Author Archives: Smallholding Scotland

The UK Government is consulting on the reform of the law governing limited partnerships. If you wish to comment, follow the link.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/limited-partnerships-reform-of-limited-partnership-law

Lisa Davis Head of Regional Delivery and Registrar of Scotland of Companies House, along with some of her team will be going to the Royal Highland Show on Thursday and Friday. They will have some time in the Scottish Government Pavilion. To discuss any issues please email her at    ldavis@companieshouse.gov.uk

The Board of Smallholding Scotland has written to Fergus Ewing, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Connectivity, to ask him to remove the income bar on the Small Farm Grant Scheme for the remaining life of the scheme and allow Scottish small-scale farmers and producers fairer access to support to invest in their holdings, no matter where in Scotland they farm.

The Chair of Smallholding Scotland, Rosemary Champion said, “The Small Farm Grant Scheme was a welcome addition to the current iteration of CAP, but the imposition of an income bar has prevented many smallholders from accessing the funding to improve their holdings. With only a limited time period remaining, we’re asking Mr. Ewing to remove it, making the resources more accessible and bringing the scheme into line with other CAP schemes”.

No other CAP scheme, including the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme (CAGS) on which the SFGS is based, has an income bar for applicants.

The SFGS was introduced in 2015 but uptake has been poor. In the 22 month of operation from 1^st January 2015 to the end of October 2016, less than 2% of the available budget had been allocated, although uptake in the subsequent period is believed to have improved slightly.

Rosemary said, “Many smallholders are already excluded from agricultural support because of the 3ha minimum area; further exclusion on the grounds of income limits their capacity to invest in small farm businesses. Many smallholders must have off-farm employment to pay the bills – just like crofters – so the same rules should apply. The Scottish Government has said that it supports small scale farming – so we’re confident that it will step up to the mark and do the right thing.”

Smallholding Scotland is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation established in 2017 to support and represent Scottish smallholders. More information can be found on the organisation’s website smallholding.scot.

Celebrity gardeners are getting behind a national campaign launching in May which is using humour to help fight melanoma.  David Domoney, Adam Frost and David Stevens will all appear dressed up looking ‘ridiculous’ in a campaign urging us all to think twice about our sun protection habits.

Watch Your Back!, launched in 2016 by the Melanoma Fund, specifically  targets men over 50 who are the least likely to cover up, but are most likely to die from the effects of excessive sun exposure.  The message is ‘don’t be ridiculous, remember sun protection when out in the garden this summer’.

Men and melanoma

Skin cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK and melanoma is the most dangerous type.  It is the fastest growing cancer in men and the second fastest in women, with men 70% more likely to develop the disease, typically on their backs and in areas that are hard to spot, making the warning signs easier to miss, leading to a later diagnosis, leading to higher death rates.

Why raise awareness?
Melanoma rates in the UK have more than quadrupled over the last 30 years, however many of us still forget to protect, check skin for signs of change or know what to look out for. This may explain why death rates from melanoma are higher in the UK than in Australia or New Zealand, both of which have the highest incidence in the world.

Harry Townsend, founder of the Melanoma Fund says; “Sun protection campaigns can sound like broken records. We all know the facts, but many of us still lack a regular skin care habit and men in particular dislike applying sunscreen, so we have decided to give it to them straight; don’t be ridiculous!

Skin health clinic bus tour

The Melanoma Fund is organising a bus tour of major garden centres in the South East during May and June. Surgeons from the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead and dermatologists from RTWSkin in Tunbridge Wells will offer FREE pre-booked appointments for skin checking and skin health analysis.

The ridiculous sunflower growing competition

Major garden centres will be urging customers to grow the tallest or biggest sunflower in the UK.  They will be retailing packs of the  ‘ridiculous’ seeds for a £1 donation to the charity.  Prizes include Landmann BBQ’s and a year’s supply of Altruist sunscreen.

Campaign ambassadors; Alan Titchmarsh, Charlie Dimmock, Andy Sturgeon, Charlie Dimmock, Joe Swift, Adam Frost, David Domoney, Anne Swithinbank and Toby Buckland have all agreed to provide their personal tips on growing giant blooms.

