Professional park keeper. Small-time arable farmer.
Feb 25 • 35 tweets • 7 min read
Since it's NFU conference day today & stewardship schemes are being discussed, I thought I'd give my assessment of SFI & how it is performing.
The TLDR is that there are too many edge cases and gremlins in the system for it to be fit for purpose atm in a world with no BPS.
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The first point to make is that proper process does not excuse inadequate outcomes. I would say the period before the change of govt marked exceptional engagement between DEFRA and farmers to co-design the schemes, BUT this does not guarantee success.
Nov 19, 2024 • 20 tweets • 7 min read
Here is a list of the top weakness in the government's argument for the inheritance tax changes:
1) The set of estates claiming APR and BPR and the set of estates that are commercial farm holdings* are partially overlapping sets.
That is to say, talking about what % of APR and BPR claimants will be affected by these changes is NOT the same as the % of commercial farms who will be affected.
May 1, 2024 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Since we're all now using inhibitors with our urea based fertiliser, everything will be better. Well, maybe not. We might be making things worse.
This paper is short, comprehensible and worth a read, but since no one ever bothers to follow this advice, here's a summary.
The paper looks at urea fertiliser applied to sandy loam (SL) and clay loam (CL) soils along with two types of inhibitors. Urease inhibitor NBPT is added in the UN treatment, and NBPT + the nitrification inhibitor DCD is added in treatment UND.
Feb 3, 2023 • 44 tweets • 14 min read
Is what UK farmers now face similar to what UK coal miners faced back in the 1980s? Some inexpert thoughts.
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In the 80s coal mining was subsidised to the tune of £1 billion a year in 1980, or in today's money, about £5 billion. Not so different to the ~£3.3 billion received by farmers just a few years ago.
agindustries.org.uk/sectors/trade-….
I thought about what headline The Onion would write if summarising this research. It would go something like this:
"After an in-depth inquiry* Catholic Church concludes that the case for God is persuasive."
*They asked more than 90% of clergy members.
Feb 3, 2022 • 21 tweets • 10 min read
As an arable farmer I watched both the @CommonsEFRA session with George Eustice & @TamFinkelstein on recent work by DEFRA, and also the Westminster Hall debate on food production & the ELM scheme. I picked out THREE major issues that came out of both debates.
1/ In this EFRA segment until 15:54:43, the SoS seems to think that if additional £ paid out by ELM equals the £ lost from BPS payments then farmers are no worse off in financial terms. WRONG! This ignores the costs of implementing ELM.
@JanetHughes@jojabaker
Firstly, in a stress test you don't caress things and whisper kind words of encouragement, you throw bricks to test for robustness, so this criticism should be seen within this framing.
Feb 6, 2021 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
A thread about @RedTractorFood, competition law & why I think there may be a problem.
Disclaimer: I knew nothing about competition law a week ago. Think of this as a 1st year law student's first essay draft.
Firstly, what are the laws that deal with competition? They are Chapter I and II of the Competition Act 1998, and, until recently at least, Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
