McSharry reforms

[glasshouse]

Thirty yr ago we had the mc sharry reforms and compulsory set aside and and everyone was despondent.
Then the weather intervened and had 3 yrs of drought after a wet 93 back end.
Turned out to be the best farming period ever.
The weather is intervening again

 

[Two Tone]

We never knew we had it so good.
I remember moaning about the fact of having to buy all those Field Map Sheets. But the income they caused to bring in as IACS, on top of high grain prices was fantastic. Way out benefiting the profit lost from the land that was in Set-aside.
If you wanted to, you could plant Oilseed Rape to be non-food used and still grow something on the Set-aside land.

To start with, we weren’t allowed to Roundup off the Set-aside fields without getting a derogation, but could top them. However, MAFF were so inundated with request that within a year or so, they moved the date we could start to apply it forward.

 

[Levelsman]

Those were the years that were...!

 

[Hampton]

We never knew we had it so good.
I remember moaning about the fact of having to buy all those Field Map Sheets. But the income they caused to bring in as IACS, on top of high grain prices was fantastic. Way out benefiting the profit lost from the land that was in Set-aside.
If you wanted to, you could plant Oilseed Rape to be non-food used and still grow something on the Set-aside land.

To start with, we weren’t allowed to Roundup off the Set-aside fields without getting a derogation, but could top them. However, MAFF were so inundated with request that within a year or so, they moved the date we could start to apply it forward.

Seem to remember Dad selling set aside OSR for £119/tonne back then?

 

[Two Tone]

Seem to remember Dad selling set aside OSR for £119/tonne back then?

Could be. I never did myself. So no idea.

 

[David.]

Classic case of farmers "just having to grow something", even on a poor contract, instead of forcing Croda Paints, etc, into the competitive market.

 

[livestock 1]

McSharry Christ that’s a blast from the past

 

[Nick Adams]

I adjoined 90 acres of set aside that in return for a light topping in the summer I was allowed to graze from Sept 1st to Jan 15th.

Huge reduction in wintering costs and the start of my journey towards; stockpiling, outwintering and mob grazing.

 

[Nick Adams]

The lesson is that the Government is a pretty good customer - they pay - make whatever the system is work for you.

 

[neilo]

At the risk of sounding like @glasshouse , it was also the start of a huge increase in land prices, way beyond it's true earning capacity.

In 1991 we had an offer in on 500ac almost next door, at the £1000/ac guide price. We were the only offer and it sat for months on end before being withdrawn from the market.

By the next year, IACS came in and it was let out on short term agreements at £180/Ac. It was sold eventually (15 yrs later?) at many, many times the offer we'd made, and way beyond what farming it will ever pay for.

 

[Two Tone]

At the risk of sounding like @glasshouse , it was also the start of a huge increase in land prices, way beyond it's true earning capacity.

In 1991 we had an offer in on 500ac almost next door, at the £1000/ac guide price. We were the only offer and it sat for months on end before being withdrawn from the market.

By the next year, IACS came in and it was let out on short term agreements at £180/Ac. It was sold eventually (15 yrs later?) at many, many times the offer we'd made, and way beyond what farming it will ever pay for.

Yes it was partly.
But also it was IHT relief being sought by those outside of agriculture wanting a slice of it.
Despite the fact that within a couple of years, the Country was into a recession have had several years of rising interest rates.

It was 1996 when I moved here from East Anglia.
Ironically, we thought that East Anglia was coming out of recession and the Cotswolds were still stuck in.

 

[Johnnyboxer]

McSharry Christ that’s a blast from the past

MacSharry from Sligo

Still a political family - his son Marc has followed him into Irish politics, as a regional councillor

 

[Punch]

At the risk of sounding like @glasshouse , it was also the start of a huge increase in land prices, way beyond it's true earning capacity.

In 1991 we had an offer in on 500ac almost next door, at the £1000/ac guide price. We were the only offer and it sat for months on end before being withdrawn from the market.

By the next year, IACS came in and it was let out on short term agreements at £180/Ac. It was sold eventually (15 yrs later?) at many, many times the offer we'd made, and way beyond what farming it will ever pay for.

Went cheap again early 2000’s.
We weren’t lucky enough to buy at £1000/ac but didn’t pay much more and not quite double in 2003 but the wheat was £60/t. Jumped a lot by 2007!

 

[Grass And Grain]

In a not dissimilar way to getting paid for set aside, all the wet spots in the fields this year, I'm finding stewardship useful for turning those loss making bits into income generating bits.

 

[jpd]

started life as a cattle dealer before entering politics

 

[Henarar]

it was also the start of a huge increase in land prices, way beyond it's true earning capacity.

start of a two tier land market with IACS and non IACS land depending if it happened to be arable or not.

 

[Goweresque]

But also it was IHT relief being sought by those outside of agriculture wanting a slice of it.

The big change came in 1997, in that Labour got in but had no apparent interest in changing the IHT regime that the Tories had introduced in 1986. Prior to the '97 election everyone and their dog were putting land in trusts and moving ownership to the next generation, all afraid Labour were going to go back to the '70s and capital transfer tax and/or high rates of IHT. Then Blair got in, with his famous mantra that Labour were 'intensely relaxed' about people getting very wealthy, and the fear that we were going back to the 70s just dissipated almost overnight. Thats when the serious money started piling into UK farmland, when they realised Labour weren't going to tax it. And we had New Labour until 2010 (Brown was Continuity Blair in effect), then Tories ever since.

The current IHT system has been in place for so long (nearly 40 years) there will be plenty who have no experience of anything else. My guess is they are going to get a rude awakening at some point.

 

[The Insider]

Classic case of farmers "just having to grow something", even on a poor contract, instead of forcing Croda Paints, etc, into the competitive market.

Do you think Croda and Henkel et al were not already competing? Other origins were cheaper than UK then, and in better size.

 

[red]

Do you think Croda and Henkel et al were not already competing? Other origins were cheaper than UK then, and in better size.

We just grew conventional 00 rape and United Oilseeds, ADM etc shuffled some paperwork, put our set-aside oilseed in the heap with ‘normal’ oilseed and found the equivalent tonnage on the continent for industrial use.

 

[glasshouse]

The big change came in 1997, in that Labour got in but had no apparent interest in changing the IHT regime that the Tories had introduced in 1986. Prior to the '97 election everyone and their dog were putting land in trusts and moving ownership to the next generation, all afraid Labour were going to go back to the '70s and capital transfer tax and/or high rates of IHT. Then Blair got in, with his famous mantra that Labour were 'intensely relaxed' about people getting very wealthy, and the fear that we were going back to the 70s just dissipated almost overnight. Thats when the serious money started piling into UK farmland, when they realised Labour weren't going to tax it. And we had New Labour until 2010 (Brown was Continuity Blair in effect), then Tories ever since.

The current IHT system has been in place for so long (nearly 40 years) there will be plenty who have no experience of anything else. My guess is they are going to get a rude awakening at some point.

The serious money didnt go into farmland till 2007 when the Russian drought hit.
I had an offer on 350 ac next door at o/o £800k
It went for double that after wheat hit £200