Ruth Fennell, Collaborative Farming Specialist, joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the various collaborative farming options that exist.

Ruth outlines the options that range from contract heifer rearing, nutrient sharing, machinery trading and land leasing to more commonly thought of collaborative farming options such as registered farm partnerships and share farming. Effectively, collaborative farming is of mutual benefit to both parties.

Ruth then explains how the various options work in different scenarios and how different arrangements may be more appropriate for a given set of circumstances.  The key to all of these arrangements are the people. If you have two people that work well together then you can decide the structure that suits their circumstances. 

Legal agreements need to be developed to protect everyone involved as, like any business, it could need to be dissolved for any number of reasons in years to come. If that situation arises, it is important that the structure can be dismantled relatively easily and this starts at the beginning with a clear exit strategy.

There are financial incentives that are associated with some of the collaborative arrangements such as young farmer top-ups which should be accessed if appropriate but this will be case specific and what is right for you will depend on the circumstances. 

The availability of various grants should not be the sole reason for entering a registered farm partnership, especially if share farming is the more appropriate structure for your circumstances.

Ruth finishes by outlining the planned Generational Renewal Week that will take place from 8-12thSeptember and people interested in viewing some of the webinars which will cover these arrangements, starting the conversation on succession and making a will as well as the taxes and reliefs available, can access the registration page by clicking here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_e2st24BhQu6uJ1CdjETOGA#/registration

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com