Agriculture Flashcards

1
Q

Describe a typical arable rotation in your area.

A

OSR, WW, SB, WW

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2
Q

What is the price of spring barley (malting) per tonne at the moment?

A

£185 / t

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3
Q

What is the price of feed barley per tonne at the moment?

A

£155 / t

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4
Q

What is the price of oil seed rape per tonne at the moment?

A

£375 / t

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5
Q

What is the price of winter wheat per tonne at the moment?

A

£195 / t

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6
Q

What are the key aspects of an in-hand farming practice, specifically contract farming? What are the pros and cons?

A

Contract farming is an agreement between a landowner and a contractor. The landowner or farmer engages the services of the contractor. Both entities are farm businesses in their own right. Landowner provides the land, buildings, fixed equipment, new bank account. The contractor provides the management expertise, labour, machinery and additional storage (if required). Pros - vacant possession, occupation of farm, release of working capital, economies of scale.

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7
Q

What are the region entitlements?

A

Payment Region 1

This includes better quality agricultural land that has been used for arable cropping, temporary grass and permanent grass.

Payment Region 2

This includes rough grazing with a Less Favoured Areas (LFA) grazing category of B, C, D or non-LFA.

Payment Region 3

This includes rough grazing with an LFA grazing category A.

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8
Q

What are the current region rates?

A

Region 1: BPS: £147/ ha greening £75/ha
Region 2: BPS: £ 32/ ha greening £12/ha
Region 3: BPS: £9/ha greening £4/ha

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9
Q

What are the current social/ economic factors affecting Scottish farmers at the moment?

A

Uncertainty over the new landscape for rural payments
Increase in maintenance costs for buildings and machinery caused by inflation

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10
Q

You mentioned you carry out silage pit inspections what are the key changes in legislation that affect the storage of silage?

A

Silage and Slurry storage regulations have brought in changes which dictate the following:
The size of effluents tank based on how much silage is kept in a silage clamp

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11
Q

What is the purpose of a Land Maintenance form?

A

LMF is used to notify rural payments for various changes in land ownership such as:
- when you sell your business or change the ownership structure
- when you buy, sell or transfer land
- when you transfer land from one holding to another for any reason
- when you change a permanent boundary of a land parcel
- when you split or merge land parcels
- when you register a land parcel for the first time
- when you add, remove or modify an ineligible hard or soft feature contained within a land parcel
- when you want to notify us of an increase in a technical assessment band of the ineligibility of a soft feature, therefore increasing the ineligible area

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12
Q

What is the purpose of IACS?

A

Single application form used for applying for single farm payments
Eligible for farmers who are actively farming their ground
You do not necessarily need to produce anything from your farm to be eligible however need to be keeping your farm within GAEC standards

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13
Q

What is BPS?

A

BPS is run by the Scottish Governments Rural payments service. To qualify for basic payment scheme you must be actively farming your land.

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14
Q

What is an AECS scheme?

A

Agri Environmental Classification Scheme

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15
Q

Can you briefly outline to me what the silage and slurry store rules are?

A

I can only comment on the silage storing rules are as this is what I have got experience in. The General Building Regulations for Slurry and Silage Storage 2022 outline the following guidelines for new pits and improvements:
- Size of effluent tanks based on a per m3 of silage taken
- Tanks should be fitted with an automatic overfill prevention device
- If a pit is installed or substantially improved then these plans must be discussed with SEPA at least 30 days prior to the works commencing
- Located more than 10m away from any water courses

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16
Q

How did you advise your client to proceed on completion of your cost analysis of the upgrades?

A

This is a large scale project and requires a large amount of capital input from the client. I proposed a phased approach in order to spread the costs. Silage pits which were requiring more renovations are to be carried out first.

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17
Q

Where did the responsibility for the upgrade of the silage pits sit – with the landlord or the tenant?

A

This sits with the landlord as it is seen as replacing. However, maintaining is a tenant’s obligation.

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18
Q

In addition to GBRs, what other areas of compliance are there for farmers in Scotland?

A

Good Agricultural Environmental Condition (GAEC)
Statutory Management Requirements (SMR) various management requirements such as:
- Nitrate Vulnerable Zones
- Conservation of Wild Birds
- Welfare of farmed animals

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19
Q

What advice did you provide to your client to meet their objective of balancing farming operations with the sporting enterprise?

A

Some land came back in hand to the client that had previous been let on an SLDT where relations between the landlord and the tenants had been strained due to the sporting enterprises held on the estate (gates being left open during shoot days). I suggested to the client that moving forward they adopt a seasonal grazing agreement which will reflect the shooting season offering grazing agreements from April to October.

20
Q

What are the benefits of soil sampling to farmers?

A

Better understanding of the soil structures and pH’s of their soils on their farms which is useful information for managing their farms

21
Q

You talk about productive capacity of a holding, can you briefly outline to me how you determine this?

