Vineyards, Pesticides, Dear Ms Truss

We have a new monarch, a new Prince of Wales and, of course, a new Prime Minister. We’ve been bold enough to compile our own wish list for Ms Truss, and while we appreciate that King Charles III will no longer be able to share his personal views in public, we can hope some of his vast experience and love of the countryside percolates across to the PM during their weekly meetings. As the new Prince of Wales, William takes over the Duchy of Cornwall and becomes at a stroke one of the UK’s largest landowners and a potentially powerful advocate at a time when the food-and-farming sector needs all the champions it can get. We wish all three the best of luck in their new roles and hope that the Queen’s deeply moving funeral yesterday offers our politicians a chance to reflect on what a life of service really means.

Do get in touch if we can help in any way
Andrew Shirley, Head of Rural Research

In this week’s update:

• Commodity markets – Wheat up, diesel down
• Goodbye ma’am
• Politics – Dear Ms Truss….
• Mini budget – Date announced
• Lump sum exit scheme – Deadline approaches
• Vineyards – Knight Frank property partnership announced
• Property news – Scottish holding for sale
• International news – Good news for pesticides

Commodity markets – Wheat up, diesel down

Wheat’s mini rally continued last week with prices continuing to nudge upwards off the back of uncertainty around Black Sea shipments and a drop off in US and EU maize yields and plantings, highlighted by the USDA’s latest World Agricultural Supply and Demands Estimates (WASDE) report. Drought in France, for example, will see the country harvest its smallest corn crop in 32 years. Red diesel prices declined slightly, but still remain above £1/litre.

Goodbye Ma’am

As I mentioned last week, many readers will have their own personal memories of the Queen who has now been laid to rest. Our own Ross Murray added to that list when, as a member of The Royal Company of Archers, also known as the King’s Bodyguard for Scotland, he was selected to stand vigil over her Majesty’s coffin as it lay in state in Edinburgh and London. “It was deeply moving to be able to pay my respects so intimately to The Queen who loved Scotland, the countryside and did so much for rural communities,” says Ross.

Ross Murray, above centre

Politics – Dear Ms Truss….

With a new broom sweeping through Westminster, I thought it would be interesting to ask our rural teams what would be on their wish list if they were able to put just one request to Prime Minister Liz Truss and her new cabinet. Some of my colleagues couldn’t stick with just a single demand as there are so many issues around food and farming that need to be addressed, but a number of themes jumped out – certainty and fairness.

To plan for the future, rural businesses need to know what support the government will be providing and what direction policy will be heading in. And they need a level playing field when it comes to competing with food imported from other countries. Read their full wish list

Mini budget – Date announced

Talking of wish lists it looks like Christmas may be coming early for bankers with reports that new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, as part of his mini-budget on Friday (23 September), is planning to scrap the cap on their bonuses applied after the global financial crisis. Other well-trailed moves include rescinding the recent rise in National Insurance payments and the planned increase in corporation tax, not to mention action to mitigate the impact on households and businesses of spiralling energy costs. More detailed tax changes helpful to farms and estates seem unlikely at this stage, but with the government’s more business-focussed approach there could be some surprises. I’ll sum it all up in the next bulletin.

Lump sum exit scheme – Deadline approaches

English farmers wanting to take advantage of the government’s lump sum exit plan only have until midnight on 30th September to submit their application. Applicants will receive up to £100,000 of future Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) support payments in return for selling or renting out their land, ending a tenancy, or planting trees on it. It was thought the one-off scheme would appeal particularly to tenant farmers looking to retire, but according to my land management colleagues the uptake has been limited. Please contact one of our team if you need help with an application.

Vineyards – Knight Frank property partnership announced

Our viticulture team led by Ed Mansel Lewis is going from strength to strength having just been appointed as the property partner of industry body Wines of Great Britain. “We’re thrilled to be working with WineGB, they’re a superb organisation that provides extensive support and advice to industry members across the UK,” says Ed.

“We look forward to working with Knight Frank in supporting one of the UK’s fastest growing agricultural sectors,” adds WineGB CEO, Simon Thorpe. There are now 879 vineyards and 195 wineries in Britain, and the area under vines has more than quadrupled since 2000.

Property news – Scottish holding for sale

James Denne in our Melrose office has just launched a 155-acre property that could appeal to anybody looking for a scenic slice of the Scottish Borders. Upper Ashtrees near Jedburgh includes a good range of farm buildings, a steading, arable ground, pasture and woodland. The guide price is offers over £615,000.

International news – Good news for pesticides

Pesticide manufactures have something to cheer on either side of the Atlantic. In the US, Roundup manufacturer Bayer has just won five court cases on the roll against plaintiffs arguing that its glyphosate-based weedkiller gave them cancer. Meanwhile, the EU is looking to delay its plans to halve the use of pesticides by 2030 due to concerns, exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that the move could cut food production and push up prices. Anti-chemical campaigners do, however, have something to cheer about. The German agriculture ministry is preparing to ban from spring 2023 the export of certain plant protection products that are harmful to human health and whose use is prohibited in the EU.

Photo by Erdem GÖRAL on Unsplash