The recent NFU Cymru Conference had a diverse range of speakers.  Speakers ranged from Alan Davies, Assembly Member and Minister for the Natural Resources and Food, Patrick Begg of National Trust and two inspirational young farmers, being William Lawrence from Pembrokeshire and Jake Freeman, Freestone Farms Manager for Overbury Farms.

Summarising the main message from the Conference Tony Rimmer, Director of Rostons, Chartered Surveyors and Agricultural Valuers, felt that overall the next 10 years are going to see significant change in the hills and valleys of Wales.

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A recent announcement by Owen Patterson has been made that loans to cover 50% of the project costs (up to a maximum of £400,000) will be available to English Farmers investing in on farm anaerobic digesters.  This loan is available for small scale plants up to 250kW, and are expected to be issued to farmers at the beginning of 2014.

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The FFIS is part of the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) and is a scheme developed to support Farming, Forestry and Horticultural businesses in England.

The scheme aims to make the business more profitable and also reducing the impact farming has on the environment.

So far, two rounds of FFIS have been welcomed and earlier this year there were talks of a third round.  Carys Williams of Rostons is hopeful that there will be a third round and comments:

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By law you are now required to register your land with the Land Registry on most property transactions, gifts and sale.  If you have not been involved in one of these transactions it is unlikely your land is registered.  By registering your land, the Land Registry holds all your property details electronically, which makes Title Deeds obsolete.

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The deadline to register your Agricultural Waste Exemptions with the Environment Agency is fast approaching.

New regulations introduced on 6 April 2010 changed the system of waste exemptions. Farm-based exemptions registered before 6 April 2010 will expire on 30 September 2013. By this date, you will need to have registered for a new exemption.

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One of the key questions emerging from the CAP reform political agreement back in June is how entitlements will be dealt with moving into the new scheme.

Although a final decision as to how these entitlements will be allocated in the new scheme will not be made for a few more months, many commentators are saying that in England, entitlements will roll forward. It has already been confirmed that there will be a new allocation of entitlements in Wales.

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What are the latest proposals for entitlement allocation in the new scheme?

Although the principles of the CAP reform deal were agreed late in the afternoon of June 26^th 2012, the legislation and detail of many elements have been left undecided.

One of the key questions arising from this deal is how to obtain entitlements for the new scheme which will be due to take affect from 1^st January 2015.

There are 2 options available, being:

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