Tenant Farmers Association

The trust has paid £30 million for the estate, raised from individuals, organisations, what they describe as a low-interest loan, and, controversially, just under £2 million from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The Tenant Farmers Association has called that an inappropriate use of public money.

George Dunn is chief executive of the TFA.

That £2 million, if you take the average farm size and you take the average size of claim under this year's SFI, could have delivered another 70 applications.

Next, DEFRA's £1.9 million pledge to help the Wildlife Trust's purchase of the Rothbury estate has been criticised by members of the farming industry, arguing scarce public money should instead be put towards supporting working farmers and established agricultural schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

The Tenant Farmers Association said that while the Wildlife Trust would argue the acquisition of the 9,500-acre estate would create a major nature recovery corridor, restore peatland and encourage nature-friendly farming, it believed it was an inappropriate use of public funding.

£30 million was needed for the charity to make the purchase and the government's backing has nearly gotten them over the line.

Farming Minister Stephen Morgan and the Director for Food and Farming at DEFRA, Mike Rowe, were challenged on the issue in the EFRA committee evidence session earlier this week as Alistair Carmichael asked Mr Morgan how he would feel if he was one of the farmers that missed out on SFI 26 but then heard that shy of £2 million was being spent on the purchase of an estate.

That's their verdict on yesterday's autumn budget, which they say fails to ease the dire cash flow problems facing farms, offers no support for food production and didn't reverse the so-called family farm tax, the inheritance tax that some farmer states will now be liable to pay, which is stifling investment.

The Tenant Farmers Association described the budget as farm blind and others involved in farming have described it as a damp squib and a non-event.

I asked Gavin Lane, president of the CLA, how well he felt John Healy's first budget has served farming and rural businesses.

We have got, obviously, extension of the temporary reduction in red diesel, so the 3.7p per litre and the 5p per litre on main fuel as well.

As we've said, there's nothing much in there for agriculture.

George Dunn from the Tenant Farmers Association, opportunity missed.

He says it's a farm blind budget and he's absolutely right.

So all of that aside, why is it such a benign budget? Well, some people in the room are thinking that he might be going for a very early election.

Reporting on that news, Farmers Guardian heard from residents, tenant farmers and local councillors who all expressed their disappointment that the estate was set to broken up.

Speaking at the time, Tenant Farmers Association Chief Executive George Dunn said the organisation had been left disheartened by the farm's sale.

However, comments in yesterday's Observer newspaper accused the Duchy of betrayal as local residents feared jobs and homes will be lost.

One of the residents, Mary Wrighton, told reporters, "...people draw attention to the irony of Prince William talking about his concern for mental health and for homelessness, while at the same time very badly affecting the mental health of people who live and work here." and potentially making families homeless.

Salmonella has been found in Ukrainian egg batch, and the Defra secretary travels to India to unlock export opportunities.

Now, a survey by the Tenant Farmers Association found that half of tenant farming businesses needed to increase their borrowing following the pressures over the last twelve months.

The survey found that eighty-five percent of tenant farmers who needed to borrow extra finance were looking to borrow between ten thousand and fifty thousand pounds, with more than half requiring at least twenty thousand pounds.

Access to finance was signaled to be a challenge, with around ninety percent of respondents looking for additional borrowing, said they believed it would be somewhat or very difficult to secure.