Transition Farmers: Government policy ruins targets

Uncertainty over government-supported environmental schemes in England is forcing James MacCartney to rethink his Transition goals, and even abandon one of them completely. 

With some herbal leys established in 2024, James was aiming to grow another 40ha, applying for the combined Sustainable Farming Incentive/Countryside Stewardship (CS) offer.

But months after he submitted the application, the Rural Payments Agency told him a computer error meant he had to resubmit without some options.

See also: Sustainable Farming Incentive: Where next for farmers?

“I was advised that I had to remove options that were similar to those I had done through my CS agreement, to water it down,” he explains.

“The error over the duplication wasn’t mine but the delay in advising me about it cost me when Defra suddenly closed the scheme.”

He does have an agreement which started in January 2025 but with only 50% of the options he had applied for in that initial application, with herbal leys excluded.

Plans on hold

James has therefore put his plan to expand herbal ley acreage on hold.

“Herbal leys were attractive when they were part of a subsidised scheme but without that support they are costly and risky to establish,” he says.

In his sheep flock, breeding replacements to achieve a Transition goal of keeping disease out took a hit, with the flock scanning at 20% lower than usual.

The lambing period itself went well though, thanks to the dry weather, but as that absence of rain persisted grass growth took a hit.

James says the grass situation was the worst he had ever known.

His third Transition ambition is to make the farm carbon neutral but says this is no longer a priority. “What is happening politically has been a big wake-up call to all of us,” he suggests. 

“Farmers were moving forward with environmental schemes but now it doesn’t seem sensible to put my eggs in that basket and cut back on beef production when the beef price is so strong, and with a government that doesn’t seem willing to support farmers with environmental work.”

James says he is therefore unlikely to get to the 100% point of achieving the Transition goals he initially set. “We have cut disease incidence in our sheep and we have some herbal leys in the ground, but we are probably not 50% of the way there yet.”

That, he points out, isn’t down to lack of ambition, but government policy.