ARE there any other National Trust tenants out there in the same predicament as we are?

[Charlie Flindt]

The Trust once tried to scold the lovely but redoubtable Mrs Flindt about her outwintering store cattle, suggesting she shouldn't be damaging bits of permanent pasture, and disapproving of her fertiser policy - which they were sure was over what they thought she shouild be applying. When she asked them to identify where we'd outwintered the year before last (they couldn't), and then where the limits on fertiliser were in our tenancy agreement (there weren't any), they made their apologies and b*ggered off. Bless.

 

[bluepower]

How localised is this policy is it only sw coast properties. Any NT tenants not farming within a mile of the sea, care to tell us about any NT policy dictates they are seeing?

This is a national policy so will affect most tenants to a greater or lesser extent, ableit they have what they will call "focus" areas, of which our farm most certainly is going to be.

 

[Charlie Flindt]

This is a national policy so will affect most tenants to a greater or lesser extent, ableit they have what they will call "focus" areas, of which our farm most certainly is going to be.

I repeat - they can't do something unless the tenacy agreement says they can; it's a legal agreement between two parties.

 

[bluepower]

Everything boils down to what it says they can and can't do in your tenancy agreement, surely? We've had many visits from them over the last 28 years (usually when there's a new agent) with some sparkly-eyed rubbish about 'we want to do this' and 'we want to do that'. If you don't want to, and the agreement says they can't, they can't. Join the TFA, and ask Big George. He's yer man.

The main issue here is that we, along with many others are on FBT's and therfore at the end of the term they can start calling the shots which is what they have done in our case. Six weeks before the term was about to come to an end they dropped the bombshell and were going to create a new 5 year term as a period of transition. Eighteen months later we are sat here with no formal tenancy and now the offer of a three year tenancy back dated eighteen months. They are obviously trying to apply the pressure on us but it will backfire as we have decided we will be going anyway.
I am more concerned for others who may get caught in the same trap , pushed up into a corner with nowhere to turn.

 

[Charlie Flindt]

The main issue here is that we, along with many others are on FBT's and therfore at the end of the term they can start calling the shots which is what they have done in our case. Six weeks before the term was about to come to an end they dropped the bombshell and were going to create a new 5 year term as a period of transition. Eighteen months later we are sat here with no formal tenancy and now the offer of a three year tenancy back dated eighteen months. They are obviously trying to apply the pressure on us but it will backfire as we have decided we will be going anyway.
I am more concerned for others who may get caught in the same trap , pushed up into a corner with nowhere to turn.

Fair (but grim) point about FBTs ending. They tried to lean on us to switch from AHA to an FBT many years ago, but luckily we heeded TFA advice and refused. I hope I live long enough to see those who actively let good food-producing land go to waste become demonised, and the Trust will be first on the list.

 

[Will Blackburn]

I haven't been a National Trust member for twenty years but was always struck by how the farming of the estates was as much of an attraction for the average visitor, as the grand residence. Being farmed in a style many would like to, if they could afford it, I always assumed the National Trust subsidised this.
I find it very disappointing that an organisation such as NT isn't the leading light in being a sustainable model for future British farming. Having huge resources and being free from politics, they should be an independent force for good.
It is obvious to anyone with an Iota of experience in agriculture that the path they seem to wish to be taking as indicated in this thread is seriously flawed. The result will be that in twenty years, the same idiots that are responsible will be taking credit for introducing 'traditional farming methods' to sustainably manage the estates and increase biodiversity in order to attempt to get the estates back to where they are now.
I'm sure some things have to change but they should always be led from the ground, not from behind a desk.

This is a a correct summation, as I see it members like productive considerate farming. It’s the staff that want trees and low output agriculture. They slip these objectives in out of plain sight. £200m loss of income, and they won’t be able to clean the rivers, if that’s not a euphemism for doing diddly squat then I don’t know?

 

[Charlie Flindt]

This is a a correct summation, as I see it members like productive considerate farming. It’s the staff that want trees and low output agriculture. They slip these objectives in out of plain sight. £200m loss of income, and they won’t be able to clean the rivers, if that’s not a euphemism for doing diddly squat then I don’t know?

If any agent comes round here and uses the word 'sustainable' I ask them to define it. When they can't (which, of course, is every time) they get a smack round the head with a packet of Hobnobs.

 

[bluepower]

This is a a correct summation, as I see it members like productive considerate farming. It’s the staff that want trees and low output agriculture. They slip these objectives in out of plain sight. £200m loss of income, and they won’t be able to clean the rivers, if that’s not a euphemism for doing diddly squat then I don’t know?

They bought 50 acres of very well managed woodland that bordered our farm some fifteen years ago. Since then the woodland has fallen into a pretty derilict state with paths blocked and fallen trees all over the area. A total shambles, but then that is their "policy" apparently.

