Question for UK farmers/ farm managers.

[Pilatus]

To prepare for the future do any of you run your farm as if subsidies( government payments of any kind) were done away with as happened in New Zealand a few years ago .
I admire you if you do as at the moment the government payments available of any kind to farmers are a nice bonus should you be future proofing your Farm business.

 

[ford4000]

Subsidies have been payed into a different bank account to the farm's bank account. That's not to say I've never raided it (buying a tractor or putting up a shed for example) but it doesn't get lost in the farms trading, flattering the performance

 

[Mc115reed]

Never claimed a single penny in subsidies or been eligible for a penny,.. but I have too work around a lot of landlords claiming them so I guess they make my land availability’s cheaper..

 

[som farmer]

there's profit, before subs here, but subs disappear into the endless hole, called the farm account.

not ideal, but buyers have worked sub payments, into what they intend to pay us.

we have, hopefully, maxed the environmental payments, and will use them to decrease the work load, reduce stock numbers, and try to develop a profitable system, without using subs, in the next 2-5 yrs, before they run out of money, which they surely will.


losing debt is our aim, without debt, things certainly look rosier, here its more reducing debt, rather than losing it. Well on the way to reducing it.

at some stage, guv will realise production subs, are more important than environmental ones, food has to be affordable for the consumer. It is political suicide to have voters starving, because food is to expensive.

global events will have more relevance than guv food policy, and not sure what those events will be.

 

[Hfd Cattle]

Subsidies have been payed into a different bank account to the farm's bank account. That's not to say I've never raided it (buying a tractor or putting up a shed for example) but it doesn't get lost in the farms trading, flattering the performance

Same here, any farm 'subsidies' are paid into a different account. Still accounted for as income but not used . We don't claim much though .

 

[Surgery]

Never claimed a single penny in subsidies or been eligible for a penny,.. but I have too work around a lot of landlords claiming them so I guess they make my land availability’s cheaper..

I’m sure most land agents take the opinion that subs are added onto any rents available , no sub of any kind and rents would drop further around here

 

[icanshootwell]

Same here, any farm 'subsidies' are paid into a different account. Still accounted for as income but not used . We don't claim much though .

Does that not add a lot more work for accounting purposes, I'm struggling to see the advantage

 

[som farmer]

I’m sure most land agents take the opinion that subs are added onto any rents available , no sub of any kind and rents would drop further around here

we rent 22 acres off a 'city' person, moved out into the country, tried a few cattle, and made a huge profit-not.
so we had the chance, took it, ploughed and re-seeded,

there's a new digestor going in locally, offering £5/600 acre, to grow maize................... the fields are in a block of land, known as Horsington marsh................ We had to wrap 1st cut, to 'tender' to take silage tackle across it. Basically you might, might get away with maize, once in every 10 yrs.

now, we can get herbal ley on it, and it will grow a lot of grass in a dry year, so, what would be a fair rent offer ? Bearing in mind he is pretty clueless about farming, and we can pick up £160ac from SFI, and we would quite like to keep it. We rent a fair few acres cheaply elsewhere.

 

[Surgery]

we rent 22 acres off a 'city' person, moved out into the country, tried a few cattle, and made a huge profit-not.
so we had the chance, took it, ploughed and re-seeded,

there's a new digestor going in locally, offering £5/600 acre, to grow maize................... the fields are in a block of land, known as Horsington marsh................ We had to wrap 1st cut, to 'tender' to take silage tackle across it. Basically you might, might get away with maize, once in every 10 yrs.

now, we can get herbal ley on it, and it will grow a lot of grass in a dry year, so, what would be a fair rent offer ? Bearing in mind he is pretty clueless about farming, and we can pick up £160ac from SFI, and we would quite like to keep it. We rent a fair few acres cheaply elsewhere.

Only you know what it’s worth too you !

 

[Hfd Cattle]

Does that not add a lot more work for accounting purposes, I'm struggling to see the advantage

Never been any bother . Accountant never questioned it . As long as it's accounted for as farm income then does it matter where it is .

 

[som farmer]

Never been any bother . Accountant never questioned it . As long as it's accounted for as farm income then does it matter where it is .

depends how much son wants it. The max rent we pay is £100ac downwards, SFI will cause some change in that, but it will make a lot of the land rent neutral, or more than the rent. So for 1 block, we could push the boat out. Think h/leys are £160 now, that's a very good start.

 

[Johnnyboxer]

Does that not add a lot more work for accounting purposes, I'm struggling to see the advantage

I cannot seem any issue?
I run a deposit account alongside the main current account and ‘raid’ it in leaner months and top it up, in more fruitful months
Accountant has copies of both statements at year end and just treats it as ‘the bank account’

 

[Clive]

To prepare for the future do any of you run your farm as if subsidies( government payments of any kind) were done away with as happened in New Zealand a few years ago .
I admire you if you do as at the moment the government payments available of any kind to farmers are a nice bonus should you be future proofing your Farm business.

yes - have been planning on that basis for 15yrs now

 

[ford4000]

Never been any bother . Accountant never questioned it . As long as it's accounted for as farm income then does it matter where it is .

Exactly. We do our own accounting using sage software, put the subs down in a column titled subs just like beef sales goes in another column titled beef sales, lamb sales, culls etc do the same.

 

[ppottersfarm]

To prepare for the future do any of you run your farm as if subsidies( government payments of any kind) were done away with as happened in New Zealand a few years ago .
I admire you if you do as at the moment the government payments available of any kind to farmers are a nice bonus should you be future proofing your Farm business.

Our stays in the account but our management accounts list it separately so we can clearly see removing it alters profit. However we will now be getting more from SFI 23 with some very minor changes to the rotation. However SFI 24 onwards wont allow what we are presently doing so in 3 years time we will effectively be farming without any subsidy as I wont sign into the new SFI.