Farm Business Development Task 2009
(Some figures and information used in the task do not reflect actual farm details, but provide a hypothetical scenario for the competition.)
This year’s task for the national Farm Business Development competition is to submit a business proposal for the tender of the farm described overleaf. The application must include a rent tender, a business plan including cash flow and budget. Inclusion of pension provision will be looked upon favourably, as will any additional/necessary training for personnel working within the business.
The farm will be let on a Farm Business Tenancy for a Fifteen-Year Term commencing on 29 September 2009 with Break Clauses at 5 and 10 years. If required by the incoming tenant, the machinery will be available by private tender.Crops as at valuation (you will have to budget a figure).
Competitors should demonstrate that their proposal will create a viable rural business. They should also demonstrate an awareness of available business/rural grants as well as environmental and energy-saving good practice. Competitors are advised to refer to competitors’ and judges’ criteria as well as rules for the competition.
The submission can come from the perspective of a sole tenant or any form of business partnership. As you were not farming in 2005, you have no Single Payment Scheme (SPS) Entitlement of your own. However, the landlord did make an application in 2005 and farmed through the reference period and will be expecting to maximize its financial advantage through the entitlement that it now owns. You will need to demonstrate a workable scenario that accounts for the legalities of the SPS, cross compliance and taxation. The farm is currently in year one of Entry Level Scheme.
As part of the tender for Buston Farm, it will be favourable if you can demonstrate your ideas for a whole farm plan to support your business. This should include good practice in the management of soil, water, air, habitats, waste and Health and Safety. Competitors can view Defra’s Protecting our Water, Soil and Air: A Code of Good Agricultural Practice for farmers, growers and land managers
Competitors are expected to demonstrate the following:
- Aim of their submission
- Overview of business plan and available resources
- SWOT analysis of farm
- Business objectives
- Budgets to include cash flow, economic viability, gross and net margins
- Options for the future
- Development of new rural enterprises which could also generate local employment
- Awareness of current policy change (CAP Health Check) to support business plan
- Sensitivity analysis
Competitors are advised to consult the Tenancy Reform Industry Group (TRIG) Code of good practice for agri-environment schemes and diversification projects within agricultural tenancies view the Shell LiveWIRE website via for support and information for business start-ups.
Buston Farm, Kings Sutton, Banbury, Northamptonshire, OX17 3DX
1.Situation
The farm is located near the village of Kings Sutton, near Banbury, Northamptonshire, just east of the M40 motorway.
2.Area
The farm is currently operating 186 hectares of ground for the 08/09 season.
3.Single Payment Scheme (SPS)
You have no SPS entitlement but the owner does have entitlement with full history (payment expected in relation to 2009 SPS claim is approx £215/ha).
4.Current and Future Management
Buston Farm is currently run as a mixed farm. Proposals from applicants for investment into new areas will be considered as part of the tender/business management plan proposal.
5.Dwellings
The farm has a substantial 7 bedroom farm house and two cottages, one of which has an agricultural tie (4 bedroom cottage, 1981). The farmhouse and tied cottage with be available for the incoming tenant, the landlord will rent out the other 5 bedroom cottage.
6Council Tax
The farm house will fall into band F (£2035.94) and the farm cottage into band C (£1252.89), equating to £3,288.83per annum. (The cottage to be rented out by the landlord falls into category E [£1722.72 per annum]).
7Farm Buildings
Please refer to list of farm details.
8Capital Requirement
Competitors will be required to show details of all their assets, comprising live and dead stock, deposited money, together with their liabilities.For this competition purpose, you will have a mortgage on a house worth £200,000, of which you own half of the equity. You will also assume to have £35,000 of your own money and you will need to demonstrate the financial arrangements you will need to buy existing livestock. Competitors will be required to demonstrate cash flows and borrowing requirements for their proposed business enterprise.
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Farm Details
Buston Farm is owned by Exeter College Oxford who bought the main part of the farm in the mid 1930s. Until the 1920s part of the land was mined for iron ore which has somewhat altered the original soil type leaving a clay type subsoil with rock rather than iron stone brash on top. Soil types vary from ironstone brash to clay loams on the lower land. The farm is in a ring fence with 50 ha dissected by a road. The Farthinghoe stream runs through the farm and can cause severe flooding in wet months.
Area
The farm totals 186 ha
Current Management
Buston Farm is currently run as a dairy/arable farm with a closed herd of 105 pedigree Friesian Holstein cows calving in the autumn with arable cropping of wheat, barley and oilseed rape.
Arable and Grassland
Winter Barley20 ha
Winter Wheat46 ha
OSR30 ha
Grass82 ha
ELS/buildings etc 8 ha
Total186 ha
Current stocking
105 pedigree Friesian Holstein dairy cows(800,162 litres/ every other day collection)
70 dairy followers
6 Angus cross steers
1 Aberdeen Angus bull
Buildings and Machinery
Buildings
5/10 herringbone parlour
Cubicle housing for 90 cows
Covered silage pit 26metres x26 metres
Loose house 6 metres x 18 metres
Cubicle housing for 76 animals
6 loose boxes
Old dairy building 6 metres x 24 metres
Slurry lagoon and dirty water system with low volume irrigator
Large Dutch barn – part of which holds 8 x 20tonne grain bins
3 bay hay barn
Stone barn capable of holding 350 tonnes of wheat
Traditional stone sheds
2 large poultry sheds (classed as redundant)
Tenant’s equipment
Vehicles
04 New Holland TM 120 3800 hrs
R reg New Holland 7635 3800 hrs
07 New Holland LM 435 Telehandler 1400 hrs
Massey Ferguson 135 (new engine 2008) and loader
David Brown 990
R reg Land Rover Defender 80000 miles
1987 New Holland 8055 Combine 2500 hrs
Machinery
Kverneland/Accord 3m combi drill 2005
Kverneland four furrow plough and press 1998
Twose 6m folding rolls 1999
2 x Salop 6t grain/silage trailers
1 x Salop 8t grain trailer
40 ft bale trailer
Hardi 12 metre sprayer 2002
Amazone fert spreader 2006
Ransome subsoiler
New Holland 575 conventional baler & flat eight sledge
Farmhand 56 bale carrier
Vicon mower/conditioner 2001
New Holland 719 Forage Harvester
PZ hay turner
Kverneland 2.7metre topper
AS Marston 6 tonne muck spreader 1998
Flowell feed dispenser
Ifor Williams stock trailer
Ifor Williams 14ft flat trailer 2007
Handler Attachments 2 buckets, muck grab, shear grab, square bale spike
Flat 8 grab, big bag lifter, access platform
Alvan Blanch grain dryer/cleaner/elevators/conveyors
Various harrows, rollers, discs
Livestock equipment
6000 litre Fullwood Bulk Tank 1997
5/10 Alfa parlour
Cattle handling system and foot crush
2 x Collinson feed silos 20t & 16t both 2005
Dirty water pumping system and irrigator
Feed barrier for 105 cows
– for further on-line business start-up advice
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