Verdict on SFI budget, fertiliser warning, Red Tractor responds, & Only Farmers

Uh, Louise, we said last week that, uh, we needed to know the budget, and here a budget is.

Yeah, here a budget is.

What a rapid response we had from Defra.

So this is, the budget was announced for SFI '26.

So that, that is what was announced this week.

Um, obviously, as usual, there are still some questions because, um, w- we don't quite know how long That budget is going to last for because, of course, we don't yet know whether there's going to be an SFI '27.

So still some uncertainty, but a bit more information than we had this time last week.

Yeah, more information than we had, uh, last week, but, uh, still a lot of fog around these numbers.

And, uh, Hugh, one thing very clear, this, uh, budget is gonna be tight, isn't it?

Yeah, it is tight, isn't it? If you look overall, there's like 39,000 live SFI agreements across the piece.

Now, bear in mind, some of those might be tiny.

Uh, some of those will be big ones.

Um, obviously, you've got the 100K cap on per business now as well.

But it is gonna be tight.

Um, it's still...

Yeah, I mean, look, the budget, it's still nudging money forward, and it's never abundantly clear which money's going where.

And then in the press release, they talk about, you know, 240 million in addition to the 560 already committed, and it's a total of 800 million, and you're thinking, "And over what period?" So that's all really confusing.

But what is good, and we must, I think, really give credit to Defra for this 'cause this is a big ask, and everyone's been saying, uh, we need to do this or this needs to happen.

They have said, if you read down the press release, um, all of the ELM...

Now, this is also confuses me as well because they talk about ELM agreements, Environmental Land Management agreements.

This is SFI, Higher Tier, um, Landscape Recovery.

So all ELM agreements, apparently, they're building new functionality into the SFI '26 application service that will let farmers who are in existing agreements, which will e-expire presumably towards the end of this year and into next, it should, it should, if it all works well, allow you to dovetail straight onto the next agreement.

So my one runs out at the end of March.

In theory, at some point, I don't know whether I can do that after September, what I get here is that I should be able to log in and click through and effectively renew it, alter it, and then it'll dovetail on.

And that if they manage to achieve that, and it works, that's actually really good.

Uh, Louise, we said last week that, uh, we needed to know the budget, and here a budget is.

Yeah, here a budget is.

What a rapid response we had from Defra.

So this is, the budget was announced for SFI '26.

So that, that is what was announced this week.

Um, obviously, as usual, there are still some questions because, um, w- we don't quite know how long That budget is going to last for because, of course, we don't yet know whether there's going to be an SFI '27.

So still some uncertainty, but a bit more information than we had this time last week.

Yeah, more information than we had, uh, last week, but, uh, still a lot of fog around these numbers.

And, uh, Hugh, one thing very clear, this, uh, budget is gonna be tight, isn't it?

Yeah, it is tight, isn't it? If you look overall, there's like 39,000 live SFI agreements across the piece.

Now, bear in mind, some of those might be tiny.

Uh, some of those will be big ones.

Um, obviously, you've got the 100K cap on per business now as well.

But it is gonna be tight.

Um, it's still...

Yeah, I mean, look, the budget, it's still nudging money forward, and it's never abundantly clear which money's going where.

And then in the press release, they talk about, you know, 240 million in addition to the 560 already committed, and it's a total of 800 million, and you're thinking, "And over what period?" So that's all really confusing.

But what is good, and we must, I think, really give credit to Defra for this 'cause this is a big ask, and everyone's been saying, uh, we need to do this or this needs to happen.

They have said, if you read down the press release, um, all of the ELM...

Now, this is also confuses me as well because they talk about ELM agreements, Environmental Land Management agreements.

This is SFI, Higher Tier, um, Landscape Recovery.

So all ELM agreements, apparently, they're building new functionality into the SFI '26 application service that will let farmers who are in existing agreements, which will e-expire presumably towards the end of this year and into next, it should, it should, if it all works well, allow you to dovetail straight onto the next agreement.

So my one runs out at the end of March.

In theory, at some point, I don't know whether I can do that after September, what I get here is that I should be able to log in and click through and effectively renew it, alter it, and then it'll dovetail on.

And that if they manage to achieve that, and it works, that's actually really good.