Taking the biss

I don't mean this in a negative way but you seem very unsure how the schemes work. The fact that you think the ANC. Has changed points to this .It's so important to get this right I feel the money spent on advisor would be money well spent. Hard to see why you pulled out of Acres do as there is a good payment from cp

Seriously thinking of doing the same myself but am afraid I’ll miss one of the boxes to tick and end up a lot worse off, I do think that they take the p*ss a bit with their charges for some tasks, like most other things in this country there doesn’t seem to be much competition between them price wise, most of them seem to have very similar prices, amazing the way that seems to happen more and more

Best of luck with it, it's just that it's so important to get it right.I always do it myself except last year with the new system.

For people who do their own BISS application, how do they manage when they need advisor for ACRES? My thinking is their old advisor will huff when they aren't getting money from them annually.

Write down the different steps on paper for next year and easy to follow,

You need the advisor for the acres plan and scoring if appropriate to you. If your current advisor is getting the huff over not getting the cream, leave them hungry and find an advisor that will do it. Have a peck around biss on agfood and start a draft application. Get the DAFM clinic to check it and submit. Then email the said advisor as say no need to do it this year as I have done it myself.

The biggest issue with acres plans was folks meeting the planner and not having a bit of ground work done on actions that would suit them. When I did the plan I was in and out from the advisor in less than 20 minutes, I had the hit list of where stuff was going and he added 2 simple actions that I hadn't even considered. Paid him going out the door and he had no other work to do. Same with some mapping issues, for splitting a parcel for red clover and peas and oat, sent a Google maps images with the changes I needed drawn on it via email sorted over 2 emails and both happy.

Advisors are milking farmers galore, tams is a prime example. I did 5 jobs in tams2 and did them myself, applications and claims. I got an inspection on one job and it came down in conversation that less than 5% of farmers do there own tams and scheme work.

I would encourage people here to do a quick tot on what the have spent last year on advisors, leaving acres aside and for many it would be a big help to hold onto that money to mind the bottom line.

As I have said a few times. Taking a bit of time to read the T+C's of all schemes is important. An example is the owl box in acres, means you can use rat bait for the duration of the scheme

Make sure you have a good understanding of the terms and conditions of all the schemes you are applying for. Here are the links.