Elveden estate farm enters new era as top team appointed

Farmer Nick Scantlebury has taken over the reins at Elveden Farms following the departure of long-time farm boss Andrew Francis, who has left to pursue a new venture.

Meanwhile, in the last year, prominent Suffolk farmer and businessman James Buckle of Semer, near Hadleigh, has become Elveden Estate's executive director of farming after sitting on the board for many years.

The estate is in the process of ceasing its operations on rented land in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire and is now focusing on its Suffolk "home farm" base - where its aim is to maintain a gold standard in farm production and promote the Elveden brand.

Elveden comprises 22,500 acres including more than 10,000 acres of farmland - making it the largest ring-fenced arable farm in lowland Britain.

Based near Thetford, it has been owned by the descendants of brewery founder Arthur Guinness since 1894.

Current owner Edward Guinness, the Earl of Iveagh, said Nick - who has worked for the business for a number of years - would continue to develop the estate's cutting-edge approach.

"We are firmly focused on our holding in Suffolk," he said. "It's all systems go."

Mr Buckle, who owns Heathpatch, a Semer-based group of businesses which includes a 4,000 acre farming operation, said he was "really excited".

The farmer and businessman has sat on the board at Elveden for a number of years but now has over-arching responsibility for the farm operation.

About 8,500 acres of Elveden is cultivated arable land - and latterly through its Lincolnshire and Yorkshire arms it managed another 9,000 acres or so.

It grows 24,000t of potatoes, 30,000t of onions (out of an estimated UK total of around 450,000t), 23,000t of carrots, 5,000t of parsnips and 12,000t of cereals.

Like all farm businesses it faces some huge challenges ahead - from financial through to weather extremes.

It is in the process of losing its Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments as the farm subsidy is phased out by government post-Brexit.

At the same time, the estate faces eye-watering increases in costs across a range of inputs from diesel and energy to fertiliser and staffing.

Farming had "got very complicated", he added, and risks had increased dramatically.

"Farming has become a very high risk venture and doing that hundreds of miles from home is not something we want to be involved in. The plan is to invest back into Elveden and to make Elveden the best," he said.

"We want to make Elveden the gold standard of estates."

Nick, who started with the estate in 2014 and has been working with Andrew during the transfer period, is looking forward to the challenges ahead but said the going would be tough for all farms.

"I already have Elveden blood in me. For me, it's a challenge, but I already know the estate inside and out," he said. 

"Andrew and me have been very close for the last eight or nine years. We have been talking about this for a while and we were prepared for it."

Nick, aged 32, was born into a 1900-acre family farm operation at Hatfield Heath, near Bishop's Stortford in north Essex which is run by his father, Richard, and his uncle. He went on to study farming at Harper Adams University before joining the Elveden Estate in 2014, initially as an assistant farm manager and later running its Lincolnshire operation. He now heads up a farm team of about 50.

"Obviously it's an extremely challenging time in agriculture," he said. "Current pressures are going to have a huge impact going forward."

The loss of BPS alone - the subsidy is being phased out over seven years to 2027 - would leave a significant financial hole in the hundreds of thousands of pounds, he said, while the cost of electricity had doubled. Meanwhile they had faced an "unbelievably hot and dry" summer which meant keeping crops alive had cost the estate dearly on the light, sandy soils of the Brecks. Fertiliser costs had gone through the roof from about £150 to £200/t to £600 to £800/t.

Juggling all these issues will be the big challenge for farm businesses in 2023, he said.

Despite all the difficulties, 2022 would go down as a good year for crops and across the piece it was an above average performance, he added.

And the early signs were good for next year's crop, after they got off to a good start on the estate in the autumn amid favourable weather conditions.

"I'm always looking forward really and will tackle every problem as it comes to the table really," said Nick. 

"Farming is changing. Everybody in the farming industry is simple going to have to modernise. We are going to have to have to keep diversifying."