresh paddock or cell at least every three to four days, advised Tim, although he recommends trying to move them daily or even thrice daily, which has been shown to get better results both in terms of grass productivity and soil health improvement.

He admitted a lot of his pasture is still very weed infested, with a lot of thistles, docks and nettles, but he hopes they will reduce under this system, as experienced by his mentor David Cornforth on his farm in Kent. By allowing the grass to compete with the weeds during the rest period they are less likely to take over and instead just become part of the diversity of the pasture, a good thing.

Another big advantage of mob grazing is reducing the winter housing requirement, said Tim. Typically cattle spend up to six months

in a shed from October to April, but he has managed to keep them out most of the winter, bringing them in last winter for about five weeks. This, he points out, has reduced the need to buy in as much straw and cut down on the amount of hay and silage he needs to make.

<< fellow mob grazier Sam Newington who farms nearby in Etchingham (we also featured Sam Newington in the July 2022 edition of South East Farmer).

CAMPING AND GLAMPING

He does bale graze round bales of hay in the field during the winter months, which he unrolls using a bale unroller designed by Martin Bradley and pulled behind his ATV, which he showed me in his farmyard.

Moving on, we walk down towards the camp site and pass one of the areas where he has planted trees. In 2018/19 he planted over 1,500 trees, creating new habitat and linking up existing hedgerows to create corridors for the farm’s thriving populations of wildlife, something both he and Anne are passionate about.

Tim also dug a pond in one of their wet fields and has recently started planting alleys of willow trees in his fields to provide shade for his mob grazing cattle, a tip he picked up from

We arrive at their secluded camp site at the bottom of the farm next to a small stream. The site had only just opened (they open from May to end of September), but bookings have been a little slow so far this year, said Tim.

They started the business, called Freshwinds camping, in 2011. It has evolved and grown over the years, but they are now seeing a lot more competition locally, said Tim. A good proportion of their bookings are now repeat customers, mainly families who love getting back to basics and who come every year, though they do list their site on a couple of booking sites, which helps bring in new customers.

With the Government currently looking into extending permitted development rights (PDR) for tent camping from 28 days to 60 days

for farmers and landowners, the number of pop-up camp sites could increase significantly, I suggest?

He worries the sector is on the verge of being overdone and advises farmers considering it to “do your market research” before investing time and money in a camping project.

In addition to the camp site (which offer 15 pitches) the couple also has four luxury yurts and a shepherd’s hut, all separately located with their own outdoor kitchen, hot shower and compost loo. These units appeal more to couples and small families who want a few more creature comforts, said Tim.

GOVERNMENT POLICY AND BUILDING A MORE SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEM

Heading back to the house I ask Tim what he thinks about the future of farming and government policy?

“A big part of the problem is we don’t pay the true cost of food,” replied Tim.

“In the 1950s we used to spend 50% of our income on food and now it’s less than 8%.”

He sees government policy as largely playing lip service and suggests that deep down they believe we can get food cheaper from abroad.

“We need to value food more and convince consumers to prioritise healthier options over cheaper, ultra-processed and highly profitable (for the retailer) foods. Regeneratively produced food is far more nutrient dense and many studies point to this being the answer to the nation’s health crises,” he said.

Tim sees the phasing out of BPS and transition to ELMS as a big opportunity to incentivise farmers to try more regenerative practices, and that doesn’t mean just cutting back on chemical inputs but phasing them out altogether.

On meat consumption Tim is in favour of eating less but better quality produce (native breeds, grass fed etc) but would also like to see more local produce available (both meat and vegetables) to consumers and support given to farmers to help them sell direct.

A BRIGHT FUTURE

Practicing regenerative farming has turned everything Tim thought he knew about farming on its head and given him a renewed lease of life, he said. After spending 45+ years as a conventional sheep, arable and beef farmer, he is now focused on restoring the biodiversity of the farm for future generations.

He also wants to help other farmers in the area make the transition to more regenerative practices. This year he has signed up to be a mentor for the PFL Pasture and Profit in Protected Landscapes scheme and is already helping two mentees.

With grants now available to help buy electric fencing and water kit and a growing community of farmers already doing it, Tim believes there’s never been a better time to give it a go. He recommends watching some YouTube videos to get a better understanding and joining PFL, which has lots of resources and gives access to a growing network of UK-based regenerative farmers.

ELVED PHILLIPS ARABLE NOTES

DIFFERENTIAL UNUSUAL AND SIGNIFICANT

Well, back in April, I said sell in May and go away. Well that certainly happened with a vengeance as world futures markets crashed back to levels last seen, in some cases, years before the Ukrainian war, so not just a correction, more a serious shake out.

It leaves the technical value of some crops well below the cost of production, so unsurprisingly no farmer is selling anything forward at that. Obviously with all of the potential weather issues between now and harvest, the growers’ attitude is “if I have to take that price, I will wait until it’s safely in the barn”.

The farmer long holders of old crop are equally pragmatic, with most planning to carry old crop to new. As I have highlighted over the past few months, in the case of wheat the new crop price has been at such a premium to the old that it’s been an easy

decision to make. That has narrowed now from up to £19 to £11, but is still both unusual and significant. It must still contain an element of weather premium, whether real or latent. It will be interesting to see if, when the old and new wheat prices meet, it’s because the old has risen rather than the new crop falling.

So, attention is now focused on the weather rather than politics, which in the Black Sea and Ukraine has become rather boring and repetitive. In making its first estimate for the 2023 harvest, the USDA began by finding extra stocks of wheat in all the big exporting countries. This was its usual trick of emerging when the battle was over to bayonet the wounded.

June and July are now the critical months for the UK and Europe, as this is when our crops are made, if we are to avoid the disaster of 2012, when not only yield but quality was

lost because of the lack of sunlight hours in that two month spell. We have certainly had enough rain in March, April and May to keep the crops developing. but ultraviolet light is now essential. Winter barley is late coming into ear. Everything can change but it does not look like an early harvest at this stage.

MATIF September wheat futures are back to September 2021 levels. The significant old crop stocks of wheat in Ukraine and Black Sea exporting countries will still be accessible via the corridor until the end of July and continue to weigh heavy on the market.

The opportunity to sell new crop wheat at £200 has gone for now. Apart from possibly spring malting barley, where premiums are £40 plus above feed, there is nothing else I would sell forward now. My advice in April was to sell; now you should sit tight and watch the weather, especially in Spain, Russia and Canada.

TAKING OVER THE HELM AT LEAF

David Webster has been named as the new chief executive of LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming), which promotes more sustainable farming and climate positive action and supports public engagement through initiatives such as LEAF Open Farm Sunday.

Joining leaf in September from the UK Grocery Division of Associated British Foods (ABF), where he is director of sustainability and external affairs, David will take over the helm from interim CEO and chair of the board of trustees Philip Wynn, who has been overseeing the organisation following the death of founder Caroline Drummond MBE, in May last year.

David previously worked with W. Jordans (Cereals) Ltd founders Bill and David Jordan to publicise the Jordans breakfast cereal brand and its longstanding commitment to wildlife friendly farming. He has a deep interest in farming and wildlife stemming from this work and, in particular, the formation of the Jordans Farm Partnership, through which he worked alongside longstanding farm suppliers to the Jordans business together with LEAF, the Wildlife Trusts and The Prince’s Countryside Fund.

He said he was “delighted to be joining the team at LEAF at a moment in time when there is such a clear and urgent need to accelerate positive environmental change at scale.”

PM Rishi Sunak fulfilled a leadership campaign promise last month and hosted a “farm-to-fork summit to address food insecurity in Britain” at 10 Downing Street. Can we hope that this meeting had some impact, apart from inflating the self-importance and flattering the egos of the 70 or so farming and food chain representatives who attended?

The title of the meeting worried me as it included the term “food insecurity”. The problem with using that phrase is that, in Whitehall at least, there is a long-held belief that Britain’s food insecurity actually increases if UK farmers grow a high proportion of the food our country needs.

However bonkers that sounds, significant portions of our civil service believe that if our supermarkets get too used to sourcing most of their produce from the UK, they won’t develop alternative supplies of apples, lamb, wheat, beef etc from abroad. Then, if there is a local difficulty with UK production due to an extreme weather event, the country might suffer from severe food shortages.

When the UK was still a member of the EU, civil servants convinced a series of DEFRA ministers of this weird logic and packed them off to Brussels to try to convince other member states that the EU should be less protectionist and more open to the idea of non-EU food imports and therefore spend less on the CAP.

As we know, fellow EU member states were far too sensible to listen and carried on spending about 40% of the EU’s budget on the CAP to ensure a high level of EU food self-sufficiency.

But, of course, Britain is no longer a member of the EU so the Conservatives now have a free hand to play fast and loose with UK food security, egged on enthusiastically by Whitehall.

So it was that Liz Truss quickly signed the UK up to two terrible trade deals with Australia and New Zealand after Brexit when she was Trade Secretary. These deals were so bad (they will let unlimited amounts of beef, lamb and dairy products into the UK tariff-free) that even DEFRA secretary George Eustice described them as “not very good” – albeit not until he’d been sacked from the cabinet.

The focus of the Downing Street meeting was to see what could be done to give farmers a better deal within the food supply chain (how many times have we heard that?) and put more focus on UK farmers’ interests when it comes to future trade deals. This includes insisting that imported food is produced to the same standards as are required in the UK. Let’s hope that some of these vague assurances work through into policy, but I have my doubts.

If I were Minette Batters I certainly wouldn’t attend any further Downing Street soirée that had “food insecurity” in the title, as the phrase can mean different things to different people.

Only when ministers commit to improving UK food “self-sufficiency” will we have a policy that has a clear, unambiguous meaning that can’t be backtracked on by smooth-talking Whitehall mandarins, ideologically committed to free trade.

STEPHEN CARR

Arable farmer

With oilseed rape planting decisions for this autumn yet to be made, some growers might decide to take a step away. This follows an uncertain winter period where flea beetle, pigeon damage and the effects of frost and winter kill have certainly had adverse effects on the crop in some regions.

With this in mind the oilseed rape market will possibly remain static or may even decline a little. I think we can safely assume it will not run away and must therefore remain in the circa 415,000ha bracket at best.

With challenging decisions to make on which variety to grow, here are some considered suggestions for making the best of any opportunity.

HYBRID VARIETIES

Hybrid varieties offer the best case for establishment and indeed the key traits for the growing season.

Aurelia will remain very popular and is currently the market leader, but I think that newcomer to the list Attica offers a little more across the board while also being a better option for the north.

Aviron, too, will remain a key variety, with its traits and its excellent vigour in both autumn and spring making it suitable for later drilling. The new candidate Academic will offer greater gross output and again better northern performance than Aviron, while delivering a gross output on par with Attica. All four varieties have TuYV resistance and pod shatter coupled with RLM7 phoma resistance. Aviron offers the best light leaf spot (LLS) resistance of the four.

Other hybrid variety options include Vegas from LSPB, newly added to the recommended list, which has the best disease resistance on offer with eight for LLS and nine for phoma. It does not have TuYV resistance or pod shatter, but does have RLMS phoma genetics and therefore offers a different option for crop management.

