Philip Clarke blogs on many of the same agri-business topics covered on this page. Andersons even get an occational mention in his column. Read Philip Clarke's blog...
01 August 2010 - Farm Profitability Forecast
As we pass the mid-point of the year, it seems an opportune time to look at farm profitability prospects for 2010. The benchmark indicator is Total Income from Farming (TIFF). This is the aggregate return to all the entrepreneurs in UK agriculture and horticulture for their management, labour and their own capital in their businesses - in simplistic terms, it is the profit of ‘UK Farming Plc’.
01 July 2010 - DEFRA Budget Cuts to Hit RDPE
We recently reported on the £162m cut to DEFRA’s budget for 2010-11.
This reduction is before any further cuts arising from the spending plans announced in the Budget which apply to future years. It seems the relatively small initial cuts are already filtering down into spending programmes...
01 June 2010 - Mercosur Talks Restart
The EU is to restart free-trade talks with the Mercosur grouping; if these are sucessful there could be big impacts on some EU commodity markets - especially meat...
04 May 2010 - Arable Markets
As the last futures contract for the 2009 harvest crop comes to an end (May 2010), the remainder of the old crop market is left in a situation of ever decreasing volume and therefore falling fluidity. The market will therefore become less predictable (not that it ever is). Prices will increasingly move because of position squaring and regional hot spots rather than fundamentals. This could, of course, go either way for grain long-holders such as farmers with unsold stock...
08 April 2010 - CAP Post 2013
With the Commission expected to issue a paper on the CAP post 2013 towards the end of this year lobbying continues to gather pace. Each week there seems to be a new report or paper delivered on the future of the CAP. It seems most are agreed that a future CAP will need to ensure that agriculture is equipped to address food security concerns, but do so in a more sustainable way....
12 March 2010 - DEFRA Attitude to CAP Reform
In an interview with the Farmers Guardian, the DEFRA Farming Minister, Jim Fitzpatrick, has indicated that the UK will be adopting a more pragmatic stance in the next round of CAP reform. The UK government’s stance was set out in the 2005 Treasury paper ‘A vision for the CAP’. This called for the phasing-out of direct payments over a relatively short time period, with funding diverted to Rural Development programmes....
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08 February 2010 - Farm Incomes Fall (From a Height)
Total farm incomes fell in 2009 compared to 2008. The latest Total Income from Farming (TIFF) data shows a 6% real-terms drop. This will come as little surprise to those in the industry, and corresponds with what has been happening at an individual farm level (unlike DEFRA’s pre-Christmas estimate)....
05 January 2010 - Combinable Crop Markets
Compared with the market movements of the previous 12 months, 2009 was a relatively docile year. November 2009 wheat futures moved by £63 per tonne, but the November 2008 contract moved by more than £100...
11 December 2009 - Outlook 2010
Andersons annual ‘Outlook’ publication, now in its fourteenth year, has just been released. The widely-respected briefing aims to provide a realistic and objective assessment of the prospects for the faming industry over the next 12 months and beyond...
01 December 2009 - Single Payments Start
With the 1st December reached, it becomes legally possible for Single Payments to be made (EU regulations state that they can only be paid after this date).
There seems to be a bit of inter-agency competition as to who can get the most payments out quickest . . .
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25 November 2009 - Farm Incomes for 2009
Somewhat surprisingly, DEFRA is estimating that farm incomes will be a quarter higher in 2009 than they were in 2008. The department has released its first estimates for 2009 and 2010 Total Income from Farming (TIFF). This shows agricultural returns increasing by 25% in real terms for the current year, and then falling by around 9% in 2010 . . .
01 November 2009 - ELS Renewals
In 2010, nearly 14,000 Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) agreements will come up for renewal. Natural England (NE) has a target of 70% of the Utilisable Agricultural Area (UAA) in England being under an environmental agreement. Currently the area in schemes is just under 66%. Therefore, just to keep levels where they are, never mind increase them to the target figure, a high proportion of those ELS agreement holders will need to be persuaded to re-sign...
01 October 2009 - Single Payment Rate for 2009
UK farmers will get a welcome boost to their incomes this year. The ECB’s official exchange rate on the 30th September is used to convert Single Payments from Euros to Sterling. The rate has been fixed at €1 = 90.93p. This is a 15% increase on last year...
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01 September 2009 - Dairy Profitability
Dairy profitability could improve for the 2010-11 milk year. But for a fairly typical farm, the returns from producing milk are still marginal – it still requires support payments to bring about a reasonable level of business surplus. These are the messages from the latest figures produced for Andersons’ model dairy business ‘Friesian Farm’...
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The data was prepared for the forthcoming Dairy Event and Livestock Show due to be held at Stoneleigh on the 16th and 17th September 2009. Andersons will be exhibiting their usual indepth industry analysis in Hall 1 on Stand 128 and our consultants will be on hand to discuss the latest issues.
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The data was prepared for the forthcoming Dairy Event and Livestock Show due to be held at Stoneleigh on the 16th and 17th September 2009. Andersons will be exhibiting their usual indepth industry analysis in Hall 1 on Stand 128 and our consultants will be on hand to discuss the latest issues.
01 August 2009 - Harvest Progress
The combines are rolling in many parts of England eagerly harvesting oilseed rape, barley and oats. However, the showery weather has made the harvest a very stop-start affair so far. Progress is well behind the average for this point in the summer...
01 July 2009 - CAP Reform 2012
The timetable for the next round of CAP reform has become clearer. This is the result of recent comments made by the EU Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel. As we have previously stated in these pages, what happens to the CAP is inextricably linked to the budget settlement for the 2014-2020 period...
