Author: TFF News

The first SFI26 agreement offers are landing, with 1 November start dates and around 2,500 of 12,200 Window 2 applications answered so far. A conversation on The Farming Forum greeted the news and then went straight back to the divide: hill and designated-site farms with most of their acres outside any scheme, an eligibility maze even experienced holders disputed, and a split over the NFU’s call for interest-free loans. The design lessons are already piling up for SFI27.

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A farmer asking The Farming Forum for a new office computer that handles RPA work, email and printing got a blunt market verdict: almost any machine now does the job, and the recommendations pointed at the refurbished trade, including a £208 refurbished desktop. Nobody would grant his wish for a machine without updates, with Windows 10 support ending and farm accounts moving into browser-based software ahead of Making Tax Digital. The open question is who captures the farm office spend.

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Farmers answering a simple question, which is the best agricultural business bank, turned it into an audit of how farm banking now works. A dedicated manager has become something a farm qualifies for by borrowing at scale, challenger lenders are winning business on criteria rather than rates, and farms with nothing borrowed are getting letters asking why they bank at all. With Bank Rate held at 3.75% and markets pricing rises, few in the conversation wanted to borrow at today’s prices.

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A buying question on The Farming Forum, is a used Fendt worth the extra, grew into a five-week audit of the premium-brand question: 398 contributions and 28,035 views weighing used values and repair ledgers past 20,000 hours against a 230k cost-to-change quote, a front-axle grip argument settled by demos, and dealer back-up as the real decider. With Cheffins reporting a 2023 Fendt 942 at 257,000 and new registrations still below average, the trade question is what the premium will buy next time.

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A farmer quoted £204,500 for a new tractor against the £45,000 ten year old he had just bought asked The Farming Forum who is really paying today’s prices. Across 170 contributions farmers split between the depreciation sums that no longer work, the cheap finance and warranty case for new, and registration data showing a 34% first quarter rebound led by livestock money, with arable areas at a standstill and value brands taking the hill farm trade.

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Wheat growers opened the 2026 fungicide season in a spring without rain, and a conversation on The Farming Forum became a running audit of what disease control is worth. Premium chemistry was weighed against ten-pound generic mixes, yellow rust on newly vulnerable varieties set the agenda while dry weather did the septoria control, and the advice bill itself came under scrutiny. With 107 contributions and more than 7,000 views, the conversation leaves the agrochemical trade a pricing question for 2027.

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