Articles in "Agriculture"

Following a bruising Budget for agriculture 12 months ago, farmers may breathe a sigh of relief if it’s ‘no change’ when the Chancellor delivers her 2025 speech next week, according to a leading agricultural finance expert.

The importance of relevant and accurate data is essential to sustaining a viable agricultural business, with increasingly uncertain times ahead. Whilst farms will be utilising data to some degree, in many cases it may only be surface level and they could be making more use of the information that is available to them - according to a leading agricultural business finance expert.

Farming families need to future-proof their businesses by creating a Family Charter – that was the call to action from Natural England’s head of agriculture and Nuffield scholar Peter Craven at the latest Lovewell Blake/NFU Farmers’ Evening.

After a year which saw a snap General Election, hundreds of new MPs entering the House of Commons, and the inheritance tax announcement in the autumn Budget, the political lobbying work undertaken by the National Farmers’ Union has never been more important.

The multi-faceted challenges faced by family farming businesses will be the focus of the first joint Lovewell Blake/NFU Farmers’ Evening of 2025, which takes place at Halesworth Golf Club on Wednesday 7^th May.

For the many farmers in our region, there will have been disappointment that there was no moderation of the effects of the inheritance tax announcement made in the autumn Budget.

With grain prices depressed at harvest and only getting worse since and potential inheritance tax changes reducing the want for significant investment in storage, 2025 may be the year for more farms to become part of a grain co-operative.

A renewed focus on succession planning, and innovation driven by a younger generation taking over earlier, could be the silver lining to the cloud looming over farming following the Agricultural Property Relief (APR) announcement in the budget.