Pioneer have PT303 and PT312, both offering TuYV resistance and sclerotinia tolerance. PT312 possibly has the edge based on oils (47.6), which could have a significant benefit at time of sale. It also has strong scores for standing ability. Sclerotinia

Rape seedlings

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

tolerance has also shown a 15% advantage in yield in untreated trials.

DK Expose can offer the same traits as the four suggested Limagrain varieties, but without the advance in yield that both Attica and Academic are showing.

Clearfield® is a simple choice for me as Matrix CL is most definitely the standout performer currently and tops the ADHB listing for this category.

Clubroot is likely to be more widely spread again and I think LG Scorpion ticks all the boxes here, with excellent vigour and establishment, decent disease scores and TuYV resistance.

CONVENTIONAL VARIETIES

Conventional varieties will still be grown and remain in favour for the home-saved

seed market. Here my picks are Acacia, KWS Campus, in its tenth year and still remarkably consistent, and Annika for those who want the TuYV trait in a conventional variety (although I believe the trait is better served by the hybrid offer).

The above varieties tick all the boxes for the various market sectors. This should assist in keeping the decision making simple. Not having “all your eggs all in one basket” should be adhered to where possible and certainly hybrids, my preferred route to both establishment and traits, offer more than one management tool.

The biggest single consideration remains the conditions at time of planting. If soils are warm and, more importantly, there is sufficient moisture, then oilseed rape still provides a viable option in the rotation.

Peter Brundle, Hutchinsons seed manager for the south, based at Canterbury, believes that despite recent challenges oilseed rape still offers a viable option in the rotation.

INSPIRING CONFIDENCE

We chose LG Astronomer for its quality, good agronomics and disease resistance.

John, East Yorkshire

LG ASTRONOMER WINTER WHEAT

• Exceptional All Round Agronomic Security

• Excellent Disease Resistance

• Market Opportunities for Biscuit and Distilling

lgseeds.co.uk/lg-astronomer

SMART SOLUTIONS AND QUALITY EQUIPMENT

When it comes to supporting farming customers with innovative ideas, smart solutions and quality equipment, Agricare has set high standards in recent years, particularly amongst the nation’s fruit growers.

Now this dynamic business, based at Aylesham, just outside Canterbury in Kent, is planning to expand its offering to arable and livestock farmers across the South East with the aim of replicating its undoubted success with growers across a broader range of farmers and landowners.

To drive forward that ambition, Agricare has taken on three impressive new machinery brands, brought in a new member of the team to head up its work in the sector and announced plans to double the size of the parts, tools and fittings store at its easyto-reach headquarters on the Aylesham Industrial Estate.

In one sense the renewed focus on arable and livestock farmers sees Agricare’s business model come full circle, as the company was originally set up as a parts and consumables supplier to the general farming world, but

managing director Garth Worsley sees the shift in emphasis as going forward rather than back.

“Agricare has become known nationwide for the standard of service it offers fruit growers, not just in supplying the best equipment but in finding innovative ways of meeting challenges and tackling problems,” he explained.

“We have always prioritised talking to customers, finding out what they need and delivering the best possible service alongside quality products.

Simon Davies, Trade Counter Manager

Photos: Martin Apps, Countrywide

Our mission is to help as many fruit growers as possible get a good harvest. So that fruit damage can be prevented, no delivery problems occur, and that fruit growers can harvest successfully

Turn-key projects

Built in 24 countries

Hail protection systems

Rain protection systems

Frost protection systems

“We are now planning to take that same level of service to a broader customer base by expanding the range of products on offer so that it meets the needs of a wider range of livestock and arable farmers. We have always supplied those customers with the parts and consumables they need, but by partnering with Proforge, Hustler and Bateman we now have a bigger range of quality machinery to offer them.

“With Jack Ayling, our new sales adviser, meeting and chatting to farmers about how Agricare can help provide not just quality advice and parts but innovative new

machinery solutions too, we are confident that we can continue to grow our customer base.”

It’s a confidence that has been backed by action, with Garth estimating that the family business will be investing around £1m in Agricare’s growth plans over the next two to three years.

The business has deep roots in the farming community, with Garth, brother Ross, who is sales director at Agricare, and five other siblings growing up in a farming family and helping to care for sheep and cattle amongst other responsibilities.

In 1994 Garth spotted an opportunity to set

up a general agricultural supplies business and toured the country looking at similar enterprises before setting up Agricare the following year as an outlet for parts, oils, tools and consumables from their original Canterbury base.

The business grew rapidly and moved to a bigger outlet in nearby Dunkirk, and in 2007 the company began to focus on supplying the South East’s then-booming fruit industry. They added machinery under the Kirkland brand and in 2014 the two businesses split, with Agricare focusing on tools, parts and consumables.

In the meantime Agricare had developed its range of fruit and vineyard products to encompass planting and pruning equipment and is well-known as the only UK importer of the market-leading Electrocoup secateurs, which it also services and repairs on site.

Agricare also supplies Carmo trellising posts, a high-quality product with a 20-year guarantee which it imports from Portugal. Its close connections with the company – and its belief in the product – have seen it persuade Carmo to introduce new ranges of smaller posts that can be used for more general needs including stock fencing.

“Carmo is renowned for its longevity in vineyards and I’m convinced it will be a real winner for those with more general fencing needs,” commented Ross. “We are delighted that the company also sees its

potential and has come up with new product lines to support a broader customer base.”

Having won plaudits from growers not just in the South East but nationwide for the quality of its service, Agricare has added three new brands that will be of particular interest to a broader range of customers.

Proforge supplies cultivation equipment such as disc harrows, rollers and tine harrows, Hustler is a New Zealand brand of bale handling and feeding equipment and Bateman is known for the quality of livestock handling equipment including crushes, gates and the like.

The man in the know about the equipment now on offer – with more new ranges set to follow shortly – is Jack Ayling, who believes

Serge Saveljevs, Warehouse Manager

that the combination of reliable, quality equipment and Agricare’s experience in the industry will prove a winning combination.

“All the new ranges are well-built, durable pieces of equipment to which Agricare is proud to put its name. Not only that, but they are aimed at helping farmers improve their efficiency and reduce costs at what is a challenging time for many.”

As an example, Jack highlighted Hustler’s dual-purpose Hurricane bale feeder and bedder, which can feed and spread both round and square bales. The manufacturer claims “the patented 100% hydraulic-powered design is gentle on both feed and bedding straw reducing feed waste and jamming, maximizing bedding life [and] minimising dust and projectiles”.

Jack pointed out: “New Zealand is one step ahead of us here in the UK in having no subsidies available to farmers, and so they have had to rely on innovative and forward-thinking approaches to cut costs. The ‘two-in-one’ Hurricane is one example of how they are doing this, and it’s a machine that we are finding local farmers are interested in.”

The same company’s Unrolla is another example of a welldesigned, robust piece of machinery that is aimed at cutting costs and boosting efficiency. It is designed to feed out a wide variety of round bales, silage, hay or straw and features a patented selfloading system allied to the toughest chain/floor set up on the market.

Designed to feed out thousands of bales each year, Hustler’s trailed bale unrollers have covered driveshafts to eliminate wrapping and a stronger rear loading system design. “By spreading bales across the field, the Unrolla prevents poaching of the area around a traditional feeding pen and cuts waste significantly,” said Jack.

The Proforge range covers a variety of cultivation equipment, from low disturbance tillage kit aimed at those who are looking to reduce their carbon footprint to more conventional six metre discs. “They have one thing in common, though; they are well-built and durable,” commented Jack.

Bateman, meanwhile, supplies industry leading livestock handling equipment including hurdles, cattle crushes, sheep grips, water troughs and gates.

Designed to provide your livestock operation with the toughest, simplest and most versatile round bale feeding solution. Ultra compact

• Just 2-metre wide!

• Improved manoeuvrability, visibility and operator safety

More strength & reliability

• Toughest 24,000 lb roller chain system

• 15 ultra-resistant RHS feedbars

• 8-mm thick feedbar teeth

• 12-mm thick high-tensile sprockets

Simple to maintain

• Only 4 nipples to grease!

• Virtually unkillable sealed block bearings

And so easy to use!

• Integrated tines and patented Snaplox™ auto latching

• Easy to adapt for front loaders and telehandlers

PLANTING&GROWING

“The new ranges represent some of the best products available to farmers today, but my role is not just to sell equipment but to support and advise farmers as to the best option for their businesses,” said Jack. “Farmers are facing a range of challenges and we are here to help come up with solutions that will make them more able to meet those challenges.”

Agricare’s ambitious plans include doubling the size of the shop at the Aylesham site to around 4,000 square feet, allowing it to expand its range of tools, fittings, consumables, oils, PPE, wheelbarrows, signs, compressors, cleaning products, parts, hoses, maintenance products and the many other things that busy farmers need.

Domestic customers are also welcome at the shop, with many of the products suitable for larger gardens, smallholdings or allotments, while for those who can’t get there in person, Agricare’s relaunched website at www.agricareuk.com makes it easy to buy a vast range of products online.

Agricare now covers Kent, East and West

Sussex, Surrey and Essex, and the company’s expansion plans include looking at the possibility of opening new depots across the region. “It’s early days but we want to grow the business and stay close to the farmers we are here to support, and that is likely to include opening new branches," said Garth.

PRUNING&FRUITTOOLS

Sales director Ross stressed that while broadening the company’s horizons, the team was determined to maintain its leading position in the fruit and vineyard sectors, supplying and advising on planting and pruning systems and stocking everything from ground anchors to rabbit guards and tying-in machines.

The company is also supplying Fruit Security Holland cover systems for soft fruit such as cherries, including hail net protection and systems that can be retrofitted to existing orchard structures.

“The company is expanding its ambitions, but it has built its reputation on supporting fruit growers and vineyards and that is never going to change,” Ross stressed.

Ross Worsley, Sales Director Jack Ayling, Sales Adviser

Roy Clarke, Sales Development Manager

Garth Worsley, Managing Director

NICK ADAMES WEST SUSSEX

RELATIONSHIP WITH BANK NOT AS IT WAS

Like many farmers we have long banked with NatWest, but the relationship is not as it was! Back at the start of the year we began getting letters concerning what they called their “NatWest Business Profile” which, they told clients, had to be completed by early March.

I ‘pushed back’ a little at the whole project, as we considered they already knew everything about our business, since we had been with them since 1968, but they persisted, so eventually I wrote to their CEO.

My very polite email was responded to within 24 hours by Allison Rose’s PA, smoothing the way to a speedy settlement. I did point out that if, as always until recently, we had a local bank manager we could have sat down across his desk and settled the matter in five minutes. And have a better ‘relationship’ with them.

A friend living locally who runs her own business had mentioned that she had had similar problems with the bank so asked for my help. I gave her the CEO’s email address and suggested she contact the ‘boss’. She then ‘went to town’ with them! She kept me in the picture with progress and, by late spring, contacted me to say she had settled it, although it seemed with more problems and, seemingly, even more frustration than I had experienced. But eventually with a good deal.

