I’m writing this after what has felt like a very wet and mild autumn, and it has now eventually become more seasonal, and this week turned rather chilly.

This month’s disaster on my part, was to get caught in flooding around the lake at Ambleside on my way to a meeting in Hawkshead which I had expected wouldn’t take longer than 30 minutes.

We eventually made it to the valuation inspection, after a rather unexpected 1.5 hour detour!

At the end of October, I was delighted to attend my first ever Borderway Agri Expo, organised by our sister company Harrison & Hetherington. The showcase of livestock was second to none and it was wonderful to see so many in the industry together again. During the day H&H Land & Estates hosted a series of seminars, which were a huge success and were well received. Although once again, it was worrying to hear that DEFRA still seem to have little knowledge to share about the detail of new schemes coming to replace the Basic Payment Scheme. Understandably farmers are finding it extremely difficult to plan for the future with such little information. Let’s just hope DEFRA took on board the feedback and act on the concerns raised.

Over the past few months here in the Kendal office we have been very busy. We held another successful auction earlier in November, which saw the productive Land at Leece sell for well in excess of the guide price achieving over £8,000/acre and the delightful Calder Woodlands sell for £50,000. With more sales lined up for next year, hopefully demand and buoyancy in the market will continue.

As we head into December, at home we are saying farewell to our final guests in our cottages for this season and very much looking forward to a few months break over the festive season, as I expect everyone is!

So, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a healthy and happy Christmas and a prosperous 2022.