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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…

Woodland Creation

October 2017

A £13 million fund to help landowners plant more trees to protect wildlife, boost the timber sector and reduce flood risk will soon open for applications, Forestry Minister Thérèse Coffey confirmed today.

Farmers, foresters and land managers across the UK will be able to apply for up to £6,800 per hectare to plant, weed and protect more trees when application forms for the next round of the government’s Woodland Creation grant are made available in September.

The fund – part of the Countryside Stewardship scheme – will help plant more than 3 million trees, creating 1,900 hectares of new woodland and contributing to the government’s ambition to plant 11 million trees, with a further one…

Soya in the UK- a real option?

October 2017

Having attended a recent open day on a trial farm in Hampshire growing commercial soya, it is clear that the interest and scope for growing the crop in the UK is growing considerably. The area has grown from 8Ha to 5,000 Ha in the last five years, with current estimations of 10,000 Ha to be grown next year in the UK.

The crop is traditionally grown in North & South America where the climatic conditions are suited towards growing large areas of the crop. However, due to big advancements in varieties over the past five years, species are now available which are more suited towards the UK market. The biggest difference is the strength of the stem of the plant, allowing the crop to be…

New Red Tractor Standards from October 1st: Beef and Lamb

October 2017

Some of the key areas strengthened have been outlined below. Not every change is listed

BEEF AND LAMB

Standards affecting the use and recording of antibiotics have been bolstered across all livestock sectors, demonstrating the UK farming industry’s commitment to playing its part in tackling antimicrobial resistance. Further changes will be made in 2018 after the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance (RUMA) target recommendations and other industry initiatives are published to ensure the industry is fully aligned.

Animal medicines

A recommendation has been added that the highest priority critically important antibiotics are…

Countryside Productivity - Water Resource Management Grants

September 2017

The Government have recently announced £200m of RDPE funding to support rural businesses including farmers. One package is for funding available under the Countryside Productivity Scheme. This scheme is made up of three elements Water Resource Management, Improving Forestry Productivity and Animal Health and Welfare.

Below is a summary of the Water Resource Management grant scheme.

If you feel this would be of interest to your business please do not hesitate to contact one of the consultants in the office to discuss your idea further.

Water Resource Management:

Aim:

…

Changes to Basic Payment Scheme Greening Requirements for 2018

August 2017

DEFRA have now partially clarified how they will implement the new EU Greening requirements for the 2018 Scheme Year in England.

The key changes expected are:

There will be a ban on the use of Plant Protection Products on EFA Fallow Land, Catch & Cover Crops and Nitrogen Fixing Crops. This ban is expected to apply to the full lifecycle of the crop (or 1st January to 30th June in the case of Fallow) and will include a ban on seed treatments.

Further details…

Dairy Training Day

July 2017

On the 12th of July, we hosted our first ever Dairy Training Day aimed for knowledge exchange amongst professionals with regards to the challenges faced by our Dairy farming clients and their consultants!

Thanks to Andrew Bristol for hosting the event on his Dairy farm in Somerset. Working sessions included ‘Ration assessment’ by Barrie Audis, Andrew’s consultant, ‘Grazing Management Plan’ by AKC Consultant James Berry and ‘Planning Considerations for Industrial Agricultural Buildings’ by Paul Oakley of OPAC Ltd.

In the afternoon having also had a tour of the facilities, the working groups were encouraged to give their thoughts and views on the grazing management, sharing their thoughts with…

Changes to Ecological Focus Area Requirements, do they impact your business?

June 2017

As you may be aware the greening requirements under the Basic Payment Scheme have undergone a recent review. This was badged as making ‘greening simpler’ however as you will see below this is not the case!

The EU decision makers have brought in a series of changes which will have an impact on a significant number of businesses.

We have summarised these changes below, with the details which are known to date:

EFA catch/cover crop minimum period extended:… Read More

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