To ask why you support the farmers, regarding inheritance tax?

[WheresFluffy]

Just that, really.
I'm interested to know why people support, or not, the farmers regarding the inheritance tax changes.

YABU - it's been done to death
YANBU - learning why people believe things is important.

Getting a choice of what we do is always dependent on our financial position. Like everyone else they need to cut their cloth accordingly. Nobody with an ounce of sense believe they do it as a charity.

Oh, and my front door is no more than five steps from a field full of sheep and I am surrounded by grazing land.

Bright green fields are extremely poor wildlife habitat. They have been fertilised (usually with manure, that can contribute to watercourse pollution if spreading takes place in the wrong weather- as it often does), which banishes all the native wildflowers that you used to find in a traditional meadow in favour of 2-3 species of calorie rich grass. We have lost 97% of our native wildflower meadows since WW2. The hedges surrounding them have often been chain flailed to within an inch of their lives, and field margins seem to be a thing of the past. Farmland is a wildlife desert nowadays- all you see is crows.

As for the "What would happen to the animals?" question: well, given that the working life of the average dairy cow is what- 5 years?- after which their milk yield drops and it's off to the knackers with them, if you stopped breeding cows now there would be precious few left within the decade.

You forgot to mention the environmental impact of dogs and cats, other pets, llamas, ponies horses …. Banish the lot. Anyone with cash enough to feed an animal is “wealthy”!!!!

It's not that I forgot, it's that that has fuck all to do with what we were talking about 🙄

Well I doubt it will be grazing land for long. It will be houses. Probably without the needed infrastructure to support additional housing.

So you are happy to wipe out whole species of domestic animals? That would be a huge drop in biodiversity. I agree about wild flowers and hedges, but that is the result of neo-liberal policies where profit is the only driver of innovation, with an economy geared to keep a few very, very rich and the rest of us more or less poor (with an illusion of choice e.g. 56 sorts of orange squash). Also, humans are omnivores, not natural vegetarians/vegans. Societies that are vegetarian/vegan use a wide variety of crops to make sure the diet is full of appropriate nutrients, and vegetarians eat dairy products such as cheese, milk and butter (sometimes clarified. e.g. ghee). You not only seem happy to wipe out whole species but you also seem content to destroy varieties and types of food which humans have developed. No dairy animals (cows, sheep, goats etc) means no cheese (so no Stilton, Roquefort, Cheddar, brie, paneer, Cornish Yarg, any more) and no yoghurt either. The end result of such a policy is a highly mechanized culture of grains and pulses protected by chemicals, and involving the destruction of bird and insect populations which eat grains and pulses. The end of that is ecological and economic catastrophe.

Okaaaay 😆
Do you understand what biodiversity actually means?
Relax love, domestic cattle aren't going to become an endangered species any time soon.

I'm desperately hoping that some of these most recent posters are not, in fact, farmers. Although, given that the alpha dairy farmer round these parts proved himself unable to understand the difference between perennial and annual plants at a recent Parish Council meeting, I fear that hope may be in vain, and that this might go some way towards explaining why farming's in such a state nowadays 🤦‍♀️

Oh get over yourself

Yes, I understand what biodiversity means and domestic animals are part of it - they preserve gene pools, very often. It's the variation of life on earth, genetic/ecological etc. Humanity is part of earth's biosphere as are domestic animals. Tell me why you think it doesn't matter if we destroy the gene pools of domesticated animals and how that doesn't affect biodiversity at the genetic, species and ecological level.

I support them. 1M for a farm isn't actually a lot considering you could spend half that on one piece of necessary farm machinery. And I would like to support home grown produce, not watch as farms are paved over with housing estates because they are no longer viable due to IHT.

Dairy farmers have no need to understand the difference between an annual and a perennial plant. Arable farmers and market gardeners do, but not dairy.

Those of us who went to college had that coverage in our sections on botany but not all farmers could go to college due to familial expectations.

None of us has the ability to know all things nor do we have the need.

I mean no offence, but i just cannot take parish council meetings seriously. Especially after this...https://news.sky.com/video/you-have-no-authority-here-jackie-weaver-parish-meeting-descends-into-chaos-12209019 😂

They get up to 3mill!

No, a random farmer's daughter or son !

Would that include sheep-dogs?

Yeah well, given that the farmer in question is the chair of the Parish Council I'd tend to agree with you.

Yeah, but considering you all trumpet about being "preservers of the countryside" and "guardians of nature" would it be unreasonable to expect you to know the basics about what nature is? This guy says there's "plenty of nature" on his farm, but ask him to specify what birds, insects, wildflowers, mammals etc there are exactly and he couldn't tell you. Largely because all he's got is crows, perennial ryegrass and blackthorn.

One farmers opinion and experience does not equal all farmers and their experiences, that is a nastly, ill thought out little prejudice pigeonhole of your making not mine.

If you read some of my posts you will discover I have wildlife conservation land management experience as well and identification of British wildlife is one of my key skills.

You do not get to put words into my mouth nor thoughts into my head that are not there.

If one farmer shows ignorance that is on one farmer not on all of them. Ignorance is not limited to the farming community either.

Well, if it's acceptable to you- as it seems- that any farmers- who are supposed to be custodians of our land and nature- are in fact ignorant of that very land and nature, then I'm afraid you are definitely part of the problem rather than the solution.

Again you make assumptions and put words into my mouth that were never there nor even implied in any post I have made on this or similar threads

Accusing me of being a problem with no basis whatsoever is just an aggressive post for no good reason. I've no interest in continuing in this line of conversation, it never results in anything worthwhile to read for anyone.

We own a farm, not in UK, and it passes down without IHT so no skin in this game personally. But farming is really hard in a way my former job in London wasn’t. It really is 24/7. I have found myself outside in freezing temps helping animals birth on Christmas Eve at 2am and you never switch off- the farm and the animal welfare is always on your mind- or this is how it is for many smaller family farms. The alternative is land is snapped up by big corporates like in USA- Google how much agricultural land Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos own- I would rather buy from
a small family farm locally produced food than what the big corporate farms produce. And a million is nothing in terms of the cost of tractors, balers, seeders - a few bits of equipment could easily be worth that. So without equipment and enough land these family farms will cease to exist.

Doesn't mean you know anything about farming.

Yes I saw on the news we had another day of slow driving moaning and weeping from our (rich) poor farmers again today. If it hadn't been on the news I'd of thought that was just a normal day for a farmer as it is all they seem to do.

All driving along in their American, Finnish, Brazilian (anywhere apart from UK) built tractors. 😏

Google the farms the people in todays BBC report and then look up the land they sit on and the subsidy payments they receive.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr5629zjqq3o

Wonder how many of these farms actually do get sold when a parent dies.

I don't know how many are sold. But a great many more will be sold probably to agri-businesses, thus changing the shape of our landscape and the habitats of many animals. We do need to grow food, we cannot import it all - food insecurity is dangerous for any nation.