Rural Business
Business and Policy January 2026: Management Matters – Geopolitics and Global Trends
Geopolitics Looking ahead for 2026, with a trend starting with Donald Trump’s inauguration back in January 2025, geopolitics will continue to be the key influencer over agricultural commodity markets; with the age old simple ‘laws’ of economic supply and demand continuing to take a back seat. While the war in Ukraine and other conflicts around…
Business and January 2026 – Policy Brief
Round up of 2026 At the start of the year, following Storm Babet, the Scottish Government announced that a National Flood Advisory Service would be established to improve Scotland’s flood resilience and to embed best practice on a nationwide scale. Key actions for the service included support for smaller flood protection schemes and property level flood resilience. The Scottish Government also announced that a new Housing Planning Hub would be operational in 2025;…
Rural Roundup – Autumn Budget 2025
Welcome back to the Rural Round-up. On today’s episode George Chalmers and Mary-Jane Lawrie are joined by Andrew Coalter to discuss what the recent Autumn Budget means for farming. Timestamps 02:05 Upcoming deadlines 04:51 Preparing for Sustainable Farming (PSF) 06:35 Greening 2026 07:34 Introduction to Andrew Coalter 09:45 Autumn budget – overall summary 11:47 Autumn budget – Relief (APR & BPR) 14:08 Autumn budget – Practical…
Make a Resolution: Plan Your Future with FAS
As the year draws to a close and families gather for the winter holidays, it’s the perfect time to think about the future of your farm or croft. Succession planning is often the elephant in the room—difficult to discuss, yet essential for securing your business and your family’s future. Succession looks different for everyone. It…
Business and Policy December 2025 – Policy Brief
Future Farming Investment Scheme – Update Following the announcement last month that the Scottish Government had increased the total grant funding under the new Future Farming Investment Scheme (FFIS) to £21.4 million; it was announced at AgriScot that funding will be made available for a further 102 applicants, mainly applicants from the islands and the…
Business and Policy December 2025 – Management Matters: Autumn Budget
Autumn Budget 2025 Tax and save – not tax and spend The Autumn Budget delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves places the emphasis firmly on raising revenue to restore fiscal sustainability. While headline tax rates have not risen, the combination of tax threshold freezes and targeted increases to income from wealth means that most individuals and…
Farm Management Handbook 2025/26
The 45th edition of the Farm Management Handbook is an essential tool for any progressive farm business, providing a comprehensive and up-to-date source of information for farmers, crofters, rural professionals, students and consultants. A printed edition is also available at a cost of £34.00 plus postage and packaging. To order, or for more information, email…
Business and Policy August 2025 – Sector Focus: Thinking of Selling your Farm? What you Need to Know
For whatever the reason, if you have found yourself in a position of looking to sell your farm, it is not quite as straight –forward as giving the sales agent a call and popping it on the market. In order to make it as smooth a process as possible, there is quite a bit of…
Benchmarking Matters – What, Why, How?
Amid the daily challenges of owning and managing a farm business, you could be sitting on untapped profit that can be found by looking at your farm accounts information. The method for uncovering these opportunities is benchmarking. Benchmarking is the process of comparing your farm’s financial performance against: Industry standards. Businesses similar in size and…
Business and Policy June 2025 – Sector Focus: Diversification
Diversification continues to strengthen farm business profitability The Scottish Government has recently published the Scottish Farm Business Income: Annual Estimates for 2023-2024 which gives valuable insights into the profitability of Scottish agriculture, and the important role that diversification can play with regards farm and croft profitability. Farm incomes declined in 2023-24, after record highs in…