Focus on building the new, advises Charlie Ireland 

In his keynote speech, Charlie Ireland began by quoting Socrates’ philosophy, that the secret to change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

The loss of the Basic Payment Scheme and the ebbing away of the environmental schemes, were identified as the biggest change that agriculture has endured in recent years.

“Most farm businesses have got to identify what their cushion is in the future to manage that volatility. Volatility is not going to go away; it’s just how we build businesses that can deal with it in the future,” Charlie said.

Sir Peter Kendall, interim Board chair at Rothamsted Research, who gave the opening address, noted the downward trend in wheat prices and very poor yields this year. However, he criticised the use of language such as “crisis” and “catastrophic” in the media and wider industry, arguing that the total income from farming figures are “actually pretty strong”.

“Let’s make sure that we’re not just telling people how bad things are, and that we do look at the whole industry as a whole and see how can we develop more integrated systems that give us more balanced farming for ourselves.”

Embracing tech is where opportunities lie 

Investment in research and development is critical to address the flatlining of our main cropping commodities, Peter added.

Echoing this, Charlie insisted there are opportunities to be had in the post-subsidy world, including the escalation of AI and robotics, and the demand for UK products.

“The great news is that generally, until about three weeks ago, most of the feed consumers, pigs, poultry, dairy, lamb and beef, were on a bull run. The milk price has dropped, but essentially the outlook for ’26 and ’27 is really good,” he said.

“Dairy has had a great year, pigs are having a good year, poultry, eggs and broiling meats are having an exceptional year.”

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Arable is likely to have the bumpiest ride for a couple of years, he acknowledged, and insight and information will be critical. “Precision farming, robotics, and regenerative practices are all there to improve production and essentially save on efficiencies.”

The real opportunity, he believes, is embracing the technology that is becoming available.

“Mass data, that is on every single farm – putting that into a system where you can pull on an open-ended platform, lots of information that helps you model, predict, use AI in a more efficient way to improve productivity, is truly exciting.”

“What I’m hopefully highlighting is in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity, but fundamentally realising there is an opportunity is the first port of call.”

Never too late 

Peter Kendall shared the sentiment that opportunities are available, as retailers are worried about where their supplies are going to come from. 

Sainsbury’s is offering 10-year contracts on pig meat, and looking to invest in helping farmers build more poultry sheds, as well as forming partnerships with ABP for contract beef finishing.

Cranswick is also looking to increase UK food security by being 50% self-sufficient in pork, and 65% self-sufficient in chicken.

He urged farmers in the room to think differently about the way they farm – and it’s never too late. He and his brother started a new broiler venture in their 50s, aided by ground source heat pumps, biomass and solar panels, with a wind turbine soon to go in – all which has transformed their arable farming business. 

Soil resilience is key

Reflecting on the 2025 harvest, Dr Alex Setchfield of Ceres Research, noted the impacts of the changing seasons and fluctuations on crop establishment, pest and disease and yields.

2024 saw delayed autumn drilling, high temperatures during the day in spring, plus very dry weather through summer which meant far less Septoria and powdery mildew, but an increase in aphids, and generally lower yields.

Defra’s recent estimate on tonnes/ha of production (as of 9^th October) showed cereal crop yields were generally down on the previous year, except winter barley which saw a slight uptick. 

In East Anglia specifically, where the conference was held, cereal crop yields were generally down on five-year averages in 2025, except for spring oats – and winter barley was 9% higher than the previous year.

All soil types underperformed against the five-year average for winter wheat yields. 

Winter OSR yields, however, were up around 20% on the previous year, while spring peas increased by 21% compared to the previous year. 

Farms with break crops had better winter wheat yields, and those with OSR and winter bean crops performed the best.

Strengthening the soil structure and biology to withstand stress is key. Alex also emphasised the importance of sharing data and benchmarking against each other – as performance varied widely between farms.

“It’s really important that farmers who have good yields talk to farmers who have poor yields and vice versa; we also need to learn from those farms that have the poorer yields in order to understand what we might not do in that context next year.”

Funding will be available 

Pushing back on statements made by other speakers that we cannot rely on government funding, Ceres Rural advisor Chloe Timberlake said £2.25 billion has been allocated for 2028-29 for the Farming and Countryside Programme – it’s just frozen currently.

This covers the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Higher Tier Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery. “That is, I think, surprisingly positive, given that it represents only a 6% cut from the £2.4 billion we had in 2025, excluding inflation,” she said.

By 2028, the majority of SFI schemes will have expired so it’s hoped that much of that £2 billion will be available for new schemes. In addition to that, a further £4.5 million is available for nature schemes, which are expected to focus on actions such as tree planting and peatland restoration. 

The first Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier scheme, is expected to go live this month. 

Meanwhile, the SFI is set to return, with the first agreements expected to go live towards the end of summer or autumn, and whilst we don’t know what those will look like, further caps on actions could be imposed, she said.

There could also be a focus on compliance checks and inspections in years two and three of the SFI. 

It’s hoped that the government will continue to support Capital Grants, which closed in August 2025 after a very short application window – so advance planning is recommended. Chloe advised getting in touch with your Natural England catchment sensitive farming advisor early.

Nature funding opportunities

It’s worth keeping an eye on potential funding from a private body that is responsible for implementing a new £1bn national forest between Cambridge and Oxford, which will be looking for project partners in the new year. 

There will also be a competition for a new national forest in 2026, and a third location is yet to be revealed.

Additionally, the Farming and Protected Landscapes (FiPL) has been extended until March 2026 – but it’s not yet known if it will be extended for another year, so Chloe recommended looking into this while funds are still available, if you’re in an area that benefits. 

Meanwhile, the closure of the SFI has seen attention shifted towards supply chain premiums, which are geographically constrained but becoming more popular. These offer rewards for practices that support nature friendly or regenerative farming systems.

It’s hoped that evaluating natural capital on farms will allow farmers to demonstrate the good work that has already been done, opening up opportunities for further funding or participation in sustainability schemes, Chloe continued.

Carbon auditing allows farmers to monetise their natural capital. There are a number of ways of measuring this on farm but exercise caution before committing to long term contracts, in case you need those credits to prove you are net zero later on, she warned.

Whilst there is no Landscape Recovery scheme available at the moment, the government has announced that £500m will be pumped into this, supporting lifetime costs for up to 10 of the first projects in round one. 

Take home messages were to keep well informed of government grants as schemes will open and close quickly; and consider the wider private grant schemes available. It’s worth also looking into joining a farmer cluster group in your area; and consider what data you need to collect.

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