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Kit Speakman

Little Braxted Hall Farm, Witham, Essex 

  • Farm size: 275ha
  • Annual rainfall: 610mm
  • Soil type: Loamy clay

Kit Speakman says his business is at a crossroads – due to changes in the farm support system, including the loss of the Basic Payment Scheme. Enterprises include cereals, potatoes and sweetcorn, cricket bat willow, a grass-based beef herd and flock of EasyCare sheep. Already highly diversified, the farm has 21 high-specification offices rented to a range of businesses and more than 5ha of fishing lakes.

Transition goals: 

  • Bridging income gap after stewardship
  • Creating fully integrated farm business
  • Increasing grass and widening rotation
 

All articles featuring Kit Speakman

AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION

Diversification fills financial gap for Transition farmers

Transitioning to environmental schemes from the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) has left the Speakman family with a 60% financial gap, so income from their diversification businesses is more important than…

AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION

Transition: Ways to generate non-farming income

Developing non-agricultural income is an increasingly important consideration for farm businesses. And it doesn’t always have to come at the expense of food production, as speakers at a recent Farmers…

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Latest SFI offer: Greater ambition and premium payments

The greater flexibility on offer, and the opportunity to combine it with other existing agri-environment schemes, are both benefits of what we know about the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) so…

MACHINERY

Buying the right machinery when switching to a new system

Buying kit to switch to more sustainable systems, without first assessing its true cost and suitability, could waste thousands of pounds and damage land. According to consultants and machinery experts,…

AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION

Transition Farmer update: Risk preoccupies Kit Speakman

Future-proofing his Essex farm business against the threats of commodity price downturns, input price increases and unpredictable weather events is occupying Transition Farmer Kit Speakman’s mind, in case all three…

AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION

How to stress-test your farm business against high inflation

Soaring input costs are putting a severe strain on farm cashflows – but growers and livestock producers can take steps to lessen the impact of rising ag inflation. With little…

AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION

Further enterprises vital to fill BPS gap for Essex farm

Transition farmer Kit Speakman says his business is at a crossroads – due to the loss of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and a Countryside Stewardship (CS) agreement, which expires…

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