02 June 2009 - Arable Profitability in 2009 and 2010
In preparation for the upcoming Cereals Event (to be held at Vine Farm, Wendy, Nr Royston, Cambridgeshire on Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th June), Andersons have updated their Loam Farm Model. We think that this highlights some interesting trends in the profitability of cereals production...
01 May 2009 - Grazing Agreements and the NVZ Rules
It is the time of year when a lot of land is being let on grazing agreements - promoting a number of questions, especially on how cross-compliance is treated. This is because, under a licence, the landowner is almost always claiming the SPS, and is thus responsible for ensuring cross-compliance...
01 April 2009 - Rents and CAP Reform
Many tenancies, either new or renewals, are being negotiated based on 5-year terms. It should be remembered that this takes them beyond the current lifespan of the Single Payment Scheme which has its final year in 2012...
16 March 2009 - NVZ Livestock Manure Loading Derogation Confirmed
The EU has agreed to the NVZ derogation on whole-farm livestock manure limits. This will allow farmers in Great Britain to have a maximum whole-farm livestock manure application limit of 250 kg/Ha of Nitrogen rather than the existing 170 kg N/ha limit...
March 2009 - Land Prices Start to Fall
Land prices are starting to fall according to the latest figures from the RICS Rural Land Market Survey of Great Britain. According to the survey, the weighted average price (opinion based) of bare arable and pasture land fell from £12,965 per Ha in the first half of 2008 to £12,336 per Ha in the second half of the year, this represents a 5% decrease compared to a 24% increase in the first half of 2008...
February 2009 - Set Aside Replacement
There has been a lot of talk recently on how DEFRA is planning to deal with the environmental effects of the end to set-aside. Set-aside was always intended as a supply mechanism but it also provided considerable benefits to wildlife. Issues have recently been coming to a head...
January 2009 - Renewables Boost
Over the last couple of months there have been a number of policy moves that are likely to boost the renewables sector.
Firstly, EU Leaders agreed a ‘Climate and Energy Package’ during their December Summit that sets new targets for the use of renewable energy. The whole package is known as ’20-20-20 by 2020’ and has three elements...
December 2008 - Andersons Outlook 2009
Andersons has now launched its Outlook 2009 publication which is available for download by following the link below. Outlook 2009 provides a sector by sector overview of the agricultural industry with comment and predictions for the year ahead. Please contact us if you require hard copies of Outlook 2009.
November 2008 - UK Harvest Results and Prospects for 2009
The large size of the 2008 UK harvest has been confirmed by DEFRA’s provisional Cereal Production Survey. A record wheat crop of 17.458 million tonnes was harvested – this is almost a third higher than last year. This is thanks to an increased planted area ....October 2008 - Single Payment Rates
The exchange rate on 30th September, the date for the setting of the SPS conversion rate for 2008, was €1 = £0.79030. This is an increase on last year of 13.8 %....
September 2008 - Andersons at the Dairy Event and Livestock Show
Andersons will be at the 2008 Dairy and Livestock Show at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire. Please come and see us in Exhibition Hall 1 on Stand 130 on the 17th and 18th September.August 2008 - The John Nix Farm Management Pocketbook
The next edition of The John Nix Farm Management Pocketbook will be published at the start of September 2008.
The Pocketbook has been fully revised incorporating the dramatic changes in the economics of all sectors of UK agriculture this year. It has over 270 pages of updated information including:
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over 100 gross margins
- a new section on Renewable Energy
- Government Support
- chapters on overheads including labour, machinery, other ‘fixed’ costs
- capital and finance information
- other budgeting information such as a chapter on agricultural taxation
If you are farming, advising in agriculture, studying agriculture, or involved in the industry in any way, a copy of the Pocketbook is an essential to keep in your pocket.
Phone 01664 564 508 now to order your copy or visit the Pocketbook website to download an order form or view the content's pages.
July 2008 - 2009 Budgeting Figures Published
Recent cost increases have reduced projected returns for 2009 dramatically compared to the current year. This is demonstrated in new budgeting figures recently produced by Agro Business Consultants (ABC).... read more.July 2008 - Set-Aside Goes After 20 Years
Farmers planning their autumn plantings can safely count on not having to set any of their land aside. The EU Commission has confirmed that compulsory set-aside will not return for the 2009 harvest.... read more.
June 2008 - Focus On Renewable Energy
A detailed Economic Assessment of Anaerobic Digestion Technology and its Suitability to UK Farming and Waste Systems has been published. This was undertaken by The Andersons Centre on behalf of the National Non-Food Crops Centre (NNFCC). A downloadable cost calculator for estimating costs of anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities was also built by The Andersons Centre as part of the project. The report and the calculator can be downloaded by following the links on the Clients and Previous Work page.
Work was also undertaken by The Andersons Centre for the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) that provides an Economic Evaluation of Biodiesel. This is also avaliable by following the links on the Clients and Previous Work page.
For further information on the services that The Andersons Centre offers in the renewable energy sector please contact Graham Redman on 01664 503 200.
Andersons at the Cereals Event
Andersons will be at the 2008 Cereals Event at Heath Farm, Leadenham, Lincolnshire. Please come and see us on Stand 213 on 11th and 12th June. May 2008 - FREE Business Support
A FREE business advice and support service is now available for any Land Based Business in the East Midlands. This service is being delivered by specialist Business Link rural advisors. Please contact Oliver Lee on 01664 503 200 for further information or to arrange a FREE business visit.April 2008 - RDPE Grants Now Available
A range of rural grants are now available for land-based businesses throughout England. These grants are being delivered under the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) 2007-2013. The grants are being administered on a regional basis through the respective Regional Development Agencies (RDA’s) in each English region.
Please contact The Andersons Centre for further information or for assistance in developing an RDPE grant application. Please call Oliver Lee on 01664 503 200.