It was all so unnecessary; one just hopes NatWest learns a lesson in ‘customer relations’ or they could well lose a lot of longstanding and good customers. The only ‘downer’ for me was when my friend told me she had received £750, plus a year’s free bank charges, as well as a substantial payment to her accountants to cover her costs. We were offered, and accepted, £250, but my wife was sent a very nice bouquet of flowers.

The lower land continued as waterlogged as I have ever seen it well into early May, making planting of our later maize nearly impossible. I wouldn’t, however, like that to be construed

as an attack on those bodies responsible for the ‘management’ of our inland waterways or sewage disposal, so it’s probably best I avoid the subject.

Suddenly the issue of electricity generation up in Scotland is taking off again. Some ten years ago we tried to generate interest in the idea of ‘planting’ solar photovoltaic (PV) panels along hidden and south facing parts of the land, only to be told there was no demand for those things so far north.

There were plenty of possible objections, too. Now we find that, with rapid advancement in PV technology and a general demand to make it work up there, it’s now becoming as well developed as it was down here in the south some dozen years ago.

The other option under discussion, wind turbines, simply threatened such heat from ‘nimbys’ and self-proclaimed experts at the time, back around 2012 to 2014, that I was advised it was a waste of time pursuing it.

Yet now both systems of electricity generation are becoming increasingly accepted up there, as demand for non-oil based power/heating is being pushed by governments in these islands, in Europe, and around the world.

On wildlife and the control of pest species, I take a quite different view from the ‘Chris Packhams’ of this world who spout their unchallenged opinions weekly through the increasingly woke BBC radio and television.

One wonders who these experts will be blaming when the English countryside is totally overrun, with vermin such as badgers, magpies, jays, crows and foxes all increasingly protected. When all the small bird species, tree and ground nesting, which brought so much

pleasure to so many countryfolk like me have been lost?

Go through your book on British birds and list how many of those once common species you no longer see? So many ground nesters like the skylark and peewit; garden favourites like finches, particularly green, chaffinch and bullfinch, yellowhammers and linnets; thrushes, the larger mistle thrush.

Even rookeries have been wiped out by marauding herring gulls. Little grebe, too? I doubt if these self-promoting experts really accept, for example, that their ‘dear badgers’ have, almost alone, wiped out the hedgehog population of large areas of southern England.

I have heard, indeed seen, a hedgehog being killed by a badger in my garden one night. By torchlight I saw it turned on its back, opened up and torn apart by a badger’s claws. Foxes could never do that to a ‘curled up’ hedgehog.

The result next morning was pathetic; just the little creature’s skin and needles remained. Both fox and badger alike need a culling programme, simply to control numbers. There were always hedgehogs around the farms and gardens, now one hardly ever sees the creatures. The countryman’s responsible use of shotguns kept all these pests well in hand, just by controlling such pests in their own localities. Just leave nature to those who live closest to it.

NICK ADAMES

Former dairy farmer

ASHDOWN INITIATIVE SHOWS POTENTIAL FOR LANDSCAPE RECOVERY

Some key messages for farmers have been highlighted by a CLM-run project in Ashdown Forest, as farm and environment consultant Harrison Anton explains The second application window for DEFRA's Landscape Recovery (LR) scheme opened recently.

A key part of the Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMS), this aims to help the environment by funding large-scale projects through bespoke, longterm agreements involving groups of farmers and others working together across thousands of acres.

It follows last autumn’s announcement of the 22 projects accepted in the first round, which collectively hope to restore nearly 700km of rivers and protect and enhance 263 species across over 40,000 hectares.

At CLM we’ve been involved in helping shape LR, having run one of DEFRA’s test-and-trials for the scheme in 2022 – an initiative working with landowners, tenant farmers, commoners, charities and public bodies around Ashdown Forest.

This beautiful East Sussex spot, which covers over 10 square miles, is one of the most wildlife-rich areas in the South East, with its lowland heathland and deciduous woodland habitats home to many rare and threatened species; it also attracts more than 1.5 million visitors every year.

Our brief was to advise DEFRA as to how it might shape the rules surrounding LR. We presented them with a draft agreement which we hoped would inform how they structure the bespoke agreements for individual projects.

The test-and-trial considered how to create new habitats and link others, so improving the connectivity and resilience of these areas and the wildlife in them to the threats posed by climate change. We also kept farming revenues, food production, tourism and the potential for species reintroduction in mind, as well as looking at establishing a conservation herd.

Our feedback will hopefully shape the agreements on offer in future. Obviously, the terms of these will vary greatly depending on the objectives, but we found some central themes.

First, the payments clearly needed to be sufficiently high (and flexible) to de-risk the process and make joining an LR scheme appealing to landowners. Key to this is the ability for participants to ‘stack’ payments, particularly from private investment. If the payments on offer are viable, there could be strong interest and it could potentially make up for – or indeed more than cover – the subsidy payments farmers have lost.

There also needs to be a degree of flexibility not currently seen in other agri-environment schemes. This means new members should be able to join a scheme and participants should be able to leave under certain circumstances (perhaps with differing levels of penalty depending on the ‘tier’ of the land within an agreement and the duration they have been in a scheme).

A key element for success, especially when there are various land

ownership structures plus different individuals and groups involved – as was the case in the Ashdown Forest trial – is that they share a clear sense of place.

This helps provide a ‘uniting factor’ and a clear set of initial parameters. An iconic location also links them to a common objective. With its history, clear conservation goals and as a destination for recreational activities, Ashdown certainly has a powerful sense of place and ‘story’.

In our test-and-trial we noticed a group mentality quickly developed, even though we had brought the participants together specifically for the purpose. There was a desire to work collectively and to do something which worked for them as individuals as well as for the wider landscape.

We’re optimistic about the potential LR schemes offer farmers and we’ll be watching with interest to see the rules around funding and how stacking can happen. It’s also vital the administration burden doesn’t become preclusive, which is a risk given the bespoke nature of projects and their long-term ambitions (perhaps 20-plus years).

Having a central body managing each LR project will also be important. This is likely to be a single legal entity which can drive the direction of the project while incorporating the views of the wider group. In Ashdown Forest, for example, the conservators, who manage it on behalf of the owners, the Ashdown Forest Trust, would be the logical body to do this.

According to James Adler, Ashdown Forest’s chief executive, the test-and-trial successfully brought together a range of individuals and groups; everyone from landowners and tenants to commoners, the RSPB, town councils and the Ministry of Defence.

“We talked together about the idea to work collectively on some really big ideas to deliver food production, conservation, climate resilience, carbon sequestration, water protection and alternative funding,” he said. “The ideas really started to flow and the trial created a great energy. Our neighbours and Ashdown Forest could achieve so much.

“We’re looking at how we can make LR work to turn around nature’s loss while supporting our farming community, and intend to apply during the second round of the scheme.

“We are proud to look after such an attractive, unique and treasured landscape and the ambition is to make it bigger, better and more joined up.”

James Adler

VIN E YAR D

MAKING SUSTAINABILITY

SUSTAINABLE

Courtesy of our sister publication Vineyard Magazine we joined Pleasant Land Distillery to celebrate one year of trading for this young but thriving business. This family run sustainable distillery is headed up by founder and CEO Sebastian Barnick.

Sebastian started his career as an officer in the Royal Navy and was medically discharged after six years. Those years have given him a passion for life and a spirit of adventure (he even tells a tale about pirates). Both of these qualities he would need in abundance when many years later he decided to launch Pleasant Land Distillery, based in Ashford, Kent.

After life in the Navy Sebastian applied for an apprenticeship with Liberty Wines. He gained the WSETDip and winemaking experience all over the world. Working at wineries in both Austria and South Africa gave Sebastian an incredible depth of insight into the wine industry and the vastly different wines that can be made but it was a chance encounter in South Africa that eventually led him to setting up Pleasant Land Distillery on a farm in the Kent countryside.

He met winery apprentice Johann Monig, who was also head distiller at Wilderer. After a day in the winery Sebastian and Johann would take the waste grape skins and would distil at night creating a whole new product in the evening. Although Sebastian remained in the wine trade, for a while a fire had been lit and the creativity of distilling was in his blood. After achieving his distilling qualifications, he decided to embrace a new challenge. Sebastian said: “Like most successful businesses, we started with a healthy injection of cash and confidence.” In the case of Pleasant Land Distillery, both of these came from Sebastian’s father Charles. It is quite heart warming to note how each member of this hardworking family gives credit to each other and how through team work they have managed to accomplish so much. The business originally started with Sebastian working long and lonely hours but has now grown to six members of staff.

On 16 April 2022 the first liquid began to flow at Pleasant Land Distillery. Sebastian was Sebastian Barnick

heavily influenced by those days in South Africa that made use of a waste product and that really shows because there is so little waste at this sustainable distillery. Solar energy provides the electricity and the stills are run using a biomass boiler, the heat produced in the distilling process is then captured and also put to use. “It is a closed loop system,” explained Sebastian. Waste management takes several interesting forms, such as black soldier fly larvae, which literally eat most forms of organic matter, vermicomposting, using worms to break down waste quickly and bokashi fermentation, a closed anaerobic system that creates liquid fertiliser from organic matter.

It has been an amazing first year for the young business, something that Sebastian pointed out during his speech at the celebration that marked the exact date of the production of the first liquid on site. At the gathering, which was held in a 15th century Kent Peg barn at Bank Farm, he extended his “thanks and gratitude for support over a critical first year in business.”

Acknowledging that the journey had not always been a smooth one, Sebastian was smiling as he said: “Thanks to the farmers who have sheltered us and grown our products and helped with our tractor skills, working together with trust and compassion”.

Cash flow is vital to any business and while “the plan was to create fruit spirits and whisky, inspired by the terroir of Kent, using 100% renewable energy,” it was vital that the business could sustain itself at the same time as promoting planet sustaining practices. “The best way for a distiller to do that is by distilling. Making the most of my network, expertise, outstanding equipment and small amount of distilling notoriety, we started making spirits for other people. This has gone from strength to strength and we have become a stationary Bouilleur du Cru with a growing reputation for distilling excellent brandies and marc from grapes, skins and ciders,” said Sebastian.

Speaking of the English and Welsh wine industry, Henry Sugden from Defined Wine said: “Our waste can create a new product, many vineyards can benefit by adding diversity to their product range and also boost their sustainable credentials simultaneously.” Henry also pointed to other uses for winery waste and the possibilities for red grape skins to be used in the pharmaceutical industry for the production of resveratrol.

With his international experience as a winemaker, Sebastian is uniquely placed to give vineyards the benefit of his creativity, offering a bespoke service from conception, recipe creation, production, bottling, and labelling right through to delivery. In effect he is literally in a position to bottle your ideas.

