Be prepared to plan properly for the future and be wary of knee jerk reactions
It has never more been essential to have a holistic view of your business, to plan properly for the future – be that to make your farmland more profitable, making your diversifications and environmental best practices work harder for you, or by looking at your plans for succession.
Clients are aware that there is a lot of chatter around ‘carbon and natural capital’, but there is still lack of clarity on the way forward. Planting trees is not the only solution, and it is important to avoid a knee jerk reaction, and really important to understand where you are with your business in its entirety first.
As rural surveyors and consultants, we work across a wide range of sectors, not isolated work streams, and we have external consultants on hand. That means we have specialists with the right breadth of skills to help you add more value to your business. More and more frequently, we are helping clients review their property assets, and looking longer term at how they can generate income whilst securing a bright future for the land and the people who manage it.
“Once you know what you have, and understand its potential, you can work on opportunities in a more strategic way, creating a realistic and achievable plan that will deliver the best value for you.”
UNDERSTANDING YOUR NATURAL CAPITAL … and how it can add value
Before embarking on a natural capital project, it is important to understand what you already have – be that peatland, forestry, special grasses, or
environmentally designated areas.
We’re making our clients aware of natural capital – and it’s not just advising on how to sell carbon units – as they may be needed for yourself or
your farm in the future. An external eye can help when it comes to assessing what you have. We can sit down with you to work out a strategic plan – which land can be lost to environmental gain, which will be suitable for diversification and, key to the farm viability, which land will work harder from an agricultural point of view. Making farming viable and benefitting from the right schemes or grants that fit your longer term, bigger picture is key. Rob Cleaver, our Forestry manager has had a busy year working on planting and felling schemes for clients. Our team also has a network of links with
forestry and peatland companies right across the UK, which means we can tap into extended knowledge and opportunities in the sector.
Looking longer term and involving your Agent at an early planning stage can help you shape your business for the future. Our Agents often act as the linchpin with our Clients and work alongside their other Advisors.
