Members of Stormont’s Agriculture Committee will meet later today (Thursday, November 13) with stakeholders from across agriculture to discuss a new Nutrients Action Programme for Northern Ireland.
Farmers for Action (FFA) will participate in the event. The organisation’s spokesperson, William Taylor, commented: “Most of the organisations taking part in the discussion will want to see current levels of agricultural output maintained and even increased.
“But making this happen will require fundamental changes at farm levels.
“It is, therefore, vital that farmers are fully supported by Stormont when it comes to introducing the new management systems and technologies that are coming down the track.
“We also need to see farmers receiving sustainable prices into the future, thereby allowing them make the significant investment commitments that they will need to make within their businesses over the coming years,” he added.
Nutrients action
According to Taylor, the only way to achieve true sustainability at farm level in Northern Ireland is by implementing FFA’s much discussed Farm Welfare Bill.
The farm group said that it has been designed to deliver farmgate returns, which allow farmers to cover their costs, secure a living from their businesses and invest for the future.
The FFA representative explained that he recognises that beef and lamb prices have increased significantly throughout 2025.
“But these are still behind where they should be in delivering for livestock producers,” he added.
“And the outworking of the models built into the Farm Welfare Bill confirm this fact.”
Meanwhile Budget 2026 takes place in the UK in less than a fortnight’s time, on Wednesday, November 26.
William Taylor strongly believes that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves has no intention of rowing back from her 2025 commitment to extend the footprint of inheritance tax to include farm land.
“We eventually received a response from the inland revenue on this matter a number of weeks ago,” Taylor told Agriland.
“Rather than commit to reviewing the commitments made by the Chancellor 12 months ago, the note actually endorsed the principles associated with the expansion of inheritance tax measures across the UK.
“And on that basis, it is unlikely that Rachel Reeves will not make any changes to the farm tax decisions taken this time last year.”
According to William Taylor, the only option now open to farming organisations in the UK is to bring the inheritance tax issue to the attention of the European Commission in Brussels.
“This approach works because of Northern Ireland’s unique, post-Brexit circumstances,” he explained.
“However, the approach to the EU can only take place once the new tax measures have been fully implemented. This won’t happen until the beginning of April 2026.”