A

subsidy level i.e. region 1/2/3, land classification (e.g. grade 1/2/3/4/5), fencing age and condition, shed condition and age, house age and condition, location of the farm as well so look at comparable farms locally and their rental values.

22
Q

Can you describe to me what the greening requirement for permanent grassland is?

A

Protecting permanent grassland designated as environmentally sensitive grassland by not ploughing or converting permanent grassland designated as environmentally sensitive grassland. For all PGRS you need to keep a record of all inorganic fertiliser and lime applied.

23
Q

What is the % of arable land that must be put into Ecological focus area if your business’ arable land is not made up of more than 75% temporary grass, leguminous forage, permanent grass or herbaceous forage?

A

5%

24
Q

Can you give me some examples of Ecological focus area

A

fallow, grass margins, hedges, green cover crop

25
Q

What is the maximum hectarage of arable land that you can have on your farm before you have comply with EFA requirements?

A

15 hectares

26
Q

Can you please tell me what a Land maintenance form is and what is it used for?

A

Modifying land parcel features, changing land parcel boundaries, splitting a field boundary, adding a new land parcel to the holding, selling a land parcel

27
Q

Can you please tell me what an agricultural census form asks you?

A

Land area, livestock numbers, machinery, full/part time or casual labour or contractors

28
Q

What are the factors that you consider when designing a succession plan for a farmer?

A
  • Financial position of the business
  • The financial security of farmer
  • Who the potential successors are?
  • Who succeeds the business and how are other children if any are looked after?
  • Timeline for succession
  • Then refer to legal and accountancy advice on tax position of any recommendations
29
Q

In order to claim BPS a farmer needs to abide by cross compliance rules. Can you please tell me what the two areas of cross compliance are referred to?

A

Good agricultural and environmental conditions (GAEC) and Statutory Management Requirements.

30
Q

Can you please give me an example and explain what one statutory management requirements is?

A

Welfare of farmed animals

31
Q

Can you please give me an example and explain what one example of Good agricultural and environmental condition is?

A

Buffer strips along watercourses

32
Q

When you gathered your soil samples, what was the method that you took when gathering the samples to make sure you got an accurate representation of the fields soil nutrient status?

A

W shape across the field

33
Q

What is the target soil pH that a farm business should aim to achieve?

A

6

34
Q

Can you tell me what a decent spring barley yield per acre is?

A

2.2t/acre grain and straw 1.2t/acre

35
Q

Can you give me an explanation stubble to stubble for a spring barley crop etc that might usually be involved in growing such a crop

A

ploughing, discing or power harrowing, rolling, sowing, rolling, spraying (fungicide and herbicide), harvesting

36
Q

What would you look at when assessing the productive capacity of the farm to allow you to produce an informed rent review?

A

subsidy level i.e. region 1/2/3, land classification (e.g. grade 1/2/3/4/5), fencing age and condition, shed condition and age, house age and condition, location of the farm as well so look at comparable farms locally and their rental values.

37
Q

What are the minimum activity requirements a landlord needs to adhere to in order to claim BPS and greening payments on region 1 land let out on seasonal grazing?

A

ensure fences are stock proof, each field has a gate and also has a water trough and weeds are controlled.

38
Q

A wader scrape is an AECS capital item, which AECS management option was it tied to as part of the clients application?

A

wader mown grassland where you can’t cut the field for silage until after 1st July and cut in wildlife friendly manner

39
Q

Why was the site chosen for the wader scrape an appropriate site?

A

wet rushy part of field with waders such as oystercatchers & lapwings already in the area

40
Q

Can you tell me the required maximum capacity for slurry storage that were brought in recently as part of an update to the controlled activities regulation

A

for slurry, farms must have sufficient capacity to store the total quantity of slurry produced in 22 weeks by housed cattle and 26 weeks for housed pigs.

41
Q

Can you tell me when farms located outside of Nitrate vulnerable Zones must abide by the new slurry storage capacities?

A

1st January 2026

42
Q

What is a nitrate vulnerable zone?

A

Nitrate vulnerable zones cover five different areas in Scotland in particular large proportions of the north east region of scotland. They are areas which have been identified as having high levels of nitrogen leaching into water supplies and require additional measures to prevent this. This is governed by SEPA

43
Q

What is the date that existing silage clamps built prior to 1991 must meet the new GBR requirements by?

A

January 2026

44
Q

What is the date that existing silage clamps constructed or altered after 1991 must meet the new GBR requirements and relevant British construction standards?

A

January 2024

45
Q

What is the minimum distance a silage clamp or effluent system needs to be from any surface water or clean water drain?

A

10 metres

46
Q

For silage clamps made of materials other than earth and which were either constructed or substantially enlarged post 1991, what information needs to be clearly displayed somewhere on the wall of the clamp for people to see?

A

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