Sebastian explained some of the services he can offer to wineries:

• Distillation of grape skins

• Fermentation and distillation of Piquet

• New product development and production of gins/vodkas/vermouths/brandies and liqueurs

• Cask selection, filling and maturation

• Distillation of year 1/2 grape harvests

• Distillation of low pH/underripe grapes

• Distillation of rebeche and hard pressing

• Distillation of lees

• Creation of ratafias and marcs

• Contract bottling of spirits.

“If it has alcohol, we can make it,” Sebastian said. “This adds a branded wine-adjacent product created from things that would otherwise go to waste. This can be sold through existing sales channels, generating further revenue,” he added.

Of course vineyards produce grapes and the idea of turning a waste product into another delicious creation cannot be underestimated but “there are so many levels to creativity,” said Sebastian. “Between distillations of English Chardonnay, Pinot Noir grape skins, ciders, regeneratively farmed wheat and of course, Jersey Royals, we made time for some small batches of single vintage Eaux de Vie made from exceptional-quality local damsons, Victoria plums, apricots and Conference pears… we are looking forward to the next fruit season in the Garden of England.” This is a reminder that many vineyards often have other fruit trees on their land that could be put to a creative use by Sebastian and his team.

New exhibitors to a﬙end

With this year’s Vineyard & Winery Show just under six months away, Vineyard Magazine is pleased to announce a number of new brands that will be exhibiting for the first time.

Knight Frank, Rootwave, WBC and Pinks Group have all booked space to appear at the third instalment of what has quickly become the main event for the UK’s viticultural industry.

RootWave, the Warwickshire based electrical weed control (eWeeding) manufacturer, will be promoting its first electrical powered weeding machine at this year’s show.

In independent trials in orchards last year, the company’s patented highfrequency eWeeding system delivered full control of weeds, similar to results from trials in sugar beet and maize during the same summer (2022).

The RootWave machine treats weeds in the rows of vines using treatment electrodes on purpose-designed hydraulic arms, to work seamlessly between different row widths. The treatment uses electricity to create heat within the weed and roots, boiling them from the inside out.

Growers can reserve a machine now, with those first in the queue able to secure delivery in spring 2024.

In 2018 the company successfully launched a professional hand-held eWeeder RootWave Pro, and has sold over 150 units in the UK and Europe.

CEO Andrew Diprose said: “RootWave delivers better weed control in fewer treatments at a lower cost. It will become the indispensable tool for growers that want effective weed control without any environmental issues.

To book tickets simply go to:

“Our technology is certified organic and helps nature restore its soils, water and biodiversity.”

LOWER ENERGY USE

In the company’s own tests eWeeding provided full control of weeds at a lower total energy use than chemical herbicides.

Mr Diprose said: “RootWave delivers the most effective, economical, environmentally friendly and safe weed control on the market.

“It works so well because the plant and roots are killed by heat generated within the weed itself. And because it works so well, the number of applications you need in a season is comparable to that of herbicides and less than required for mechanical weeding. We are the only eWeeding provider using high-frequency electricity, which has significant advantages over standard 50Hz or DC wave forms.”

Specialising in the manufacture of vineyard maintenance equipment such as flail mowers, mulchers and ATV attachments such as toppers and spreaders, Voxx Machinery will occupy a large space near the entrance of the Maidstone building at this years Vineyard & Winery Show.

Founded in 2017 by Robert Burr, the company's specialised range of machines caters specifically for fruit and vineyard applications, with all manufacturing taking place in the UK. Robert said: "Our aim and passion is to manufacture our UK machines to not only be stronger and more durable than others but ensure they are built to be ergonomically pleasing, minimising areas such as water traps, areas debris can collect and reducing down time when it occurs. As well as this, having a common sense approach to positioning items such as grease points, service hatches and chains for hanging PTO shafts. We take pride in manufacturing our machines so you can enjoy using them as much as we enjoy making them”.

Drinks Packaging experts WBC were so keen to attend this year's Vineyard & Winery Show that their marketing manager Enzo Dell’armi contacted the Vineyard team the very day after last year's show to reserve a spot for 2023.

Holding in stock the UK’s largest collections of gift and hamper packaging, protective packaging, bar and wineware, retail supplies and furniture and printed bags for life, all of WBC's products are available in low volumes at wholesale prices.

Born the same year Nintendo released the Gameboy and Lisa Stansfield went all around the world (can you guess the year?) WBC were previously known as the Wine Box company and before that Liquid iD; they began their journey with the help of a £5,000 loan from the Prince’s Trust.

WBC founders bought a van, designed some wine packaging and started trading.

Today, three decades

later, WBC supplies more than 9,000 UK customers with more than wine boxes. This is a talented team of nearly 50 staff from 12 nationalities speaking a total of eight languages.

Land agents Knight Frank, fresh from appointing James Osbourn, previously of Squerryes Wine Estate, have taken a prominent position near the WineHub in the Maidstone Hall.

Assisting UK vineyard owners to find suitable land using their bespoke digital mapping tool, which reviews data on soil type, altitude, slope direction, and historic weather patterns along with title ownership, Knight Frank is well worth speaking to if you are looking for suitable viticultural land.

For the established vineyard and winery business, Knight Frank are specialist advisors in investment and sales, renewables and grant funding.

GRAHAM ELLIS FRICS FAAV FLAA For and on behalf of Stanfords

REMARKABLE SHEEP TRADE

With this report being written in mid-May, at least the weather was turning warmer. The trade in all sections of the market continued to be very strong, with cattle and sheep at high levels and probably

100% Farm Vets

at the highest levels seen at this time of year.

The beef trade is being very much supported by the shortage over the country, with numbers insufficient. More cattle could be sold to advantage, as has been repeatedly stated.

Best cattle are trading regularly over 300p/kg liveweight, a price that would have been unthought of 12 months ago. The price is needed, but with falling feed prices there now looks to be a realistic return for the cattle producers.

Store cattle as normal at this time of year are continuing to sell exceptionally well, farmers now turning out to grass which has at last been growing after the exceptionally wet and cold spring.

With the high prices and demand for processing meat, the cull cattle trade continues to be strong, again at record levels for the time of year.

In the sheep section, a remarkable trade has been seen, with prices at record levels for the time of year in all sections. New season lambs are coming through more slowly this year due to the weather mentioned already, but strong trade has been seen for those forward.

client visits are FREE - book

Quality hoggets throughout are selling at a premium but there is an issue with teeth erupting, which is one of the difficulties we have with marketing sheep at this time of year and, bluntly, it should not be the issue it is if common sense prevails.

The ewe trade is being supported very much by the various Muslim festivals and again prices are strong.

In the pig market, prices continue to be at record levels, and with the falling price of feed this is a hopeful sign that producers who have lost money for three years will slowly recover those losses. It may be too late for many, but those in the section need all the help they can get.

Arable crops are looking exceptionally well in the main, although with the wet weather of late April/early May, many of the root crops are delayed, as were spring crops such as borage. Hopefully with the weather forecast looking set fair as this report was being written, those crops will now be able to be drilled and benefit from the moisture in the ground.

Our teams of experienced, highly-qualified vets are focused on driving farm efficiency and animal health across the

South East

A drought last summer; horrendous rains last autumn; difficult freezing conditions during the winter; an unheard-of drought in February and now rain and more rain in April and May.

It is not right, and surely somebody must be summonsed to pay for the damage to hearts, minds and matter to all those compromised by the impossible? And, while we are at it, can we go back over the past 500 years and find someone to blame for so much!

Well of course it will not happen, and farmers will, and always will, carry on working much of 24/7, doing their best for themselves, their livestock, their crops, the environment and the consuming public.

But in this mad, and getting madder, world is it not time for the ‘putting up your plate’ mentality of so much of society to get something for nothing to change. Surely then all of us can work together to address all, or at least some, of the bigger questions that trouble the whole world and our small part of it?

Our leaders must stand up and discuss the difficult questions and the debate must be allowed to take place, however difficult and unpalatable the material may be to one side or the other.

Farmers the world over are providing food for consumers and a surplus that supports much of the Third World that cannot grow or pay for its own. In general they are doing it very well, and while there have been undeniable bumps in the road over the centuries as the negative impact of some developed technology becomes recognised, food production has risen, and has had to, to accommodate a world population that in my life has risen from three billion in 1960 to the staggering eight billion of today.

Farming is a success story and not one to be denigrated. The problem lies with the unsustainability of increasing production with this level of population.

Farmers are used to supply and demand in their world. Good conditions result in more production; more production without increased demand leads to falling prices. It’s not rocket science but basic economic principles that impact every year, irrespective of exceptional items such as invasions or pandemics.

WHOSE FAULT AND WHO IS TO PAY?

But supply and demand questions surround population. Nobody wants to talk about, let alone tackle, the subject of global migration, but it is the high supply of living standards, jobs, social support, safety and food in the developed world of Europe and North America that is matched by high demand from so much of the Third World that cannot support its population in matters as basic as food and safety.

Demand is heightened, not surprisingly, by a world that is on view continuously through the internet and is, clearly, getting smaller through the ease of communication.

So, how do we feed a population that has grown from three to eight billion in 60 years and is forecast to be close to 10 billion by 2040?

Land throughout the UK and across Europe is already coming out of production as large private and institutional owners not only make decisions based on support schemes for the future but also on the emotional wave of environmentalism.

There’s nothing wrong with environmentalism in the right place and at the right time, but how are we going to feed 10 billion people by the time tree planting and rewilding has gone too far to turn back? This

debate needs to happen, or we must return to a world population of five, four or three billion and I cannot see that this is a scenario that would appeal to many.

The bigger the problem the more important it is to talk about it. Is not the NHS' future another of similar magnitude?

Enough of the political arena. Returning to the supply and demand of Ashford Market, recent months have been good for vendors of cattle and sheep, with prices at record levels. Throughput has been high, with vendors from far and wide attracted by the numbers penned each week and attracting buyers from across the country.

Cattle of all ages are seeing prices driven up by the intensity of the finished cattle trade, where we regularly see prices over 300p/ kg and gross returns up over £2,000. High hogget prices remain, but with numbers and quality inevitably falling it will give a solid opening for the milk lamb season.

Supply will remain an issue in the livestock sector for some time to come, and though the weather continues to be an unsolvable problem, farmers will remain shoulder to the wheel, committed to a future feeding the nation and the world. Let them be praised for performing their part of the equation.

FOCUSING ON SEASONAL GOALS IN SHEEP HEALTH PLANNING

Health planning isn’t something that should be done in an annual flurry before a Farm Assurance inspection, writes Dr Ami Sawran of Westpoint Farm Vets. Health plans themselves should be living documents that evolve along with your aspirations and challenges and your farm’s current situation. Some of the greatest value your veterinary team can add to a farm in terms of productivity and animal health is via a review of your farm’s performance and tailored advice based on this.

Many sheep farmers are extremely selfsufficient and do not necessarily see their veterinary teams all that often, so having a vet attend outside an emergency can allow them to understand better the specific processes and challenges encountered at different times of the year.