Alan Titchmarsh says; “This approach may appear light-hearted, but the message is serious. Sunburn can not only triple the risk of melanoma, it looks terrible, so look after your skin, whatever your age.”

Watch Your Back! is partnered with the Garden Centre Association, the Professional Gardeners Guild and The National Allotment Society.  For further details visit www.watchyourback.co.uk.

An Innovative Farmers field lab has found higher phosphate concentration in plants from wheat and rye grass crops that were treated with co-composted rock phosphate and farmyard manure, compared to crops where they were applied separately.

The Soil and Root Innovators, a group of farmers in the South West, have been exploring how co-composting GAFSA (reactive rock phosphate) with FYM may improve soil biology, yield and phosphate availability for cereal crops since autumn 2016, with these first annual results encouraging them to continue their research into 2018 and 2019 harvests.

From samples of rye grass, leaf phosphate concentration treated with co-composted rock phosphate and FYM was found to be around 20% higher (mg P g^-1 Dry weight) than plots treated separately. The effect was most observed where co-composting process had been at least four months. Timing of GAFSA application may also have an effect. There were also positive indications of greater biomass and flag leaf P concentrations in wheat plots on two of the three trial sites (where they had co-composted longer): although the results were not statistically significant, the group think it is worth repeating the experiment. They hope to expand the number of sites and see if this effect can be observed again.

The study is a great example of farmers leading the way in research and development. It is being funded by its members, and co-ordinated by one of the participants, Adrian Hares.

Adrian farms 130 acres of mixed beef and combinable cereals in Wiltshire, and as an independent soils adviser was keen to understand the potential effects on soil health. He said: “We’re really pleased with the results and we’re confident that we can repeat and improve in the next year of research. One of the best things about doing research in this way – when it’s practical, in-field and replicated across several farms – is that we have a genuine representation of the influence co-composting has, both on our own land and on a wider scale. Doing this kind of research individually gives you a single outcome, but working together we have multiple representations on different soil types and crop varieties, which means the results can be useful to a wider network of people.”

The group are collaborating with Dr John Hammond from the University of Reading, who said: “The results suggest that co-composting can have an influence on phosphate availability to the crop, especially on these alkaline soils. Co-composting for a minimum of four months and applying ‘little and often’ appears to have the best results, so we can use this to inform our trials going forward. We’re also hoping to use larger trial plots to get an even more conclusive set of results next time around. This has been an interesting and valuable process so far, so I’m very pleased we are able to carry on with these trials and refine our research.”

You can follow the trial progress at www.innovativefarmers.org

Adrian Hares will be speaking at the Innovative Farmers Network Day on Wednesday 9 May 2018. Open to members and non-members, this Innovative Farmers event will discuss past, present and future field labs and look at what the future of farmer-led research could look like. What are the biggest challenges facing farming, and how can ground-level research and development help tackle them? The event will take place at Sheepdrove Farm, Berkshire. Find out more, see the full event schedule, and book your place at www.innovativefarmers.org/events

At least half the population of our native hedgehogs has been lost from the British countryside over the last two decades, warn two wildlife charities in a report issued today, Wednesday 7 February 2018.

The State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2018, published jointly by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) and People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), is the only comprehensive review of the status of Britain’s hedgehogs.  This new report shows that hedgehogs in rural areas are in severe decline, with their numbers plummeting by half since the Millennium.

“There are many reasons hedgehogs are in trouble,” explains Emily Wilson, Hedgehog Officer for Hedgehog Street, a public action campaign run by PTES and BHPS. “The intensification of agriculture through the loss of hedgerows and permanent grasslands, increased field sizes, and the use of pesticides which reduce the amount of prey available, are all associated with the plunge in numbers of hedgehogs in rural areas.”

However, with approximately 70% of land in the UK managed by farmers, BHPS and PTES are planning to engage with the farming community to help protect this iconic creature.

“Farmers play a vital role in producing food, but they’re also well placed to help protect, maintain and enhance our countryside,” continues Wilson. “The Government recently reiterated plans to reform the EU Common Agricultural Policy to reward landowners for delivering environmental benefits. Many farmers already have a sustainable approach to agriculture, and we think there’s a great opportunity to work more widely with them to stem the alarming decline of our country hedgehogs.”

