[georgina73]

Hello,

I purchased in January 2015 a farmhouse with 15 acres which includes about 3 acres of woodland, 2 acres of garden and 10 acres of grazing. I am wondering about single farm payments - I am not registered because the farmer who owned the land before me asked me if to save paperwork he could keep the SFP registered to himself and in return he would harrow my fields, make hay for me and cut my hedges. It is convenient for me to have this arrangement and also have a very good relationship with this neighbour farmer so do not really want to upset things.

However I am struggling to make it all work financially and am very keen to get whatever help I can. Does anyone know whether it would be worth registering it all to myself. I have found a local shepherd who is now keeping his flock in one of my fields in return for help with work on the farm. He said I could get grants for my woodland, for hedge-laying, etc, and I should really register it all back to myself.

Does anyone know the figures - i.e. How much could I get, so would it be worth it? Also does anyone know how Brexit has or possibly will change the grants we get?

I have a mare and foal, a tenant is about to bring her two horses, and the shepherd has just bought a Gloucester Old Spot Pig that we are going to keep in the woods to eat all the brambles and nettles. I am very excited about this and would like to go into pig keeping! My favourites are the Gloucester Old Spots and Tamworth's so far.

Any help and advice,or pointers as to who to contact, would be hugely appreciated

Best wishes to all

Georgina

[greenbeast]

Unfortunately it won't be enough, i think you need either 13 or 15 acres but that needs to be farmable land, no gardens, woodland, etc...
And even if it was it would be a pittance i imagine

[pharnorth]

I think a lot of us around the 15 acre mark have found that the authorities have subtracted every track, hedge line and coal bunker to show that we actually have just under the trees hold for claiming. We filled form after form after form only to be told we only had 97% of the acreage for the minimum. At least by having is with your neighbour you are getting the quid pro quo benefits. The alternative is buy more land....

[Bionic]

I can't help regarding the payments but note that you are only talking about 1 pig for your bramble clearance. You should never keep just one. They need company of their own kind.

[SallyintNorth]

I think, even if you had enough ground to qualify for the Basic Payment, you would have to buy entitlements.  Guess what, they sell for not much less than the income they are guaranteed to bring...

However, do check, because it has all changed a bit since the SFP was replaced by the BP.

There's no such thing as a free lunch, and any of these schemes come with significant restrictions on what you can do.  Quite likely, if you were able to register your woodland (woodland wasn't eligible for SFP, as far as I understand it all, but I'm not sure about BP), there'd be some rule stopped you running pigs in there, if you wanted your payment... 

Grants usually require you to do things in certain ways, which are more expensive than how you might have gone about it without a grant, and generally only give you 50% back, or less.  So in general, we've found them superb for helping you get a better outcome for the money you were going to invest anyway, but they are not free money.

As to Brexit... at one point, the government said they'd keep agricultural subsidies the same for a couple of years, so if that means two years after we actually leave, and we press Article 50 in March 2017, then there are a bit less than four and a half years left.  Iff the government stick to that 'promise', of course...

With such a small acreage, I doubt very much if you'd find it worth your while.  But do check - the local agri accounting company should be able to tell you in a 5 minute phone call whether it's worth investigating further.

[Black Sheep]

As far as I know the Basic Payment is about 220 Euros per hectare but as mentioned, you have to have the entitlements and up here these tend to sell for about what you would be able to claim for them in a year. So in year one you'd net nothing (and still lose the labour etc you are getting now).

However there are extra payments for young (under 40) or new farmers (in the first 5? years). The grants / payments under the various stewardship plans seem to require you to submit a collection of measures of at least a certain value to qualify - which may be difficult to meet on a small acreage.

You need a minimum of 5 hectares of land in agricultural use and that does exclude all buildings, tracks, hardstandings etc. Woodland might be allowable - I believe short rotation coppice is ok for example but not "woodland". Whether it would count as being in agricultural use with pigs in it is a question for an expert - one of the agricultural valuers / agents near you probably offers this kind of service.

Perhaps instead of all the hassle and potentially damaging the relationship you have (and the value this has for advice, someone that looks out for things etc that are never costed out or paid for) you could try costing up the value of the services the farmer is providing for you (there are guides to the "usual" rates you could expect to pay per unit for things like topping etc) and see if this matches up with the value of the Basic Payment you are allowing him to claim. If the balance is off you could try and negotiate a bit more, if it's about right and you need these tasks doing, then you wouldn't seem to have much to gain. If you believe some of the grants/stewardship amounts could be claimable then perhaps you could come to an arrangement with the farmer where he claims them and you fund/do them.