It can be overwhelming to sit down to an annual review and discuss the different aspects you wish to improve or modify from a whole year’s worth of farming. Information overload can follow these annual meetings, which leads to a diminished ability to act on the feedback and stick to resolutions. This is why it may be more effective to have several, ‘light touch’ reviews with your vet at key points in the year. Suggested times of year might be around tupping to discuss ram fertility, pre-lambing to assess the metabolic health and nutritional status of ewes and, after lambing, to go over incidence of periparturient ewe disease and issues encountered over lambing and set targets for the coming year.

LET’S GET STARTED

Many farmers will be just about recovering from lambing at this time. Though it is a tiring and often stressful season, lambing statistics will be fresher in the mind than they

will mid-harvest or right before next year’s lambing, so it’s best to discuss them before priorities shift.

Any issues that you may have identified over the lambing period will be best tackled at key points in the coming year; to discuss them next year would make it too late to make a measurable positive impact.

For example, you may identify a high barren rate, which requires investigation of tups (in good enough time to replace any that may not be performing) and possibly blood testing of ewes to check for the presence of abortive disease.

Now is an excellent time to sit around the table with your vet to appraise any data you have managed to collate over tupping and lambing (such as lambing percentage, barren and abortion rates and measures of lambing success; mortality rates (ewes and lambs), birth weights and gains or colostrum quality, for example). Your vet should be able to guide you on which information is most useful to

develop targets from and demonstrate your progress with.

These ‘lighter touch’ check-ins may also play to the strengths and responsibilities of different members of the team. If you, for example, bring in seasonal staff or have stockpeople with specific roles then it would be helpful to have them attend the meeting and help develop future protocols with clear instructions for stockpersons or relief workers to follow, particularly if more than one person is responsible for tasks on the farm.

Consider the times of year that you would like to focus on; make sure you devise achievable goals and the timeframe in which you wish to achieve them. Having several reviews over the course of the year may even help you budget accordingly for any actions that involve investment, such as vaccination or equipment purchases.

If you are planning a review with your vet, it may also be helpful to introduce your vet to other consultants you use; many productive discussions can occur when a nutritionist, agronomist, vet and farm team are all in the same room.

Although your review will focus primarily on understanding what has gone before, it is also useful to create a short-term task list, considering potential upcoming challenges or risks. Often, industry funding is available to help you focus on specific issues, but funding may only be accessible at set times of the year, and your vet can help direct you to those that are most appropriate for your setup.

The other advantage to approaching your health planning in bite-size chunks is that once any required review for Farm Assurance rolls around, you will already have a readymade list of goals and data, making the process smooth and stress-free.

There is undoubtedly some untapped potential for flock improvement in all seasons, so don’t wait for inspection time to get in touch with your vets for more focused advice and give yourself as much time as possible to act on it – hopefully reaping the benefits of it in the year to come!

WRAPPING UP THE FINAL FIRST CUT SILAGE

If you talk to any farmer in the world, the first topic of conversation is likely to be the weather; I am baffled by how wrong the people that predict it can be. The weather dictates to us all 365 days a year. The weather enables businesses to make a profit or a loss, good silage or bad, dry straw or wet straw. the cost of feed is dictated to by the weather – in fact everything farming-related attributes to the weather.

Zara and I had a sneaky few days away at Badminton Horse Trials; it was amazing, but swimming in the mud was quite hard at times. Previously I could only imagine Glastonbury in the mud, but I can now relate the feeling to reality. Watching His Majesty The King’s Coronation on the big screen in the pouring rain while eating brunch is a memory that will last forever. We felt very patriotic.

As I sit down to write this, we are just wrapping up the final first cut silage. Fortunately, we have had a slight gap in the weather and the gods have been kind so far. So far so good. The yields have been good.

This year for the first time we have baled all our silage in square bales; time will tell if we made the right decision. It has certainly been a lot easier to move the bales. The arable side is now gearing up ready for harvest and the crops are looking good.

A new south-facing vineyard has been planted a few miles away, so fingers crossed that in a few years we will be able to sample the local vino. I would imagine that the average temperature this year will need to rise substantially. I wouldn’t class myself as a wine connoisseur, but I do know that grapes need warmth.

With so many events being cancelled all over

the country, I believe that in the South East we have fared quite well so far. Speaking to a friend in the West Country, it would appear they still have lakes in a lot of fields and haven’t been able to get a tractor out on them as yet.

A recent survey showed that farmer confidence is at an all-time low since the start of the pandemic. The escalating costs associated with production are contributing to farmers being negatively affected by input prices in things like fertiliser, feed and energy. The phasing out of Basic Payments is affecting business confidence and thus has a negative impact on farmers.

Possible political change and extreme weather are also contributors. Low confidence indicates that farmers don’t have or foresee the means to invest in their businesses, which in turn will lead to a shortage of food on the table.

The cost-of-living crisis worldwide has also had a huge impact. In affluent times the general public will seek out the products that are farm-assured and reared to a very high standard; in times like these they will purchase the required product with little thought as to any standards required or indeed where the product has come from. In supermarkets the ‘value products’ are usually the first to disappear from the shelves.

As an industry that is suffering from low confidence, approximately 38% of farmers are using or producing renewable energy but confidence in the future is deterring farmers from making any more investment. Grants are occasionally available to assist with these capital projects but the paperwork trail and the ability to provide the capital to pay for them is somewhat inhibiting.

Until next time stay safe and keep well.

ANITA HEAD Farmer

SMALL FLOCK OWNERS AND SHOWING SHEEP

Last month’s sheep topics generated the accusation (somewhat tongue in cheek, I hope) from a friend and fellow sheep breeder that it was a bit of a rant about novice sheep keepers and the shameful deficit of sheep knowledge and understanding demonstrated by some. Maybe it was a minor rant, but no apologies; I know none of us are perfect, but any action that results in a significant compromise of sheep welfare is simply wrong, whether that be deliberate, out of ignorance, poor husbandry or a genuine mistake. The latter is forgivable, the other three are not, regardless of flock size. Some may have interpreted it as being targeted at small flock keepers, which is not the case, even though many novice sheep breeders fall within this category. My view is simply that it is unacceptable for any sheep keeper, small or large, to keep any number of sheep without first acquiring some knowledge of what they are embarking on. “In at the deep end” is just not good enough. It is this sort of attitude - “how difficult can it be?”, “anybody can do it”, that has contributed to many of the issues surrounding sheep worrying by dogs – people keeping an animal without any meaningful concept of what they are doing; sadly many of them cognitively inferior to their charges.

I do wonder, though, just how many sheep keepers of any sized flock have actually read, or even seen, the Code of Recommendations for the Welfare of Livestock: Sheep, which quite clearly states in the preface: “Any person who keeps animals, or who causes or knowingly permits animals to be kept, shall not attend to them unless he has access to all relevant statutory welfare codes relating to the animals while he is attending to them, and is acquainted with the provisions of those codes.“ I’m aware that they are only recommendations and that there must be room for common sense, but they are recommendations drafted within a

framework of legislation; and, before anyone says that the Farm Animal Welfare Committee (FAWC) is just another bunch of “animal rights do gooders”, it is a body comprised of reputable representatives of both livestock farming and the veterinary profession.

In truth many smallholder sheep keepers are very thorough in both researching and acquiring, from other farmers, colleges, etc. some good basic knowledge and experience of what to expect of their sheep. Sadly many of the colleges, once a reliable source, have now ceased to provide, on an easy access basis such as evening classes or weekend courses, either general sheep keeping or specialist courses. It is certainly the case locally and it does a considerable disservice to the sheep industry.

While it is rather too easy to dismiss small flock owners as “hobby farmers”, it is smaller flocks that form the backbone of much pedigree breeding across the country, and I suspect that many agricultural show societies would have sunk into oblivion many years ago had it not been for the enthusiasm and support of small flock (and herd) owners.

Numerous surveys have shown that one of the major draws at agricultural shows is livestock. They are a major contributor to footfall that ensures both the viability of shows and the generation of income which, in turn, enables their charitable efforts in supporting young farmers and helping to promote British livestock.

Showing may be relatively expensive and time consuming, and sadly many of the benefits that once arose from having a shop window, in terms of sales opportunities, are, with relatively fewer farmers attending, either significantly diminished or nonexistent; current financial pressures certainly don’t help. So all credit to those enthusiasts, many small flock owners, that continue to support shows and, while they are at it, take the opportunity to interact with our customers and gain support for our domestic producers, an important remit at such a vital time.

I have shown my own sheep for 30-plus years simply because I enjoy it. The odd rosette or two is always a welcome bonus but not the main criteria. Socially it’s good to catch up with other exhibitors and I enjoy the

ALAN WEST Sheep farmer

SPRING HAS FINALLY SPRUNG

I, for one, am sick of the sight of wet weather and its associated problems, so it was a welcome relief to see a bit of prolonged sunshine in the forecast. The weather has been more akin to a typical spring in the northwest of the country, something I was promised wouldn’t be the case when I moved here five years ago.

Scouring suckler calves have been a problem this year, with the prolonged housing period and subsequent high environmental pathogen load the likely cause, with several producers suffering significant losses. The causes of scour are well established. An effective vaccine is available for three of the four main pathogens (Rotavirus, Coronavirus and E.coli) and this is something we will look to discuss as a practice with our farms this coming winter.

Springtime inevitably leads to a flurry of obstetric emergencies, and as a practice, alongside other IVC Evidensia farm animal practices, we are collating data on the outcomes of our bovine caesarean sections. This audit will be used to provide an evidence base for our clinical decision making when approaching these cases to maximise our chances of a successful outcome.

We may look to review the first batch of data before spring 2024 so that we can make evidence-based decisions when presented with a potential caesarean; there may even be scope for a South East Farmer article on the findings.

Finally, an interesting case in May involved a group of Friesian X Angus beef bulls that experienced poor performance and deteriorating vision progressing to complete blindness.

The animals were eight to 14 months of age and had been housed since birth. They were fed on ad-lib barley straw and a crushed barley, molasses and mineral home mix. Several animals had lost condition, had poor coats and had varying degrees of vision loss. On examination of the retina at the back of the eye, the optic nerve was enlarged and there was evidence of retinal scarring. These findings, together with the clinical

history, were suggestive of hypovitaminosis A (low vitamin A).

On further examination of the mineral mix, this had been changed to a different brand several weeks earlier and the group was halfway through the first pallet of the new minerals when problems developed. The new mix did not contain any vitamin A, which is essential when animals are fed diets consisting of grain and barley straw, which are typically low in vitamin A and can lead to rapid depletion of liver reserves and manifestation of clinical disease.

The group responded well to an injection of vitamin A but several of the worst affected remained blind several weeks later.

CHRISTOPHER

Clinical Director

BURNS

Cliffe Veterinary Group

T: 01273 473232

www.cliffefarm.co.uk

E: chris@cliffevets.co.uk

opportunities to interact with show visitors; if just a couple of people leave the show with a better and more positive understanding of our industry, that is a win to me, but primarily I enjoy putting forward good sheep to be shown and judged.

