The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Options for tenant farmers pondering their retirement
Guidance: Publication shows how leases can be assigned to young entrants
Scottish tenant farmers who are thinking of retiring or assigning secure tenancies will be able to access important advice from a new guide which has been published by tenant farming commissioner Bob McIntosh.
The guidance recognises the value of a tenant’s interest in his lease, and explains where a tenant chooses to stop farming, compensation from his landlord should be based on the value of the tenancy.
In cases where the landlord does not wish to pay compensation to the tenant, the tenant can assign the lease for value to a new entrant or progressing farmer, thereby allowing new blood into secure tenancies.
The publication has been welcomed by the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA) which said the guidance supports what is already taking place in many cases. Retiring tenants who have no family successors receive valuations for their interest in the tenancy they are giving up, or they can assign their leases for value to new entrants or progressing farmers.
STFA says it hopes to see an increase in this practice in the future to allow those coming out of limited duration starter farm leases to find secure tenancy opportunities as the next step in the farming ladder.
The association’s chairman, Christopher Nicholadded son, said while the legislation permitting this process is contained in the Land Reform Act 2016, it is not likely to commence until next year. However he the guidance would encourage tenants without successors and approaching retirement to think about future options.
“We know of situations where young developing tenants have been negotiating with tenants looking to retire, and in the future the process may allow share farming opportunities to permit the incoming tenant build up capital over time while the retiring tenant is winding down,” he said.
‘There are still some details in the relinquishing and assignation provisions of the 2016 act to be finalised in secondary legislation including the method to value a tenancy, but we expect that in practice landlords and tenants will work out agreements suitable to all parties without following the exact legal process, but recognising the principles set out in the legislation.”
The guide can be found on the Land Commission’s website www.land commission.gov.scot/ tenant-farming/reviews-and-reports. Sheep farmers will hear the latest findings of a project aimed at reducing lamb losses at an open event near Laurencekirk this month.
SAC consulting, part of SRUC, Scotland Rural College, will share the initial findings of a three-year project on six focus farms in Scotland’s main sheep producing areas.
The event at Glensaugh Research Farm will feature the experiences of Duncan McEwan of Arnprior, near Stirling, and Andrew Baillie of Carstairs Mains, Carstairs.
They will be joined by Aaron Byrnes who is originally from Australia but is now farming near New Deer in Aberdeenshire; Donald Barrie, farms manager at the James Hutton Institute hill farm at Glensaugh; and Peter Eccles, Lothians
“Process may allow share farming opportunities” “Effective whole farm management approach”
farm manager from Saughland Farm, Pathhead.
Further information will be shared by SRUC’s Kirkton and Auchtertyre Farms near Crianlarich.
SAC sheep consultant Poppy Frater said the project farmers focus on body condition scoring, abortion control, late pregnancy nutrition, lambing management and lamb loss recording.
“This helps to co-ordinate an effective whole farm management approach to achieve target scanning percentage and, more importantly, target rearing percentage,” she said.
The event will also feature presentations by nutritionists and vets who will focus on trace element nutrition and related health issues.
The event is free but anyone planning to attend is asked to register and book a place by contacting SAC Consulting on 01835 823322.