Ending of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Any man that’s being given €60,000 a year, every year, to support his business and says he still can’t make it pay shouldn’t be in that business in the first place.

On top of that any man that was handed €230,000 a year for the last almost 20 years, that now claims can’t make his business pay when that’s reduced to €60,000, should never have been allowed into that business in the first place as he must never have had the required knowledge, organisation or skills to run it. The biggest problem CAP created with big payments like that was keeping poor operators going in a business they were never fit to be in all along.

Well luckily acorns don't fall far from the trees , plus it'd be a long time before the oaks would be big enough to shed acorns over the hedge - it's a valid concern though ,and easy to remedy in mixed planting - just plant a row or 2 of some other tree type on the bounds ditch ..

If there's lots of tanins in acorns I assume they're quite bitter - would the cattle have to be quite hungry to eat a lot of them ?

This takes the biscuit.

Depending on where you are in the country, the day after planting all those trees, your buddy's meadow might be worth 20% what it was worth the day before he planted it..........agroforestry might not be quite as bad as planting the lot but I'd say it would still result in a fair drop

As for saying that slurry is bad for land ................

I think you've been reading too much anti farming bs but it seems your not the only one

No your buddy's meadow will be worth a lot less when it has trees on it. I'm not talking about his neighbours. He might want to take that into account if he thinks he is doing a clever thing to piss off the neighbours 😁

He might have a meadow which he could sell tomorrow for 150k. (Assume 10 acres of good land at 15k per acre....again depends on where you are) He can then go through the rigmarole of getting permission, planting trees on it, then try to sell it and find that he now will only get offered maybe 3-3.5k an acre for it. He might not be aware of that. It would not be as big of an issue if the land is not good land to begin with (say 8k an acre down to the 3-3.5k).

Planting trees on land is now (almost exclusively) and one-way permanent decision. Don't be planning to plant the trees and harvest them in 30 years and then plough up the field again. Based on current conditions, you wouldn't be allowed to do that. not that you are goign to be harvesting in 30 years for broadleaves (bar thinnings)