In truth I attend rather more shows now as a judge than I do as an exhibitor, having been a Lleyn Society judge for a number years; but life can be rather serendipitous. Several years ago I was invited to judge at the Mud Chute City Farm’s annual show. I gladly accepted, thinking it would be relatively straightforward, only to discover on the day that there were some 120 plus sheep forward in 16 classes, many representing rare and minority breeds and only one judge. Anyway, to cut a long

story short it turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable day and a steep learning curve. I must have done something right as it has led, subsequently, to quite a number of invitations to judge rare and minority breed classes at shows across the country. I enjoy judging as much as showing and have in recent years been fortunate to judge classes, ranging from Lleyn to rare breeds to wool on the hoof, at shows from Cornwall in the west to Norfolk in the east and Yorkshire in the north, providing opportunities to meet and enjoy the company of sheep breeders from all over the country, with the additional privilege of judging some very good sheep (and a few not quite so good). Plus, of course, judges are normally quite well looked after and fed, which is a nice bonus.

While judging it is interesting to listen to comments from the outside the show ring; sheep judging is a bit like sheep keeping, there are lots of people who seem to think that it is easy. Many seem to have the uncanny ability to accurately judge every sheep in every class from a good 10 metres away, even without the benefit of laying a hand on a single sheep. Inside the show ring, however, one has the satisfaction of knowing that the judge is always right on the day; not all exhibitors will agree, but generally, for those that know what they are doing, there will be an understanding as to why they occupy the position they do in the final line up. Criticism tends to come from the experts on the other side of the show ring fence.

STUDENTS EXPERIENCE LARGE SCALE PRODUCTION

Level 3 and higher education horticulture students visit Thanet Earth.

Hadlow College Level 3 and higher education horticulture students had an opportunity to visit the pepper glasshouse at Thanet Earth as part of their studies.

Thanet Earth is a large industrial agriculture and plant factory consortium on the Isle of Thanet, Kent. It is the largest greenhouse complex in the UK, covering 90 hectares (more than 220 acres). A large proportion of the peppers grown at Thanet Earth are now classed as ‘specialty peppers’.

Thanet Earth grows around 24 million peppers each year in a greenhouse space that would cover more than 12 football pitches. Thanet Earth glasshouses are heated and benefit from CO2 enrichment to encourage crops to grow.

The annual trip allows students to see a real-life commercial pepper grower, experience large scale production and network within the industry. Students saw at first hand aspects of the course that they have covered in the classroom, including crop production, disease and sustainability. Students were lucky enough also to visit

the packing facilities, where they were treated to an escorted tour of crops being prepared for supermarket sale.

Students were split into groups to enable them to visit the production area, the irrigation plant, packing facilities and the combined heat and power unit used to heat the greenhouse. Students were amazed by the size and facilities of the glasshouse.

The college is grateful for the support of Thanet Earth in welcoming students on these informative visits and demonstrating best practice.

Caroline Parr, foundation degree student, horticulture level 4, said: “The tour of the packing unit was incredibly informative. Learning about the technology required for rapid production and the robotic packing facility was really eye opening and impressive.”

She continued: “The innovative biocontrol systems for aphids and parasitic wasps were intriguing. The use of host crops to encourage parasitic wasps to lay their eggs and continue their life cycle was enlightening.”

FEEDING THE POPULATION WHILE BEING SUSTAINABLE

Sir Charles Godfray gave the keynote speech at this year’s City Food and Drink Lecture as he explored how we can address the biggest challenges of our time; feeding the population while being sustainable and promoting healthy options for all. The key themes were:

• Can we feed the world with the projected population?

• The health challenge

• The environmental challenge

• How resilient is the UK food system?

The Lord Mayor, the RT Hon Nicholas Lyons, began his introduction to the evening by stating that hardly a day has passed in which we’ve not heard news of rising costs coupled with climate change or conflict.

Sir Godfray, however, remained more hopeful. Citing his advancing years as giving him a more optimistic view, he referenced positive data suggesting a plateau in population levels, lessening the pressure on industry, but also referenced the food and drink sector’s, perhaps surprising, ability to manage multiple shockwaves.

He raised a chuckle when he described the need for ‘cakeism’, meeting global demand which is good for the economy, the ‘public goods’ being economic as well as environmental. He also spoke about how the national land use framework will hopefully be refocussing on research for yields, delivering sustainable intensification, better genetics, better breeding and also understanding about the best locations for yield sacrifice for biodiversity. This balance of regeneration and zoning of production was clarified into “we’ll need to increase food production by around 30 to 60% to feed everyone”.

Not all of his lecture was good news to the meat and livestock sector, however, when discussing the comparative advantages of productive land producing food vs serving things like biodiversity.

His view was that not all land should have a future associated with food, rather we need to look at what it can offer. Is there land that struggles to be economically viable

in producing crops, for yield sacrifice? From a climate perspective, if all other industries were removed from the equation, including transportation, without change, food and beverage production would still see us going over the +1.5°C limit. Sir Godfray agreed with the recommendations in the Dimbleby Report that we need to eat less meat and dairy; he said he wouldn’t want meat demonised but that a flexitarian approach would be sufficient.

The annual lecture, founded by the Fruiterers Livery in 2020, is always an occasion of dual benefit, quite the best networking opportunity and also the chance to hear from the leading brains analysing the international context in which we trade.

The added treat at the end is the fabulously pithy response from the Princess Royal; to the point, erudite, utterly relevant and delivering the cream of the take home

points. At the reception afterwards I was able to introduce her to my team, where we were able to talk about our work collecting at the farm gate, cutting plant and processing surplus to help the most needy.

Also this week was the launch of the third Rural Policy Group report, The Sustainable Food Report 2022. Its title is Enhancing the financial and environmental sustainability of British agriculture, food and farming

With a cross party, cross sector panel for debates, we covered an enormous amount of ground in the two sessions around the social, environmental and economic needs of a sustainable food system for the UK. I commend the report; I’ll be using it when speaking in the city on Tuesday. With farmers going out of business for lack of return while children are going hungry in our capital, something has to change radically, and soon.

SARAH CALCUTT Chair, National Fruit Show

Princess Anne and the A team

We can feed everyone sustainably, but it will be difficult –Sir Charles Godfray, City Food and Drink Lecture.

OPEN DAY AND SPRING FAIR A GREAT SUCCESS

Our level 2 agriculture students were involved in the show preparation of the Sussex Cattle, which involved trimming, washing down and blow drying. The students were happy to talk to the public about what they had done to get the cattle ready for the show season.

These students ran the show on the day and benefited from the input from college staff and industry experts throughout the process. There was a demonstration of some of the technology used on the college farm, including the milking robots and no-fence technology that form an integral part of the curriculum.

Another highlight of the day was the tractor and trailer rides which are always popular with the public. Our first-year students drove the tractors and talked to the public about the cropping as they travelled through the Plumpton College estate.

The new training kitchens in the AgriFood Centre were bustling on the day of our first ever Plumpton Bake Off. Year nine and ten food tech students across Sussex participated in the baking competition themed around the coronation.

Six finalists worked in pairs for three hours to create their bakes from the designs submitted. The picture shows winners Ben and Skaidra from Steyning Grammar School – with their

FIND OUT MORE

At Plumpton College we have apprenticeships available at level 2 and level 3, with a potential start at any time of the year, and we are currently recruiting for both levels. Talk to our team to find out more by phone or email: Business@plumpton.ac.uk

Alan Johnson, Agri-Food & Environment Curriculum Manager reports.

cake, a castle with a vegetable garden to illustrate King Charles' interest in growing plants and conservation.

In the butchery facility, apprentices showed the public how to break down a carcase and add value to the meat products. Visitors could participate in sausage-making demonstrations,

with many children keen to take part.

Overall, the day was jam-packed with activities for the agri-food and environment division. The college is proud of the students for developing confidence in speaking to visitors and sharing the knowledge they learned at college.

Further information can be found on our website: www.plumpton.ac.uk/business-services/apprenticeships-for-employers

UREA, USE IT WISELY

Writes Peter Knight, managing director of Burgate Farms Ltd, Hambledon, Surrey.

DEFRA’s announcement in April restricting the use of urea was not totally unexpected, although the NFU crops board had been asking for a later implementation date to allow fertiliser markets to restructure following plant closures across Europe.

Ammonia causes pollution which has been shown to affect people’s health. The Government’s Clean Air Strategy aims to reduce ammonia pollution by 16% by 2030, and as agriculture contributes more than 80% of ammonia emissions, it was a certainty that the industry would have to curb emissions.

In November 2020 DEFRA launched a consultation on the use of solid urea and came up with three options to reduce emissions:

1. A total ban on the use of solid urea (DEFRA’s preferred option)

2. All urea to be treated with an inhibitor

3. A restricted usage period for solid urea from 15 January to 31 March.

With the cost of ammonium nitrate rocketing, any of these options would have had a severe impact by taking away an alternative source of nitrogen that provided competition in the marketplace.

With the aim of finding a better solution, the NFU pulled together a group of industry stakeholders, agronomists and scientists to challenge DEFRA’s thinking. The resulting alternative became known as ‘Option 4’, which had to show that the reduction in ammonia could still be achieved with less restrictive rules relating to the use of urea.

OPTION 4

1. Solid urea not treated with inhibitor only to be used between 15 January and 31 March

2. All solid urea used outside that period to be treated with inhibitor

3. Liquid urea allowed to be used uninhibited between 15 January and 31 March

4. Uninhibited use outside those dates to be used only on the recommendation of a FACTS qualified adviser. Without such a recommendation, inhibitor to be added. DEFRA only accepted option 4 on the understanding that all urea applications would

be recorded and audited. To avoid further burdensome inspections, self-regulation has been accepted and will be audited as part of Red Tractor. The rules come into effect in October and will apply to applications made to next season’s crops, so in practice it will only affect urea applied after 31 March 2024. Points to remember: Only purchase untreated urea if you are confident it can be used before 31 March. Buying inhibitor-treated urea only adds around 7p per kilo of Nitrogen, which means buying all treated product gives flexibility with only moderate extra cost. Record all urea applications in the same way as pesticides so it is easily audited by Red Tractor. Remember DEFRA is monitoring ammonia emissions and looking for 16% reduction by

2030. If progress is not made towards this target an outright ban urea will undoubtedly be on the table.

The NFU is running a series of free health and safety workshops across the region throughout June to increase awareness of issues that can and do cause accidents, especially at harvest time.

The workshops are aimed at everybody who works on the farm, not just management. They are being held on working farms and will offer sensible, practical advice on how to keep everybody safe while working through the busy harvest period, so please spare a couple of hours to pick up tips and advice and help prevent the accidents that are still too prevalent.

Booking is essential; call the NFU South East Office on 01730 711950

Legal services for farmers & rural businesses

Call us today or visit our website: 01227 763939 furleypage.co.uk

HOW COULD COMPANIES HOUSE REFORMS AFFECT RURAL BUSINESS?

Saffery Champness explains.

As part of the Government’s aims to increase corporate transparency and reduce the use of UK companies for criminal purposes, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has put forward new legislation as part two of the Economic and Corporate Transparency Bill.

The new legislation proposes measures to reform Companies House and give the Registrar of Companies additional powers to maintain the accuracy of the UK’s record of companies.

