Steve Armstrong

I had a really interesting visit today with Steve Armstrong from Hastings. Steves a tenant farmer who in 1990 got a two generation tenancy, meaning that he can farm the land until he dies and so can any of his children. Steve lives in a home built in the 16th century. Steve is a excellent example of a farmer using all he has available to extract the most out of the land. He has sheep, cattle and arable and plants 10% of the arable land to wildflowers to attract the birds, for this he gets a payment as well as digging a ditch in the paddocks for water to pond so that wading birds can breed, and yes he gets paid. But the one thing I didn't understand until Steve explained it was that once pasture has been down for 5 years you cant return in to arable farming and that a lot of farmers a afraid that if they re pasture even for two years the government will change their mind. My last visit in the UK before I return home and the best so far.