SUCCESSION issues, retirement, and a lack of certainty on future farming policy are being credited with sending sales in the south-west of the country through the roof.

Almost a dozen farms and holdings have been sold at closing date in the last six weeks, 15 are still being actively marketed, and a further ten are looking to come to the market in the next few weeks.

South-west beef and sheep farmer, and former NFUS president Andrew McCornick, believes lack of clarity when it comes to future policy is pushing some businesses towards sale.

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“Overall the numbers of farms on the market is down to a multiplicity of reasons,” Mr McCornick explained.

“But there is such uncertainty in the industry. Nothing can be pinned down, and I believe that some people are choosing to leave farming, rather than become what they view as being an environmentalist, when all they want to do is put food on peoples tables.”

“We’ve had seven years to get something on the books when it comes to policy. That’s a long wait for people.

“I spoke to one guy whose farm is on the market and he said that there is just too much regulation now, and no apparent respite from it on the horizon, so that’s why he decided to sell up.

“There seems to be increasing regulation, and little reward.”

Mr McCornick continued: “Part of the issue is also generational. The next generation aren’t all wanting to farm, they don’t see it as the preferred option, as it once was. They’re seeing the parents and grandparents struggling, and don’t want to follow into that.”

Mr McCornick also considers forestry to be playing its part.

“It’s putting a bottom on the market,” he said, “and that’s pushing some people towards selling.”

“I do think the market has settle slightly mind you, in that at one-point farms were flying through a sale, and that’s steadied. There are plenty on the market, but there might be a quietening in demand.”

Director at Threave Rural, Allan Paterson, who is based out of Castle Douglas explained that they have had a very busy season as a company.

“We’ve got a closing date this week and have had seven properties in the last six weeks that have gone to closing date and are now going through legals.

“We still have five that we are actively marketing, and the next six weeks could see five commercial blocks, three blocks of bare land and two or three small holdings all coming up for sale. Things are coming thick and fast.”

Mt Paterson explained that they have been lucky this year, in that everything they have had on the market, has sold.

He puts the number of sales down to a variety of reasons.

“Retirement is a big factor,” he explained.

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“There is a lot of lack of succession. The younger generation are sometimes viewing the industry just now as something that doesn’t seem to have adequate reward for what you have to put into it.

“We haven’t had people in the situation where they need to sell, financially, more that they are choosing now as the time to make the change.”

He doesn’t think forestry is having the impact it once did, saying, “the big planting prices maybe started things off, but that’s calmed down now.

“The market in general is busy, but it will quieten, and we’re already seeing signs of that.”

The past couple of years have seen a lot of farms change hands in the south-west, but interest rates are also having an impact.

“The vast majority of what we have sold have gone to farmers, which is obviously great. There is still a massive market of Scottish buyers, with those from south of the border also having their say, and a small number of Irish buyers.” said Mr Paterson.

“Prices are still at an all time high, and we’re still getting multiple offers at closing dates, but there are definitely less people wanting to commit to borrowing just now, with rates at the level they currently are."