The proposals are likely to affect the way businesses prepare and file their accounts in future, and particularly the preparation and publication of a directors’ report and profit and loss account for small companies. They also include measures to prevent the abuse of limited partnerships.

Martyn Dobinson, a partner with chartered accountants Saffery Champness and a member of the firm’s land and rural practice group, explained: “The proposed reforms will simplify and streamline the filing obligations for small companies and micro-entities by separating the legal requirements into two distinct sections. The amendments also seek to ensure that key information is retained on the public register. This is an important change as previously directors could opt not to make such information available to the public.

“Small companies will no longer have the option to prepare and file ‘abridged’ or ‘filleted’ accounts. This means they would be required to file accounts that include a profit and loss account and directors’ report. Previously this information would have been prepared by the company but was not required to be filed and was therefore not available to the public.

Where a company is seeking an exemption

from the requirement to have accounts audited (for example because it is categorised as a ‘small company’) directors would be required to make a statement confirming that the company qualifies for such an exemption, the aim being to reduce the risk that entities are falsely claiming an audit exemption to which they are not entitled.

“Micro entities will also be required to file their profit and loss account but will continue to have the option not to prepare or file a directors’ report. As with small companies, this information would have been previously prepared by the company but would not have been filed and was therefore not available to the public.”

The bill also aims to tackle the perceived misuse of limited partnerships and modernise the law governing them, by:

• Increasing the registration requirements for new limited partnerships

• Requiring limited partnerships to maintain a connection to the UK

• Increasing the transparency requirements

• Enabling the registrar to deregister limited partnerships in certain circumstances.

Martyn Dobinson went on: “The bill will also introduce new objectives for Companies House to promote and maintain the integrity of the register and give the registrar additional powers to support these objectives through a range of new measures. These will include the power to reject documents that contain inconsistencies or appear incomplete and, where this happens, they will be considered not to have been delivered. It’s also proposed to introduce changes to how accounts are submitted electronically in the future.”

Before it becomes law, the bill is still subject to amendment during the Parliamentary review process. The bill is currently at the committee stage in the House of Lords.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

On 23 March 2023 the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 was passed. Allis Beasley, partner at Brachers law firm, talks to Professor Mario Caccamo, CEO of the crop research organisation NIAB, about what’s changed and how breeders might benefit from the new laws.

Allis Beasley: What’s the significance of this new legislation?

Mario Caccamo: This is one of the first times new legislation has sought to enable, rather than restrict, the use of advanced genetic technologies for agriculture and food production in England.

This act takes technologies that are more precise than traditional crop breeding out of the scope of the regulation which previously governed “genetically modifying organisms”. This release from regulation enables the use of genome editing to fasttrack the development of crops, which will help us to meet the demands for resource efficiency and climate-ready varieties.

AB: How will NIAB take advantage of the new laws?

MC: As recently put by Rory Riggs, a pioneer US crop biotechnologist, the development of precision breeding “is almost an analog-to-digital moment for a new breeding industry”. NIAB supported the enactment of the legislation, as we believe this is a great new tool for breeders. NIAB has invested in the development of new genetics tools to support breeders and scientists.

As we face the global challenges associated with climate change and feeding a growing population, continued access to genetic innovation in plant breeding will be one of the most important tools in helping us move forward.

AB: How will gene editing help breeders and growers?

MC: Throughout history we have seen dramatic improvements in agricultural productivity through advances in crop rotation, improved farming techniques and the development of crop protection products and fertilisers. Precision breeding techniques expand our capabilities in plant protein genetics. More broadly, the adaptation of plants to climate change can also be accelerated with precision breeding technologies such as gene editing.

As an example, it is well known that roots with steeper angles support plants that can access moisture at deeper levels. This is a key trait in crops that can maintain high yields in periods of drought. Gene editing can be used to help us understand the underlying molecular mechanisms controlling root growth and architecture. This could allow us to select crops that can still be successful in hotter and dryer conditions such as those seen across Europe last summer.

We are excited about the breadth of the application of precision breeding. Its relatively low cost has contributed to the democratisation of the technology, which will be a catalyst for innovation and attracting private investment.

AB: Are there any risks from gene editing?

MC: It is clear that the risks from geneedited crops are no greater than from conventionally bred ones. In the context of the new legislation, we should recognise the safety record delivered by the current rules

governing plant breeding and the approval of new varieties. Approaches that combine biotechnology with traditional breeding, new data-intensive tools and agronomic expertise will be needed to design, implement and deploy novel crops.

As the new act is implemented, law-makers and regulators will feel the responsibility to ensure the benefit can be fully realised by enabling not only research but a route to market. A proportionate and science-led approach to regulating genetic technologies in agriculture is a critical piece in the jigsaw to ensure we can continue to feed the world while protecting the environment.

Allis Beasley is a Partner at Brachers law firm who specialises in property disputes and rural and agricultural matters.

Professor Mario Caccamo

feedback, Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500

A “knowledgeable and responsive” team of “excellent solicitors who know their specialisms inside out”

RENTERS REFORM BILL

Property Management & Valuation Implications

The Renters (Reform) Bill was introduced to parliament on 17th May 2023. The Government states that the Bill will “improve the system for both the 11 million private renters and 2.3 million landlords in England”. The headlines are as follows:

Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions will be abolished and all assured tenancies will be periodic (typically month to month). To counter the additional security this affords Tenants, more comprehensive possession grounds will be introduced, for example if the Landlord intends to sell or occupy the property or if the Tenant defaults.

Tenants will have more power to appeal excessively above-market rent reviews.

Private Rented Sector Ombudsman (PRSO) will be created to provide “fair, impartial, and binding resolution” to many issues and be a “quicker, cheaper, and less adversarial” option to the courts

Privately Rented Property Portal will be created for Landlords to understand their legal obligations and demonstrate compliance. It will also be used by local councils to target enforcement activity

Tenants will have the right to request a pet in the property, which the landlord cannot unreasonably refuse.

The Government has confirmed that it is committed to this course of action and ultimately ensuring the Bill receives Royal Assent and becomes law. The expectation is that this will happen before the next General Election but it is still to be debated by MPs so we may yet see amendments.

The above proposed legislative changes were included in a private rented sector white paper published in June 2022. Proposals included in the white paper but not carried forward to the Renters (Reform) Bill are:

■ Application of the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector.

■ It to be illegal for landlords and agents to have blanket bans on renting to tenants in receipt of benefits.

■ Strengthening of local councils’ enforcement powers.

The main concerns for Landlords are the removal of fixed term tenancies, replaced by periodic tenancies, and the loss of the S.21 notices. There are also important valuation considerations to be mindful of.

A periodic month-to-month tenancy offers precious little security to a Landlord, increasing risk to their investment and with the potential

for additional regular re-letting costs. In place of a no-fault ground for possession, the Landlord will have to rely on the court system or the new PRSO to promptly process applications. Government departments, and especially the Ministry of Justice, are not known for their speed! One can’t help but think this is yet another blow to Landlords, which will result in more of them leaving the market and exacerbating the problem that already exists of under supply.

Valuation implications

When a property is let, a principle of property valuation is to apply a discount to the vacant possession market value to take account of the fact that a buyer will not be able to occupy the property on completion of a hypothetical sale. Presently, with the Landlord able to serve a s.21 notice, the discount is typically negligible, if any discount at all. The new discretionary grounds for possession include a Landlord’s right to recover possession ahead of an intended sale. It is a discretionary ground, which the s.21 is not, and we do not yet know the speed with which possession will be realised. This may result in capital values of properties let on AST’s falling below their vacant possession value.

Property & Estate Management

In an increasingly regulated industry we offer the highest standards of professional service to our clients, whether they be owners of small residential portfolios or traditional landed estates with a diversified mix of investment and trading assets. Our property and estate management team has an unparalleled level of experience and expertise.

Jon Booth BA (HONS) MSC MRICS FAAV DIRECTOR

Katie Hurley MRICS FAAV DIRECTOR

Please contact a member of the team to discuss your estate management requirements.

West Kent 01892 832325

East Kent 01303 814 444

East Sussex 01435 873999

www.lambertandfoster.co.uk

The South East Farmland Market Experts

LAND AND FARMS SPONSORED BY BATCHELLER MONKHOUSE

MIXED-USE FARMLAND ON THE KENT/SURREY BORDER

GUIDE PRICE: £1,275,000

ABOUT 170 ACRES EDENBRIDGE | KENT

A block of just over 170 acres of farmland with views over the River Eden Valley has come to the market on the Kent/Surrey border.

The East Haxted Farmland is situated off Lingfield Road, between Edenbridge and Lingfield, and comprises around 100 acres of arable and 60 acres of permanent pasture, with small parcels of woodland and rough grazing/natural regeneration.

The River Eden runs along the entire length of the southern boundary and part of the northern boundary adjoins Lingfield Road

on Haxted Hill, with far-reaching views to the south overlooking the Eden Valley.

Chris Spofforth, director, Savills rural agency in the south east, said: “This is an excellent single block of mixed-use farmland in a convenient and accessible location, outside the High Weald AONB. With decent agricultural parcels being slow to come to the market this spring and pent-up demand, we are expecting strong interest.”

The East Haxted Farmland is being marketed by Savills for a guide price of £1,275,000.

BTF Partnership has launched for sale

Broadreed Farm, an agricultural and residential estate with five separate residential properties, agricultural and equestrian buildings, pasture, woodland shaws and ponds.

The farm is located approximately 2.8 miles from Mayfield in East Sussex, on the outskirts of Five Ashes village within the picturesque and rural High Weald AONB.

Lot 1 comprises a five-bedroom, Grade II listed farmhouse, a three-bedroom converted Sussex barn, a two-bedroom converted agricultural building, a three-bedroom farm worker’s bungalow (subject to an agricultural occupancy condition), a one-bedroom cottage, a range of modern agricultural buildings, stables, sand school and hedge-enclosed pasture fields with woodland shaws and ponds. The land is predominantly Grade 3 and the property extends in all to approximately 150.43 acres.

Lot 2 extends to approximately 20.9 acres and comprises a single, predominantly south/ south-west facing, pasture field, with woodland shaws, a pond and direct road access.

Lot 3 extends to approximately 12.9 acres and is also a single hedge-enclosed parcel of pasture that benefits from direct road access, a south/south-westerly elevation and a pond.

Broadreed Farmhouse dates in part to the

A VERSATILE RESIDENTIAL AND AGRICULTURAL ESTATE

sixteenth century, and in addition to retaining many period features it benefits from a traditional country garden with splendid views towards the Ashdown Forest.

The farmhouse accommodation extends to approximately 3,924 sq ft with three bedrooms (one en-suite) on the first floor and two further bedrooms on the second floor.

Additional residential properties on the farm include:

Oak Tree Barn, which was converted from a traditional Sussex barn in 2015 to create a charming three-bedroom dwelling that extends to approximately 1,991 sq ft.

