BPS 2020
Basic Payment Scheme 2020 The 2020 BPS scheme opens for online applications on 12th March with a claim deadline of 15th May. The scheme is primarily online and paper forms will only be sent on request. DEFRA have confirmed that the current system will remain in place for this year with payment cuts from 2021. Thereafter payments will continue to fall, on a trajectory still to be agreed, to zero in 2028. The overall budget has been guaranteed for the duration of this Parliament. A new environment scheme, ELMS, as well as productivity initiatives, will be phased in with the large scale roll...
Read MoreBrexit impacts on farming
Well, we have only gone and done it! Whilst the polls were always close ‘those in the know’ were sure that the bookies had it right and we were going to stay in the EU. Wrong again, and now we have a mad scrabbling for position which just delays the difficult decisions a little further. Agriculture was the biggest recipient of EU funds and has the most to lose in a tussle with the NHS. The CLA and NFU have produced papers outlining priorities for a UK Agricultural Policy (UKAP). The core point is that agriculture has to remain a profitable business if the countryside is to retain its...
Read MoreWhere is the silver lining?
It has been clear since the late spring of 2015 that confidence is waning in the agricultural land market. Prices achieved in mid 2015 were in many cases lower than those in 2014 and by the end of 2015 a continuing crisis in confidence was resulting in guide prices coming down and properties failing to find a buyer. It is not all doom and gloom. Recent research has suggested that land prices across England rose marginally in 2015 but there is little doubt that the trend has been negative in the East of England. Essex saw over 4,000 acres in the market but divided between 21 locations this...
Read MoreSCHEME UPDATES FROM LAND PARTNERS LLP
Hopefully you are now registered on the Rural Payments online system. If not, ring 03000 200 301 now! This remains a condition of entry for all schemes. Basic Payment Scheme The paper based application forms for 2015 (form BP5) will be emailed to registered applicants from next week for completion by 15th June. The forms look similar to the old SP5 claim forms. Note that there are 22 pages of new crop codes (e.g. winter wheat changes from OT1 to AC66). New information required for the claim mainly centres on the need to specify EFA areas. Where relevant for the EFA you will need to have...
Read MoreFarming 2012 – a curate’s egg
It’s now nearly 8 months that Land Partners has been up and running and operating from a converted farm building in a working farm yard. Nothing brings home the vagaries of the agricultural year like watching it out the window and receiving regular updates in passing from the horses’ mouths (apologies boys). Not being the farming expert within the firm, it’s been a great reminder of all the points in the farming year which together bring success or heartache at harvest. It’s hard to remember now that we were seriously worried about drought conditions at the beginning of the year and as...
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