We are pleased to be supporting farmers by offering DEFRA funded consultancy through the Future Farming Resilience Fund (FFRF). This has been designed to provide business support to farmers during the early years of the Agricultural Transition, for a future without BPS. Please register your interest here!
We are pleased to be supporting farmers by offering DEFRA funded farm consultancy through the Future Farming Resilience Fund (FFRF). This has been designed to provide business support to farmers during the early years of the Agricultural Transition, for a future without BPS
From October 2022 we will be offering a tailored 1-to-1 farmer advisory service to those with a Single Business Identifier (SBI) number registered with the RPA in England. This is a follow on from the more general offering of “Farm Resilience” last year; the aim is to take areas identified as low resilience and explore analysis and solutions to each farming business in more depth. This makes the delivery much more bespoke. The resilience survey will still be available to those who didn’t complete it last year. This consultancy is funded by DEFRA; there will be some work that is fully funded, and some more complex work that may need you to contribute. This will be made clear to you based on the consultancy you require.
The benefits to farmers
- Help understand the changes that are happening as a result of the Agricultural Transition
- Identify how, what and when you may need to adapt your business
- Access tailored support to address these changes
With the three goals above in mind, our consultants are available to support dairy, beef, sheep & arable farmers to plan and make informed changes to their business. We are offering independent and bespoke advice that considers all options for the future.
During the first round of this scheme (2021/22) we visited 500 farms to deliver a business resilience review using our custom questionnaire to highlight the key areas for each farm to focus on. We also used an SFI calculator tool to illustrate how farm payments are likely to change over the next 4 years. Each farm received a resilience report with tailored advice for the key challenges facing their business. They also received a follow up with their consultant in the weeks or months after the visit.
Our consultancy offering
We will continue to offer our business resilience reviews in this new phase of the FFRF. Following on from this, we have designed a series of new review modules based on the key issues that farmers told us they were facing. This will involve an on-farm visit from one of our consultants.
The topics are:
- Farm Payments Review (to help you understand the full range of ongoing subsidies and payments available to your business; this may also include geographical specific revenue from water companies for example.
- Nutrient Management Planning & slurry storage – addressing capacity to drive the use of slurry as a nutrient, including the use of cloud based software free for the first year.
- Animal Health Audit (Dairy only) completing diagnostics to make recommendations to improve health & productivity.
- Financial Accounts Review including benchmarking, trends analysis and partial budgeting solutions
- Carbon foot printing and assessment
- Workforce support and planning
These are available to any farm, whether you participated in the first phase of the FFRF with us or not.
Limited visits available, so sign up now to avoid missing out!
George and Laura Allen, who farm 150 pedigree Holsteins in Shropshire, have found value in our one-to-one advisory support. We delivered a bespoke evaluation of their farm business, in order to identify the areas that need to be strengthened for future robustness and adaptability.
To find out more about our Farm Business Consultants or new Financial Farm Management service, please visit our contact page. You can also get in contact by ringing 01270 616800.
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