Barnside Cottage, which is located to the south-east of Oak Tree Barn, was also converted from a redundant agricultural building and now provides single storey accommodation extending to approximately 1,187 sq ft.

The Bungalow (subject to an Agricultural Occupancy Condition) is located adjacent to the farm entrance and extends to

approximately 1,159 sq ft.

The Cottage sits within its own enclosed garden adjacent to the farmhouse extending in all to approximately 511 sq ft.

Modern agricultural outbuildings arranged around a concrete yard to the south-east of the farmhouse include a 90’ x 44’ concrete portal frame barn and three steel portal frame barns measuring approximately 60’ x 60’, 80’ x 58’ and 50’ x 60’.

The equestrian facilities include a modern timber-framed stable block with eight loose boxes and an outdoor sand school.

Tim Crundwell at BTF Partnership commented: “This is a wonderful opportunity to purchase a Sussex residential and grassland farm with an established income being generated from rental properties and farm grazing licences.”

Available as a whole or in three lots with a total guide price of £5,085,000. Please note that Lots 2 and 3 will not be sold before Lot 1.

Further details: www.btfpartnership.co.uk/property/lot-1-broadreed-farm-near-mayfield/ or call the Challock Office 01233 740077

GUIDE PRICE £5,085,000 184.28 ACRES

MAYFIELD | EAST SUSSEX

FOR

E d e n b r i d g e , K e n t

Single block of mixed-use farmland on the Kent/Surrey border

Fine views over the River Eden valley

Outside the High Weald AONB

About 100 acres arable and 60 acres permanent pasture

Edenbridge 1 5 miles, Lingfield 3 miles

For sale as a whole

About 173 acres | Guide Price £1.275m

Chris Spofforth

Farm Agency

07812 965 379

cspofforth@savills com

Richard Mann Farm Agency 07967 555 826 rmann@savills com

Savills Sevenoaks 01732 879 050 sevenoaks@savills com

Bayford Farm is just to the north of Upchurch, overlooking the River Medway. The farm offers a wide range of uses with a central farmhouse as well as additional holiday lets, agricultural land and agricultural buildings with potential.

The main farmhouse dates back to the 1880s, with modernisations and extensions throughout the years, the latest being in 2013. The ground floor hosts a light and spacious kitchen/breakfast room leading onto a more traditional dining room with an open fire and substantial space for hosting.

On the first floor there are four double rooms and one single as well as the family bathroom and separate shower room.

There are two holiday lets on the farm with relevant permissions, The Old Stable and Plovers Rest. The Old Stables adjoins the farmhouse but with a separate driveway and access to provide privacy. This cottage comprises four double bedrooms and a shower room from a split landing, with an open space sitting room and dining room and separate kitchen on the lower floor.

Plovers Rest is a converted barn with its own large garden and driveway, along with fruit trees lining the boundary. The lower floor is open plan with a kitchen, dining space and

INCOME OPPORTUNITIES WITH FURTHER POTENTIAL

UPCHURCH | KENT

sitting room and one double bedroom off the entrance hall. The second floor comprises the remaining two double bedrooms and the family bathroom.

The farm’s agricultural buildings offer a range of uses and potential. They are firstly the cart shed, an open front pole barn containing four bays and measuring 11.5m x 5m. Secondly there is the hay barn, measuring 14.8m x 6.5m and of a similar open front pole barn structure. There is also the Bullock Yard, which currently stands as an L-shaped open fronted pole barn measuring 10.9m x 3.26m and 8.55m x 5.3m. The garage measures 6m x 2.5m and lastly there is the dog run, which is positioned to the rear of the garage.

The land at Bayford Farm runs north to the Medway. There are a variety of classifications on the land, currently consisting of approximately 46.63 acres of grazing marsh which has fantastic potential for wildfowling

enthusiasts, 1.21 acres of pears, 1.01 acres of Bramley apples, 1.11 acres of cherries and 1.66 acres of plums which can provide an additional income source as a small agricultural business. There is also 2.47 acres of upland grazing and a small area used for cover crops. It offers fantastic potential in many ways, including sporting and leisure uses.

The land is registered for the Basic Payment Scheme and is entered into an Environmental Stewardship Scheme that runs until 2027.

Alex Cornwallis, Director at BTF Partnership commented: “This is a fascinating property with an additional income stream already in place and potential moving forwards. The land has a real ‘wow’ factor, with two sides bordered by the River Medway and far-reaching views. Properties like this do not come to the market very often and we hope it will interest a variety of buyer profiles locally and nationally.”

S i t t i n g b o u r n e , K e n t

Significant agricultural investment opportunity

Productive agricultural holding let on a long FBT with strong covenant

Level block of grade 2 land immediately east and south of the village of Milstead

Sittingbourne 4 miles, Canterbury 18 miles

For sale as a whole or in 3 lots

About 169 acres | Excess £1.85m

Stuart Mair GWF 01795 470 556 stuart@georgewebbfinn com

Chris Spofforth Farm Agency 07812 965 379 cspofforth@savills com

Richard Mann Farm Agency 07967 555 826 rmann@savills com

Savills Sevenoaks 01732 879 050 sevenoaks@savills com

SIGNIFICANT AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY

A significant agricultural investment opportunity extending to almost 170 acres has come to the market in Kent.

Milstead Manor Farm is a level block of productive grade 2 land immediately east and south of the village of Milstead, four miles from Sittingbourne.

The land is in three separate blocks and is currently let on a farm business tenancy for a term of 20 years from November 2016.

Chris Spofforth, director, Savills rural agency in the south east, said: “This is a rural investment opportunity with excellent tenancy covenant, the likes of which are rarely seen on the open market. We are anticipating a great deal of interest from a wide range of buyers from the region and from further afield.”

Milstead Manor Farm is being jointly marketed by Savills and George Webb Finn, for offers in excess of £1,850,000 for the whole.

The average value of arable land in England has risen to a record of £10,800/ acre, with strong interest from private and institutional investors pushing up prices.

Analysis of Strutt & Parker’s Farmland Database, which records the details of all farms, estates and blocks of publicly marketed farmland over 100 acres in size, shows that private and institutional investors bought 33% of all the farms sold in 2022 – the highest level for at least a decade.

Matthew Sudlow, head of estates & farm agency for Strutt & Parker, said: “Over the past 12 months, private and institutional investors have played a growing role in the farmland market. In total, they bought more than half of the agricultural land publicly marketed in England during 2022, demonstrating that at times of economic uncertainty and high inflation land does tend to be seen as a haven for capital.”

Analysis shows that the average value of arable land is currently £10,800/acre, which is £200/acre more than Strutt & Parker reported at the end of 2022 and 15% higher than a year ago. The average value of

Suffolk Building Society has announced a change to its lending criteria which means it will now accept mortgage applications on residential properties with agricultural ties or restrictions,

ARABLE LAND AT RECORD LEVEL PER ACRE

pasture land is £8,500, which is 13% higher than 12 months ago.

The data highlights that nearly 70% of arable land in England sold for over £10,000/ acre in 2022, compared to 33% in 2021. However, the range in prices achieved can still be wide, with the highest value recorded in 2022 being £21,500/acre and the lowest £6,000/acre.

Eighty-four per cent of farms that exchanged in 2022 sold at, or over, their guide price, the highest proportion since 2000. Demand has been particularly strong for cereals farms.

“The market continues to be highly competitive, with demand outstripping supply,” Matthew continued. “Just 4,300 acres were brought to the open market during the first three months of the year, which is the smallest amount for the past 20 years, but

we do expect the market to return to more normal levels in the spring and summer as we are getting more enquiries and instructions than we have seen for some time.”

Looking forward, Matthew predicted that even if supply increased it would be unlikely to change the balance in the market.

“We are seeing no signs of demand for farmland weakening. Investors are continuing to look for tangible assets that are likely to appreciate and there is still strong demand from buyers – including farmers – looking to rollover capital gains.

“Meanwhile, lifestyle choices are continuing to be evaluated, with farms and estates having an enduring appeal. Given this outlook, we expect prices for both arable and pasture land to remain at their current record levels and possibly increase further.”

RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES WITH AGRICULTURAL RESTRICTIONS

subject to the customer meeting its lending criteria.

In many farming regions, there are agricultural restrictions which were applied as a condition when planning permission was granted. This restricts who a property can be sold to – or potentially occupied by – so few mortgage lenders will accept mortgage applications where there are agricultural restrictions in place.

Instead of launching a mortgage specifically aimed at potential

buyers of properties with residential ties, Suffolk Building Society is making its existing product range available to anyone considering buying this type of home. Properties will be accepted up to a 50% loan to value (LTV) subject to the valuer’s comments on the property’s mortgageability, future saleability, and the applicant complying with the terms of the restriction(s). Applicants will need to apply via a mortgage broker.

Competitive Direct Drilling Service

Using our proven Simtech Aitchison direct drill we seed into all surfaces - grasses, clovers, brassicas, cereals, pulses, maize and all mixtures. The unique T-slot boot allows a perfect environment for the seeds to germinate, along its 3m sowing width with 20 rows (15cm).

method saves time and money compared with more traditional re-seeding methods, but is also capable of stitching and rejuvenating existing crops.

CSS

COMPLETE OUR CROSSWORD TO WIN

Two Biddies 8, four Biddies 5, one Special Reserve and one Special Mead

ACROSS

1 Have put up a new wallpaper (9)

5 Store in a secret place (5)

8 Very eager (7)

9 ----- House, Charles Dickens novel (5)

11 Encounter, come together (4)

12 Right (7)

13 Observation post gathering meteorological data (7,7)

15 Brawls (6)

17 Hold resentment (6)

20 Male relative (7)

23 Slight (4)

24 Farm machinery (4,6)

25 Rare breed equine (4,4)

26 Musical instrument (4) DOWN

1 Nightmare (5)

2 A hidden hoard (5)

3 Decomposes (4)

4 Larva of a frog (7)

6 Available to rent (2,3)

7 Product for cleaning hair (7)

10 Sugar ---- (4)

13 --------- Dartmoor, sheep breed (9)

14 River in Sussex (4)

16 Cooking appliance; ceramic, gas, electric, induction (3)

17 Large water birds (5)

18 Spirit (3)

19 Wear down, scrape away, erode (6)

21 Go over something again(3)

22 Method of public transport (5)

23 Odour (5)

PRIZE ANAGRAM: Salad vegetable (6)

To enter, simply unscramble the anagram

LAST MONTH’S ANSWERS:

using the green squares.

(6)

Email your replies with your name, address and phone number to sef.ed@kelsey.co.uk

Correct entries will be entered into a draw which will take place on 26 June. The winner will be announced in the July edition.

To celebrate Father’s Day we are offering readers the chance to win two Biddies 8, four Biddies 5, one Special Reserve and one Special Mead. For more information about the vineyards, please visit www.biddendenvineyards.com or call 01580 291726.

*Subject to availability

Correct answer: Septoria

LAST MONTH’S WINNER: Michael Cottrell from Edenbridge, Kent

VI NE YA R DS

VI NE YA R DS

Crossword by Rebecca Farmer, Broadstairs, Kent