Farmer’s View

Peter Stewart has advice for the next generation

Forty years ago I had just been through the interview process for the tenancy of Urquhart and had the good luck to succeed. Now it is the turn of other young lads to go through the worrying process of looking, judging and figuring out how much to offer, since I am retiring.

When I was going through the figures back then things were a lot different. No payments from the EU to worry about whether they will last or be replaced, or what form they might take.

Then a new tractor was £9,000 for top of the range, and a newish combine cost around £10,000, though it would usually be 12ft cut.

Budgets were done on £90 a tonne, but prices soon rose to £140, which makes the machinery seem cheap.

Potatoes were a more certain crop and provided work for men in the winter. Oilseed hadn’t been introduced and the wheat acreage was still minor until the distillers switched from maize.

The trend towards combination seeders, tramlines allowing bigger sprayers and larger combines and trailers have swapped labour costs with machinery costs, so a balancing act on replacements is required.

I can honestly say the advert for my farm to let was about the only one I have seen for a unit this size since the advert 40 years ago.

Stop a minute and ask yourself how many genuine applicants there may have been this time? You have probably overestimated and we can leave it at that.

At 600 acres, is it too big a unit for young lads? The money to start up might well have put some off.

The fact that the advert stated five years sounds too short but look at the particulars and it is made clear they want a long-term tenant, which I worked hard to make them indicate.

The estate doesn’t want contract farming, because the house and steading, like any others, require maintenance, and the tenant will do it as routine.

The legislation on letting is moving in the right direction, in that fixed-term tenancies for longer terms is just round the corner, so young lads should take the chance, as I had to when offered a limited partnership, the least secure of all.

Some might say that the uncertainty of life outside the EU would put most off, but there will be a successor agriculture scheme, and these things have to be faced, as it would have been on my part were I younger, and this is just another thing to be argued about in setting rents.

Is agriculture still a desirable occupation? For many, it is the only dream they ever had, to farm a place of their own, and we could argue that youngsters are better trained, more technically adept at costing and more innovating than ever.

So, stout hearts young lads and good luck!

At 600 acres, is it too big a unit for young lads? The money to start up might well haveput some off