The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: SirDoolb on February 15, 2014, 01:27:06 pm
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I have been told that there is a single farm payment on the land that I am buying.
I haven't the faintest idea about what this is, except what I have briefly read. As I'm due to complete in the next 2 weeks and this has only just been mentioned now, I am not up to speed with any of it.
I had just presumed that I wouldn't be eligible so had dismissed it, also had no idea that a payment had been made to the current land owners.
I'm presuming that the and is currently categorised as permanent pasture, though not sure if one of the fields qualifies as it's very wet, overgrown with weeds and may have been neglected, or maybe just left to nature for better or worse?
Any good websites that have clear and concise information? Or anyone who really knows the deal? I really don't want to be getting myself into a load of red tape if I don't have to.
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Are the entitlements part of the sale? They don't have to sell the SFP entitlements with the land. How many acres of actual farm land are included? (boggy is OK usually)
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Where is the property? It's very different in Scotland to England
and Wales. I'll leave someone operating under the Scottish system to describe that to you. Ditto Wales.
In England and Wales the SFP can only now be claimed by someone in a position to farm the land. When you make your claim, in May, you have to state that you are farming it now and will be farming it in December. So the seller won't be able to claim next year's SFP anyway so may as well hand the entitlements over to you.
None of us know exactly what or when the next scheme will come in, but the implication is that we will continue to claim 'area payments' (fixed amounts per hectare according to the type of ground it is) until the new scheme is introduced. The expectation is that the new scheme will focus more on environmental management - so your field that is "very wet, overgrown with weeds" is probably exactly what they want!
If you are talking more than a few hectares it could well be worth your while keeping the SFPs going (remember I'm talking England and Wales here.) I'd ask your seller for some details - a copy of their last claim form would be the best thing to have, if they're happy to let you have it, and then ask the local land management company (usually attached to the local livestock auction mart) for a short meeting to explain your options to you.
Edited to reduce scope to England only
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. So the seller won't be able to claim next year's SFP anyway so may as well hand the entitlements over to you.
But the entitlements can be sold to another farmer with land that has no entitlements through special auctions.... depending on area can be worth quite a bit of money.
England and Wales vary too (so I've discovered whilst trying to acquire some extra entitlements myself. )
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One of the main requirements for recipients of SFP is that the land is kept in good environmental and agricultural condition i.e. is capable of providing a crop or grazing. A weed-choked bog is not on, neither is spreading slurry near a watercourse for instance. If you look on the defra.gov.uk website and enter Single Payment Scheme in the Search box you'l find guidance notes that tell you what you'll need to do. Have you checked whether it's in a Higher Level or Entry Level Scheme, too?
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. So the seller won't be able to claim next year's SFP anyway so may as well hand the entitlements over to you.
But the entitlements can be sold to another farmer with land that has no entitlements through special auctions.... depending on area can be worth quite a bit of money.
England and Wales vary too (so I've discovered whilst trying to acquire some extra entitlements myself. )
This used to be the case; you used to be able to claim 'historical payments' attached to 'naked acres'. The historical payment is now 0%.
The area payments can only be claimed by someone in a position to farm the land - so the owner or farmer.
I don't understand what it is that is being auctioned unless it's n Scotland, where the old headage schemes still apply.
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One of the main requirements for recipients of SFP is that the land is kept in good environmental and agricultural condition i.e. is capable of providing a crop or grazing. A weed-choked bog is not on, neither is spreading slurry near a watercourse for instance. If you look on the defra.gov.uk website and enter Single Payment Scheme in the Search box you'l find guidance notes that tell you what you'll need to do. Have you checked whether it's in a Higher Level or Entry Level Scheme, too?
We are paid to keep land which would be capable of supporting grazing as 'rush-dominated pasture' - ie, weed-choked bog. The payment compensates us for the loss of grazing.
So it depends on where you are and what the environmental and agricultural imperatives are in that area.
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No there are auctions in England and Scotland but check out what is likely to happen in the future ..
link to one estate agent's site
http://www.jjmorris.com (http://www.jjmorris.com) (look in agriculture icon)
this gives a useful guide to CAP reform and current auction prices
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If you are in Scotland, you should contact your local area office for advice. The system is changing in the near future and they will be best placed to provide advice on what is happening or when there will be more information coming out of the EU for the 2014 to 2020 CAP programme.
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Looking at the docs on that website, it seems that Wales is not on the same system as England.
So we need to know where you are SirDoolb! If in England, then my previous post applies :)
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Spoke to a colleague of mine who lives in the SE too. He gets around £700 a year for his 9 acres but said they are thinking of imposing a minimum farm size which his doesn't fall under
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I'm in England. Just got report from solicitor. 23 of the 30 acres has sfp and these are included in the sale.
I just need to see what I need to do to continue to qualify and if it's something that I actually want to do.
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All I can see is that it is very woolly. I wanted a definition of the term 'active farmer' but have discovered that this is open to interpretation. Great. It doesn't appear that anything that I am going to do excludes me.
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Definition of Active farmer has not yet been sorted ... you have appeared in middle of a change of system .... hence such different answers and suggestions. I suspect it will have more to do with how many hours you work 'in farming'.
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I think if you are managing the land in any active way you'll qualify. The idea was to stop people claiming on land they do nothing with, and I think a move towards the payment going to the tenant who is actually farming rather than to absent landlords ;)
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Hands up all those who could see that the original rules weren't going to work on a practical level?! And don't get me started on the Government's past plans to remove hedgerows (then pay us to put them back), drain the land (then pay us not to clear ditches every year) ..... and so on!