We now have a new UK Government with a substantial majority, which has been voted in on an overriding promise of change.

Headlines have focused on the Energy Secretary’s decision to approve three large solar farms, rekindling the food vs farming debate.

It is early days and ministers are clearly focusing on their priority Manifesto areas. There were few commitments in this on the farming and rural economy generally. Although farming has been hard-hit by climate and political crises, the one thing which we do not need short-term is any radical change of policy.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of Brexit may have been, the UK now has the ability to self-govern its own agricultural policy and is not tied by the complicated strictures of the European CAP. The Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) project has developed in fits and starts, though has now achieved some level of credibility and functionality.

Radical change in the farming world is therefore already underway. It is currently focused on reallocating the now-defunct Basic Payment Scheme funding to more project-orientated aims under Countryside Stewardship Scheme and Sustainable Farming Incentive.

These changes are designed to shift the status quo and are already having widespread impact. It is too early to judge the worth of these impacts in detail, but farmers are all having to review their existing working methods and policies. The schemes are different and require careful assessment and testing, but it is important that they are given time to mature.

The Scottish Government plans to end the BPS payments in 2026, replacing it with a four-tier farm support scheme the following year, attaching nature and climate conditions to payments.

Demands on UK Treasury funds will surely focus on the current £2 billion-plus UK rural budget and it is probably inevitable that the areas such as the NHS will ultimately take priority over the rural sector. We should therefore expect the current generous grant allocations to be squeezed in due course.

To say that farmers should be making hay when the sun shines is probably an inappropriate analogy when this year it has done nothing but rain. However farmers really need to be taking advantage of the current grant aid framework to fortify their current positions with a view to maintaining profitability without that aid going forward.

With the current public-money-for-public-goods policy we do appear to have a relatively clear structure and sense of direction. Like it or loathe it, the last thing we need is any further radical change of direction in the short term.