Pictured above: Paul Rice

Midlands farmers are hanging on to their greatest asset - their land.

As of September it appears that less farmland will be sold this year than during the Foot and Mouth crisis. And a leading agricultural figure in the region believes that land owners will continue to keep hold of land until the recession starts to subside.

Paul Rice, who heads law firm Wright Hassall's farming and rural business team, says that the farmers are tending to concentrate on their core rural activities and that is one of the reasons that has led to less dealing in land.

He said: "It looks as if less than 100,000 acres of farmland across the UK will have been publicly marketed by the end of the year. 

"The last time such figures were recorded was in 2001, when Foot and Mouth disease all but closed the countryside and then in 2003 and 2004 when there was uncertainty over how the single farm payment scheme would be introduced.

"These figures are very similar to those recorded during difficult periods in agricultural trade, but come under very different circumstances.

"Despite this difficult economic climate, farmland still represents a safe investment.

"There is still a demand for farmland, because there has been a 60 per cent increase in new buyers, the majority of whom are famers looking to expand.

"The hitch is that the land owners do not want to sell their land because they know how valuable it is. That is certainly what we are finding here in Warwickshire.

"Despite the difficult harvest conditions, an increase in commodity prices means that farming has remained just about profitable, but farmers are having to use every square foot of land to ensure that continues."

The value of farmland has risen by over 100 per cent in the last five years from £2365 per acre in June 2005 to over £5,800 today.

For more information about Wright Hassall, please visit their website here: www.wrighthassall.co.uk