Farming Conference 2023-24

Our one day virtual Farming conference has been specifically designed for partners and managers with responsibility for a number of farming clients. It is a specialist conference looking at a wide range of practical issues which will enable those attending to provide the best possible advice to their clients.

 

Now available: Conferences On-Demand

Following this conference, a recording of the event will be available to purchase. This gives you the ability to catch up on technical updates at your convenience. If you've already registered for the live event, you'll now receive complimentary access to the recording.


Loading events...

Full conference agenda

Graham Redman, The Andersons Centre

This session will cover the current farm profitability and financial situation, including drivers such as trade and policy changes, market developments and outlook for the main farming sectors and the future of UK farming.

Pat Nown, Mercia Group Ltd

In this session, Pat will consider a selection of key tax issues currently of relevance to farmers in their personal and business capacity. The following will specifically be included:

  • National Insurance – fill it or lose it
  • Paying attention to tax aspects of pension savings
  • Partnerships, co-ownership and the trust registration service
  • The risk of national minimum wage
  • Basis Period Reform – overlap, spreading and averaging
  • Any other new announcements or developments.

Julie Butler, Butler & Co

This session will cover:

  • The environmental consultation – awaiting HMRC guidance, CGT on carbon credits.
  • Tax treatment of farming for the environment
  • Very close to the results of the consultation – tax planning – the need to keep trading
  • The APR doubts on environmental projects and the need for BPR
  • Changes to existing succession planning – the impact of the Butler case on BPR planning
  • Accounts treatment on environmental projects to protect capital taxes
  • Farm tenancies under the microscope with the move to farming for the environment
  • Research and Development Relief for farmers – habitat banks
  • Consideration of changes to a vast number of farm legal agreements – contract farming, arrangements, partnership agreements, wills and tenancies etc.

Jeremey Moody, Central Association of Agricultural Valuers

This session will cover:

  • England’s overall strategy
  • Eroding basic payment de linked from land and farming
  • Look to profitable production - restructuring
  • The production schemes and what might follow
  • The developing public goods schemes
  • Developing policies in Wales and Scotland.

Richard Baugh, Woodside Farm

Richards' session will cover his experiences with regenerative agriculture, the consumer response and a farmers' view on selling carbon.

Jeremey Moody, Central Association of Agricultural Valuers

This session will cover:

  • The Framework of environmental policy
  • Climate change and rural Land
  • Hold onto your carbon
  • Biodiversity net gain
  • Water and nutrient neutrality.

David Missen, Consultant

This session will cover:

  • The impact of commodity prices and subsidy changes on profitability and cash flow
  • Restructuring the business for the future - short and long term options
  • The agricultural business plan - why do we need one?
  • Succession - is now the time?

James Hurst, Mercia Group Ltd

This session will look at recent developments in VAT as well as some common VAT challenges that can arise for farming businesses. 

Conference speakers

Graham Redman

Graham is a Partner of The Andersons Centre, author of the John Nix Farm Management Pocketbook and a Director of Agro Business Consultants.

He has been an agricultural economist at The Andersons Centre since 2004. He provides specialist agri-business research services, to public and private organisations alike. These include training, briefings, agricultural modeling and lead project-work. The Andersons Centre is a multi-disciplined farming and agribusiness consultancy, providing advice and interpretation to all sectors in the agricultural supply chain.

Before joining Andersons, Graham was the economist for a major agricultural merchant, focussing chiefly on grain and animal feed marketing providing guidance to the grain trading and grain procurement teams. Prior to that, he was a farm management consultant for a national firm in Central and Southern England. He has worked extensively on several types of farm.

Graham has agricultural degrees from Leeds and Reading Universities.

He is a Council Member for the Institute of Agricultural Management and a Chartered Environmentalist.
Pat Nown

Pat is a tax consultant lecturer at Mercia Group.

Pat originally trained and worked in the profession for Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton and KPMG before moving to the University of Derby as their senior tax lecturer. Her time at Derby included undergraduate and professional tax training as well as being involved in examinations and publishing projects for ACCA and other professional bodies.

This led to a ten year period with the Financial Training Company now Kaplan where she was Tax Product Director for the Midlands as well as becoming well known as a prominent exam based tax lecturer. Over her career Pat has been actively involved in the tax professional bodies including serving as a Council member for 12 years for the Association of Taxation Technicians.

The Woodside Farm in Nottinghamshire has been in the Baugh family since the 1950s and is now made up of three key elements; pigs, sheep and arable. Richard Baugh returned from university in 2009 and although his dad still remains involved, Richard has taken over management of the farm. He has since diversified the farming activities and developed an award winning hog roast business, Bofs Hogs, and Bofs meats selling meat boxes to set them apart and promote the pork reared on the farm. Richard works closely with numerous local butchers for the distribution of his pork and lamb as well as selling Lamb of a Tesco sustainable lamb group. The farm has also been farming in regenerative ways for the last 3 years.

Julie Butler FCA qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1980 and founded the firm of Butler & Co in 1986. This business now trades as Butler & Co Alresford Ltd and Butler & Co Audit Ltd. Julie is a farm and equine tax specialist and is also an authorised individual licensed by the ICAEW to carry out the reserved legal activity of non-contentious probate in England and Wales. 

Julie is the author of Tax Planning for Farm and Land Diversification and Equine Tax Planning as well as co-author of Stanley: Taxation of Farmers and Landowners with Malcolm Gunn CTA (Fellow). Julie is also editor of Farm Tax Brief. Julie and her team provide tax consultancy services direct to the farming and equine industry and to other accountants, land agents and solicitors on farming diversification, bloodstock and all areas of the equine world. 

Julie writes regularly in all the technical tax press and has a reputation for a fresh approach to subjects such as the need for partnership agreements, succession planning, all areas of development land, the definition of farming, woodlands, furnished holiday accommodation and all farm property concerns in this current complicated economic climate. Recent areas of tax writing have included Natural Capital, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) with the impact on development, the Agriculture Act 2020 focusing on the changing subsidies, tax protection around pony paddocks, mixed rate SDLT and rewilding. Consideration has been given to interaction with Will planning, TRS registration of partnerships, and Stud losses. Julie lectures regularly to a large variety of audiences through various organisations and to the rural community directly.

Jeremy Moody

Jeremy is Secretary and Adviser to the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers and an independent adviser.
David Missen

Having previously been a Partner within a regional firm of chartered accountants, David is now an independent consultant. He is an agriculture subject matter expert for the ICAEW farming community and also writes assignments and lectures for firms within the sector. He has his own small farm which he has expanded with a mixture of arable, solar and stewardship areas.
James Hurst

James joined Mercia in October 2022 as VAT trainer and consultant. His role involves writing technical material as well as devising and delivering VAT training courses.

James has a wide experience of VAT and indirect tax, beginning his VAT career with HM Customs & Excise (as it then was) before moving to the private sector in 1995 and gaining his CTA qualification. Latterly, he had VAT partner and head of VAT roles in Grant Thornton and Mazars.

Outside of work music remains a keen interest. Aside from playing jazz on the tenor sax, James is a regular member of the trumpet section of the Leeds Project Big Band.
One Day Conference
Group of people sat in a room watching a man present stood up

The on-demand recording is now available

Released on 25 March 2024 the recording will be available to view until 31 December 2024. This gives you the ability to catch up on technical updates at your convenience. If you've already registered for the live event, you'll now receive complimentary access to the recording.

Wilmington Logo