 

[bluepower]

If any agent comes round here and uses the word 'sustainable' I ask them to define it. When they can't (which, of course, is every time) they get a smack round the head with a packet of Hobnobs.

Another new catchphrase they all use is"to do nothing is better than to do something" just about sums them up.

 

[glasshouse]

A now booted out tenant, while on probation for other stuff, then went and let ground to the local swede growers..... in one of the wettest winters several years ago.
Cue lots of red soil washing out the field, down a lane, ending up 1 field away from the nt estate office ?‍?‍?‍

That is entirely misleading

 

[exmoor dave]

That is entirely misleading

???????

 

[egbert]

This is a national policy so will affect most tenants to a greater or lesser extent, ableit they have what they will call "focus" areas, of which our farm most certainly is going to be.

Used to have- i found- very cellular management... one estate didn't know what the next was up to 3 miles down the road.

 

[egbert]

They bought 50 acres of very well managed woodland that bordered our farm some fifteen years ago. Since then the woodland has fallen into a pretty derilict state with paths blocked and fallen trees all over the area. A total shambles, but then that is their "policy" apparently.

Like the muppets at the Woodland Trust.
They'll happily allow perfectly productive woodland go to ratsh*t, not caring a jot where our timber requirements come from.

What bothers me about the direction of travel is that they're (mostly) all holdings hands...WT, NT, the various Wildlife Trusts,Monbigot ........and Tony Juniper.
And that last is where the big problem comes.

 

[kill]

So what will happen when all this wilding/ wasteland of ground next to foot paths and bridal paths and coastal pathways become totally adder infested and dozens of people if not hundreds of people and dogs are struck every year and fatalities WILL happen.
Seriously hope NT members vote with their feet and make like a tree and leave for good????

And WHO’s problem will it be when it happens?????




Cheers Tenant????

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Which still makes it a scam as much as the "I'm a Prince from Nigeria.....", it only takes a few victims to make it hugely worth while to continue.
I haven't been a National Trust member for twenty years but was always struck by how the farming of the estates was as much of an attraction for the average visitor, as the grand residence. Being farmed in a style many would like to, if they could afford it, I always assumed the National Trust subsidised this.
I find it very disappointing that an organisation such as NT isn't the leading light in being a sustainable model for future British farming. Having huge resources and being free from politics, they should be an independent force for good.
It is obvious to anyone with an Iota of experience in agriculture that the path they seem to wish to be taking as indicated in this thread is seriously flawed. The result will be that in twenty years, the same idiots that are responsible will be taking credit for introducing 'traditional farming methods' to sustainably manage the estates and increase biodiversity in order to attempt to get the estates back to where they are now.
I'm sure some things have to change but they should always be led from the ground, not from behind a desk.

I have never visited a countryside restoration trust farm, but have looked at their website, and from what I have read, they seem to be showing a sustainable way for British farming, has anyone on here any experience or know anything about the countryside restoration trust?

 

[Muddyroads]

So what will happen when all this wilding/ wasteland of ground next to foot paths and bridal paths and coastal pathways become totally adder infested and dozens of people if not hundreds of people and dogs are struck every year and fatalities WILL happen.
Seriously hope NT members vote with their feet and make like a tree and leave for good????

And WHO’s problem will it be when it happens?????
Cheers Tenant????

I nominate Packham and Monbiot to become tour guides and they can lead us through their utopia from the front.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

This really is terribly sad to read this, that is awful to be told the NT felt there was no future for mixed farms where you are ?

We've also got the "merging meadows with woodland" proposals being mooted on this estate.
The staff just simply don't understand the problem with insisting on cattle only grazing, then asking them to be allowed in to badger infested woodland.

I have fenced off, the two "grazed woodlands" here, best thing I ever did. Whoever likes the idea of meadows merging with animals, has never kept stock.

 

[glasshouse]

I nominate Packham and Monbiot to become tour guides and they can lead us through their utopia from the front.

We can dig bear traps for them

 

[egbert]

I have never visited a countryside restoration trust farm, but have looked at their website, and from what I have read, they seem to be showing a sustainable way for British farming, has anyone on here any experience or know anything about the countryside restoration trust?

Yes, I stopped a week on one of their properties last summer - quite by chance.
Tenant was a good ole boy, farm was luvverly, decent woodland management going on. Looked good from what I saw.
I had to google who they were when I got home.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

I have never visited a countryside restoration trust farm, but have looked at their website, and from what I have read, they seem to be showing a sustainable way for British farming, has anyone on here any experience or know anything about the countryside restoration trust?

I know that it was founded by Robin Page, who is definitely no fan of Monbiot or Packham, which makes it okay in my book.