Preparing a farm business plan following the phase out of BPS
Background
The ADAS Farm Business team visited a beef and arable farm in rural Leicestershire to provide business advice as part of Defra’s Future Farming Resilience Fund. The family run business was operated by a mother and son team, with occasional help from other family depending on the time of year and the levels of activity on the farm.
Boasting a herd of almost 100 cattle and over 100 ha of arable enterprise, the business was in a positive position and earning a healthy profit. Similarly to other farming families, the reduction in Basic Payments was a growing concern for the business. They asked ADAS to assess how losing BPS would impact their farm profitability, and to help them develop a future business plan.
The challenge
Despite the farm being profitable for the last two years, we calculated that, due to the businesses profit requirements, the enterprise would need to generate almost an additional £10,000 to remain financially stable after BPS payments were phased out.
After visiting the farm itself and meeting with the farm’s various stakeholders, our agri-business team identified several avenues that the business could explore.
The solution
Based on our analysis we presented several different options to the business, including:
- Reducing the age of first calving
- Ensuring all cows calve once a year to increase turnover
- Participating in the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) on offer
- Recording yield on a per-field basis
- Analysing nutritional value of home-grown forage
