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Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) – what we know so far

December 2018

What is ELMS?

In September Michael Gove introduced the new Agriculture bill that is due to replace the current legislation which has held the UK under EU rules for nearly half a century. The new scheme (ELMS), which is due to replace the current Basic Payment Scheme, aims to incentivise farmers to achieve environmental enhancement and protection and restore and improve natural capital and rural heritage.

The Government has stated that the new scheme aims to keep bureaucracy to a minimum as well as eliminating principles from the current system that pay farmers for the amount of land they own rather than the outcomes they achieve.…

AHDB Farmbench for Arable Farms

November 2018

AKC are working on behalf of AHDB to deliver farm benchmarking for arable farms across the south of England.

Farmbench is an easy to use online benchmarking tool that helps to identify where strengths and weaknesses lie within a farm business. By comparing results anonymously to farms with similar enterprises, Farmbench enables you to improve individual business performance and manage many of the challenges facing the sector, such as price volatility, Brexit, and economic uncertainty. This will ensure that your business is on the best possible footing for the future, allowing your…

RDPE Countryside Productivity Scheme - Improving Farm Productivity

September 2018

About the scheme

With the application deadline drawing near, the Countryside Productivity Scheme is offering its last chance for farmers who want to invest in innovative technology for their farm business, by offering grants between £35k to £1m under the Improving Farm Productivity Grant. Farmers from livestock, dairy, arable and horticultural sectors can apply for these grants which must aim to improve productivity through the following methods:

The use of robotic equipment and systems that aid crop and livestock productions

Example…

AKC @ Bath Expo!

March 2018

We recently attended the Bath Expo at The Assembly Rooms in Bath, one of the finest Georgian buildings in the town.

A great opportunity to meet other businesses and clients!!

AKC Payroll Year End Newsletter

March 2018

The tax year 2018/19 sees the first rise in minimum contributions for Automatic Enrolment since it started.

There is also a rise in the minimum wage and the living wage. We have listed the changes below.

If you have any questions about any of the subjects in this newsletter please contact us either on the telephone number or email address at the end of the newsletter.…

New Farming Rules for Water - An Overview

January 2018

From 2 April 2018 new rules for all farmers in England will be introduced to help protect water quality, by standardising good farm practices that many are already performing and offering a new approach to regulation.

There are eight rules, five about managing fertilisers and manures and three on managing soils.

The Environment Agency will roll out the rules through an advice led approach, working with farmers to meet the requirements before enforcement action is taken.

About the new rules

…

New hedgerow & Boundaries Grant

January 2018

This is a standalone capital grant available under Countryside Stewardship

Applicant deadline: 30 April 2018

Applications can be submitted online, by post or by email. (Online applications must be accompanied by a map and supporting documents by post or email).

Agents submitting applications on a client’s behalf must have relevant permissions.

Maximum of one application per round.

Maximum grant available: £10,000

…

Capital Investment in Robotic Milking

January 2018

The Dairy Industry is currently under pressure from two key challenges- a lack of good quality farm labour and the confidence to invest in the future given recent milk price cycles. The challenge of getting people of my generation with the desire to work on Dairy farms is greater than ever as highlighted by a labour survey announced by Tim Brigstocke at the recent RABDF conference in London. The vast majority of participants to the survey had little interest due to the perceived working environment.

However, does this factor alone justify spend on a robotic milking system? I would argue no, as having conducted some recent…

Updates for BPS 2018

January 2018

The main changes to the 2018 greening rules are as follows; • A complete ban on the use of Plant Protection Products on Ecological Focus Area (EFA) Fallow Land, EFA Catch and Cover Crops, and EFA Nitrogen-fixing Crops is introduced. The ban applies from the time of sowing the crop, even if this is before 1 January 2018, to harvesting. The ban also applies to seed dressings. • As part of crop diversification, you can declare an area as ‘mixed crops’ that contains small areas of different crops grown next to each other. Individually these would otherwise be too small to claim (these are areas less than 0.01ha) but can be claimed as one ‘mixed crop’ area. • …

Basic Payment Scheme Update

December 2017

2017 Basic Payment Scheme payments underway:

The RPA are on target to pay 90% of claimants in December (63% paid as at 7th December)

Letters/emails will be sent from late December to those claimants who are unlikely to receive payment in December

Claim statements will be released in batches

Please let AKC know when you have been paid and provide a copy of the claim statement so that your payment can be checked. We do not receive copies of the statements or notification when…

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