I see currency as the biggest threat/opportunity to the success of my business in 2011 and one that I can at least manage to some extent. I have already locked a proportion of my 2011 harvest into the prevailing forward prices and am now considering the 2012 harvest.

With the euro currently at around 86p, I am also considering hedging some or all of my 2011 Single Farm Payment at this exchange rate.

The seemingly ever-changing ground rules for entering environmental schemes continue. Many farmers have experienced delays in getting their HLS accepted and some are now telling me that they will shelve their applications, with the current high commodity prices making their decision easier.

The decision to remove all access options from new HLS schemes has left many farmers including myself exasperated and in a state of disbelief. In our own case we have three Countryside Stewardship Schemes covering most of the land farmed which are due to run out in 2013/2014. All these schemes carry access options and we had hoped to transfer all these into new HLS agreements. The access items over the three schemes amount to some 11 miles of permissive bridleways, 17ha of open access as well as educational access for school visits to the farms.

They have been a great success with daily use of the rights of way and open areas as well as many school children enjoying visits to the farms. At the time of our joining, the CSS’s access items were the number one priority and often the deal breaker for getting accepted into a scheme.

To remove access would be a public relations disaster for farming as the amount saved would be paltry. HLS funding is due to rise from this year’s £84m to £156m in 2013/2014. Of this, access items only account for £6m, which seems to me to be a good investment and creates good PR for farming.