Did you, did you like what you heard more?

I found it really mixed messaging, actually.

You know, there was banners up, you know, farming and nature together, uh, and, and nature and, and, uh, they appreciate nature and nature's important language coming across and they're agreeable to climate change.

But yeah, this is on the back of they've already wanted to ta- talk about scrapping the Climate Act, so they wanna scrap net zero.

And, and we've heard now they want to scrap some of the arm's length bodies.

What we hear-- I've heard, heard a lot of is what they want to get rid of, but not how do they want to make things improve other than let's cut-- If they get in next election, let's scrap the solar panels on houses because we're gonna make houses cheaper by doing that.

Not thinking about the resilience for the future.

And, and actually, uh, whether it's community-owned energy or, uh, or company-owned energy, solar is an opportunity for farmers to earn some money.

Do you think that there are more MPs now and people within the periphery of the Labour Party that are starting to understand the opportunity of rural economic growth, the opportunity of farming and nature stacking, energy, all these things working together to deliver something which is important nationally?

Well, over the conference, I've listened to many of the ministers speaking, and particularly Secretary of State, really driving home that the Labour Party, the Labour movement, started on farms with workforces.

And their original is a rural, you know, Labour was a rural union.

And it's actually coming back to its roots and trying to understand, you know, deliver.

And I think there's really kind of, and it was picked up and spun in various press and media.

One of the ministers tried to articulate the countryside isn't just about a country pub and a pint and kind of thing.

It is about a rural business, a multifunctional community, and the needs are different.

And I just wonder if, you know, we can talk about this again, but I just wonder if you could sort of introduce the top lines for me.

What are you seeing from the different ministers? Is that the sort of rhetoric you're hearing? Are you seeing the policy speech to back it up?

Yeah, and a really strong wanting to engage and have good conversations.

You know, we're all here to kind of lobby and engage.

But actually, let's talk a bit through.

Where do we want to get to in three and five and ten years' time? Labour have put out a roadmap for farming and the land use framework.

How will they all come together? So really about the detail of which bits can they do, what's the priority, what are the levers, and a real focus of making sure our farming system is profitable but delivers a range of outcomes and moving away from this single focus around food security, which we obviously need, and it's more nutritional security.

What can we grow more of that we've not to more resilience, particularly after this another year of climate extremes? And if we think about our farming system, this is the coolest, calmest, driest year we've had.

And do you think this Burnham government, there is a Burnham bounce as opposed to the Sir Keir Starmer's previous iteration of Labour government? Is there more enthusiasm there?

still got neighbours who are still doing the same.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, around us, there's a lot of us getting together and sharing knowledge and working together.

And there's some others that are not so engaged in it, but they are looking.

Near me, we've got a large agricultural contractor chasing large areas across a large area of this county and many others.

He doesn't want to do nature-friendly farming.

He says, I'll get a farm and I'll offset that.

only 18 of you or something isn't there

Martin, are you looking at potentially putting your prices up or potentially something like shrinkflation where the price is still the same but the produce gets smaller?

So unfortunately as a farmer, I have no choice over my price and what I sell at.

We're, we're, we're trading as an international price, and we have to, you know, sell to what the market is offering me.

I have no control over it.

But what we are seeing is prices already going up because of lack of supply locally and internationally.

We are the third cheapest food, uh, price in the, in the world on, on many products.

So, you know, as a farmer, I do need to see some in- increased prices or else I can't be planting this autumn.

And, uh, farmers like Martin have been calling for a lot more help, uh, from the government to help them m- improve this for all of us, so that would be things like making it easier for them to build reservoirs on their land, not having to get, um, such difficult planning commi- planning permission, making it cheaper, things like that.

How, how do you think the news of this SFI budget will be going down in the farming community?

And we've got to remember, this is just in England as well.

So, uh, it, you know, other, other devolved nations have still got an area-based structure.

So I think for many farmers, uh, those that want to apply, it is difficult.

It's a relatively small budget for the amount of farmers, and the schemes that are finishing later this year to deliver the continued ambition that was happening there.

But we also need to remember there's the higher tier.

They're, they're putting more funding into the higher tier countryside stewardship and then op- hopefully opening up that application window for more farmers.

Yeah, well, I wanted to ask, I mean, how confident are you that all of those farmers who want to apply for SFI and who do apply for it will actually be able to get onto this scheme?

And, and I think do you have some concerns about that?

I think it's the right thing to do, that you give a window for those small farms that are very time poor 'cause they're busy doing their day jobs to get a- applications in and those without schemes.

I think the pot of money for the sixty million pounds for that window is fairly small, but it also gives a t- a controlled rollout for Defra to get, make sure the system actually works.

And what if they aren't successful in that first window, you should have your application already pre-done, so as soon as the second window opens, you can press the start button and get your application in.

H- how do you think the news of this SFI budget will be going down in the farming community?

And we've got to remember, this is just in England as well.

So, uh, it, you know, other, other devolved nations have still got an area-based structure.

So I think for many farmers, uh, those that want to apply, it is difficult.