Whilst The State of Britain’s Hedgehogs report highlights a worrying decline in our countryside, it shows a more positive outlook for hedgehogs in our towns and cities: although the species has declined by a third in urban areas since 2000, the rate of decline is slowing. Hedgehogs are not disappearing from urban green spaces as rapidly as they were fifteen years ago, and might even be returning. Where they are found, numbers too, appear to be growing in some places.

It is exciting to think that the combined efforts of thousands of volunteers who have joined Hedgehog Street and pledged to make their gardens more hedgehog-friendly, may be making a difference. PTES and BHPS launched Hedgehog Street in 2011 to inspire the British public to help hedgehogs and other wildlife that depend on their gardens and, so far, over 47,000 Hedgehog Champions have signed up to help.

Wilson concludes: “Urban and suburban areas are becoming increasingly important for hedgehogs, so we need more people in those locations to sign up as Hedgehog Champions.  Hedgehogs are a generalist species, so the more people can do to help them in their own back garden, the more they will also benefit other wildlife.”

The first Smallholding Scotland conference will take place on Friday 16th February at Pitcairngreen Village Hall. Details of the full programme and how to buy tickets are on the conference website.

Tickets are only available on-line and only until Wednesday 14th February; £20 for members of Smallholding Scotland and £25 for non-members. There’s a special offer of a year’s membership of Smallholding Scotland (to 31st March 2019) and a conference ticket for £40.

As part of its strategy to promote the highest standards of welfare worldwide for food animals, the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) has produced a new online guide which covers the humane killing of livestock during disease control operations.

The guide has had input from industry experts to ensure that all of the information is relevant.  Primarily aimed at the veterinary profession, slaughter personnel, farm staff, livestock handlers and government agencies, the guidance – with illustrations – is intended for the global industry.  It covers a variety of species from neonates to adults, the various methods of humane killing of livestock, protocols, types of equipment available and gives examples of best practice and information on risk assessment for both the operator and animal welfare.

Charles Mason, Technical Director of the HSA said: “This guide pulls together a wealth of information and materials into one resource and has been made readily available to enable easy access worldwide to this information for high animal welfare standards that may otherwise be difficult to obtain.”

The guide joins others already available on the charity’s website, providing a portfolio of best practice in humane handling and slaughter and can be found at www.hsa.org.uk/diseasecontrol.  HSA staff are currently working on plans to develop interactive multi-media options for the HSA online guides – the aim being to enhance the users’ experience by allowing them to test their knowledge and take part in simulated situations in which their actions may directly affect the outcome, so making the training more realistic.

Smallholding Scotland Trustee Keesje Avis attended the “Women in Agriculture” event held at the Scottish Parliament on 10 January 2018. This event highlighted the work by the Task force set up last year co-chaired by Fergus Ewing, Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Connectivity and Joyce Campbell, a crofter in North Sutherland.

A key resource to inform future policy and the work of the task force is the findings in the “Women in Farming and Agriculture Research Report” available here. Commissioned by Scottish Government in 2016 this research combined one-on-one interviews and a questionnaire that was completed by 1300 members of the Scottish agricultural community. The response far exceeded the 300 people hoped for indicating the subject’s importance, as well as providing a considerable remit for any policy changes.

One of the recommendations highlighted at the event is that agricultural organisations should have a minimum of a third of board members/trustees as women and Smallholding Scotland is happy to reflect this in their trustee membership. We hope to ensure this going forward. Further issues include inheritance and succession planning, available training, access to land for new entrants and the need for increased on farm safety. This is only a snippet of the research and findings so please have a read of the report and come back to us if you have any comments or suggestions of how Smallholding Scotland can respond to this very important issue and support an egalitarian rural Scotland.

A big “Thank you” to Harbro Ltd for agreeing to distribute Smallholding Scotland information leaflets in all nineteen of its Country Stores. Much appreciated!

The Annual Implementation Report for the Scottish Rural Development Programme for 2016 has just been published

https://www.ruralnetwork.scot/sites/ruralnetwork.scot/files/documents/SRDP%20AIR%202016.pdf