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It is that time of year again, when the prospect of paying the annual land rent poses a unique set of challenges for farmers in NI.
Our daughter, Jenny, had a couple of university friends over last year from England, and both were from farming backgrounds. Trying to explain how conacre works was not easy, and their reaction to the lack of certainty, the short-term renegotiation process, and above all, the price, reinforced my belief that it is a slightly bonkers way of doing business. Nevertheless, it’s what we’ve got, and we have to make it work in some shape or form.
The hardest bit was trying to attach some logic to some of the public lettings of ground.
It’s easy to rationalise £200/acre for grassland that lies into a dairy farm, and extends the availability of localised grazing. And equally, £500 an acre for high quality, “early” land for potatoes may just about make economic sense.
But when you are talking to an English farmer who has a tenancy on a 1,000-acre farm for the next 20 years (at about a quarter the amount of money per acre) you quickly run out of justifiable excuses.
Unfortunately, this conversation got me thinking about the whole conacre business, and I ended up with very few answers, and plenty of questions. Is it OK to give big money if the rented ground forms a small percentage of your farmed area?
And conversely, if your land area is heavily dependent on conacre, should you be paying much less?
Also, have we lost sight of the objectives of standalone rents, totally separate from the BPS? It strikes me that far too many people seem to work out their payments per acre, and assume that if they pay that as rent, then the land is effectively “free”. I find this disturbing, and even more so when you consider the number of farmers who appear to be willing participants in this ruinous business model.
And here’s a naughty question: are the highest rents paid by those who have the least grip on their variable and overhead costs? I can’t help asking that one, given that some of the rents paid for middling quality land by suckler outfits is fairly staggering. And as far as I am aware, sucklers cows are not any sort of license to print money.
Survey
It would be fascinating to conduct a confidential survey at this time of year, because here’s another issue for discussion. What percentage of conacre negotiations are agreeable and non-acrimonious? Is it one of those periods of high anxiety and stress for farming folk?
I remember, about 40 years ago, my father and uncle coming home from paying the rent, and there were always a couple of really unpleasant characters to deal with. Back then, our farm setup rented small farms from maybe 12 or 13 different people, and the variation in attitude was chalk and cheese.
By contrast, I now rent from one person, and his farm (70 acres) makes up exactly half my land area. And if I am completely honest, this heavy reliance on a sole landlord has given me some sleepless nights around the beginning of November.
Just occasionally (and probably for fun) he would relate what that lovely estate agent (a greasy weasel) said his land was worth, compared to the paltry sum I was offering. This would necessitate me to splutter my way through my rehearsed speech about reliability, hedge cutting, soil testing, gate-hanging, fencing, and any other farming practices that I considered beneficial to his farm. He never seemed overly impressed.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. At the ripe old age of 58 (and neither of my children going to farm) I am now gazing down a long lane, with a couple of bends in it, and in the distance, there is a lovely sheltered paddock.
And when I am put out to grass, I shan’t be needing rented land, and won’t have to worry about the prospects of losing vital acres. And even though this may not happen for a few years yet, I have the comfort of knowing that, should I unexpectedly lose this conacre, it no longer seems like such a big deal after all.
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