Sorry Mr Starmer, there won’t be any money in the pot to pay your inheritance tax with the wheat price still at £180/t. Hang on in there please Mum and Dad.

I was glued to my phone the other day when I saw the footage of the Buckinghamshire farmers cutting short the prime minister’s visit to a new build housing development.

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About the author

Billy Lewis

Billy Lewis farms 140ha in North Herefordshire in partnership with his parents. They keep Hereford cattle, sheep and grow combinable crops. He also contract farms an additional 110ha. Cropping includes wheat, oats and spring beans.

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I’m beginning to think that taking the protest directly to the MPs is probably not a bad ploy. It certainly provoked a strong reaction from Sir Keir.

Perhaps not the one we would have liked, but at least we now know where we stand.

As it transpires, it was never about targeting the ultra-wealthy landowners. The mask has slipped – he wants to tax the farmers.

He said it for himself on live TV, then later went to post the clip from that interview on his own social media. I have to say, I was gobsmacked when I saw it.

I’m undecided on the best way that we as an industry should go about putting our point across on this matter. Inconveniencing the general public, who we absolutely need on our side, is not the way to go.

After all, a government should be delivering policies that the public wants. Alienate them, and our cause is dead in the water.

We have already put up one “stop the family farm tax” sign on the stretch of main road through our farm. The events of that day have spurred me on to get the paintbrushes out again and make a few more.

Thousands of people drive past every day, and if the signs raise even a little bit of awareness about the issue, it is worth it in my book.

Away from the politics and focusing on the things that I can control, we’ll be getting some early fertiliser out this week on the wheats that were direct drilled.

As for the ploughed ground, that’s going to have to wait for now. If a tractor went onto the fields at the moment, it would probably require another tractor and a chain to get back out again.