National trust farms.

Formatted

Member
Livestock Farmer
You hear lots of stories of current tenants on AHA's who are very unhappy, but then you go to a farm viewing for one of their FBTs and you'll have 60-70 people there all keen to get the opportunity. Think those on AHA's and long term FBTs forget how good they have got it.
 

chipchap

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South Shropshire
You hear lots of stories of current tenants on AHA's who are very unhappy, but then you go to a farm viewing for one of their FBTs and you'll have 60-70 people there all keen to get the opportunity. Think those on AHA's and long term FBTs forget how good they have got it.
There is a lot of demand for rented ground at the moment, but things evolve and change.

Just look at what a good tradesman can earn in a five day week, no weekends, no overtime if that is their choice. The only capital involved a good van and a couple of grand worth of tools.

Tenant farmers earn about the same, but have to deal with all the red tape, and suffer the uncertainty of the weather to boot.

Fill your boots landlords before the tide goes out.
 

ajcc

Member
Livestock Farmer
The NT likes control. The NT currently values environmental interests over agricultural interests.
If you enjoy/believe/share that ethos chances are they are great landlords but you need to make a living. However you also need to be on farm and accessible to joe public so the idea of part time farming a NT holding is often not practical, so you need to create other income en site but....The NT likes control.
ps. Nowadays “Natural England “will be making the agricultural policy decisions for the vast majority of Trust holdings....so you need to get along with them!
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
You hear lots of stories of current tenants on AHA's who are very unhappy, but then you go to a farm viewing for one of their FBTs and you'll have 60-70 people there all keen to get the opportunity. Think those on AHA's and long term FBTs forget how good they have got it.

You always get lots of people at a farm viewing, whoever the landlord is.

I walked out of a viewing on a NT farm, after speaking with their agent/manager and knowing that I wouldn’t be able to work with them. Up to that point, we were busy formulating plans to farm the place.
 

bluepower

Member
Livestock Farmer
Be careful, be very careful. Ask @bluepower if you want some idea of issues you can face.
I don't know if it would be right for me to comment on a public forum, just to say I think that there are much better landlords out there. In fact I couldn't think of anyyone worse really? The problem is that I am biased but they have very much got it all wrong at the moment and treat farmers as the enemy.
 

Old Tip

Member
Location
Cumbria
I’m an NT tenant on a fair bit of my land and if you dont cause waves then they are great landlords, I think the problems arise in the areas where the NT don’t have many farms and therfore either micromanage or have no farming experience.
Defiantly don’t go for an NT if you want to maximise production but if you are into conservation and native breeds etc then you will be ok.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
I’m an NT tenant on a fair bit of my land and if you dont cause waves then they are great landlords, I think the problems arise in the areas where the NT don’t have many farms and therfore either micromanage or have no farming experience.
Defiantly don’t go for an NT if you want to maximise production but if you are into conservation and native breeds etc then you will be ok.
Actually there are plenty of their farms down this way and ie.their stance on how to deal with btb is worse than poor which spoils it for a lot of neighbouring farmers .
 

Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Who in the hierarchy of the NT is responsible for the farms and the overall policies?

I have a large NT farm that adjoins me and the tenant has more or less stopped farming the land and does no maintenance at all. I have been in contact with the Agent who is completely ineffective.
All of the boundary fences and gates have fallen into disrepair and those that adjoin me I have been replacing and asked for a 50% share of the costs from the NT, who say the tenant is responsible. He says he is giving up the tenancy so won't pay!! He collects all the payments as well as a large CS scheme.
I have taken over a large area of the land with the tenants agreement and have run cattle on it and at the same time topped and sprayed large areas of the land which is full of thistles and not been properly grazed for some years. I informed the Agent I was doing this even though I presume the tenant should not be sub letting!!
The NT want to take back all the buildings and convert to units, however this leaves the farms with nothing, not even handling pens for sheep or cattle.
All of the gates except for a couple that I have replaced are knackered and none of the internal gates or ditches have been maintained for 50 years. The farms (several hundred acres) used to be immaculate and the owners who gave it to the NT must be turning in their graves.

If anyone knows who in the NT is responsible for the farms I would dearly like to have a chat with them!!
 

bluepower

Member
Livestock Farmer
In the main there are very few people within the NT with much understanding of agriculture, therin lies the problem. As you are probably aware we are coming out of an NT farm this autumn which is not going to be relet as a farm again. The house and traditional buildings will probably end up as holiday lets, grain store as a storage unit and the land will go into various wild and wacky schemes and soon revert to scrub, gorse ragwort and the like.
We have always tried to farm to improve and feel that we have wasted our time in their eyes. To do nothing is better than to do something is one of their favourite phrases!However I can hold my head up and know that farm is in a much better state than when we took it on.
However there is one agent within the NT who is dealing with our outgoing who has a very sound knowledge of agriculture and a great deal of common sense. I will speak to him on this matter, not your specific situation but the general ignorance of their employees and see if something can be done.
All this sounds very familiar and seems to be common throughout the country and beggears belief. I for one will be glad to get them out of my hair, they are rapidly losing the plot. We basically decided that we could no longer run a business with them as landlords so made the big decision.
As you say people who left them farms and land would be turning in their graves as they are destroying many family farms, lost forever for the nation.
 
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Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
In the main there are very few people within the NT with much understanding of agriculture, therin lies the problem. As you are probably aware we are coming out of an NT farm this autumn which is not going to be relet as a farm again. The house and traditional buildings will probably end up as holiday lets, grain store as a storage unit and the land will go into various wild and wacky schemes and soon revert to scrub, gorse ragwort and the like.
We have always tried to farm to improve and feel that we have wasted our time in their eyes. To do nothing is better than to do something is one of their favourite phrases!However I can hold my head up and know that farm is in a much better state than when we took it on.
However there is one agent within the NT who is dealing with our outgoing who has a very sound knowledge of agriculture and a great deal of common sense. I will speak to him on this matter, not your specific situation but the general ignorance of their employees and see if something can be done.
All this sounds very familiar and seems to be common throughout the country and beggears belief. I for one will be glad to get them out of my hair, they are rapidly losing the plot. We basically decided that we could no longer run a business withe them as landlords so made the big decision.
As you say people who left them farms and land would be turning in their graves as they are destroying many family farms, lost forever for the nation.

This is what is happening with these farms by default.
However the land I have grazed is part of a very important wetland ecosystem and much of it SSSI which has been allowed to fall into rack and ruin. The irony of this is that to make the conservation work it needs to be farmed as of course do many areas otherwise they revert to rushes and scrub and in this case acres of Marestail.

The difficulty I see for the NT is that they presumably need the income.
No BPS means no rent from the land and I cannot see under the present proposals there will be any ELMS money unless the land is maintained which will mean it has to be farmed. It can only be used for summer grazing and much of it is impossible to mow for hay. A large area was cropped but has been left and is now all weed grasses, thistles and docks.
It cannot be turned over to trees as it is a wetland SSSI.
I do wonder how or if the NT value their land?
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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