The NFU is urging tenant farmers to check their budgets if they are heading for a rent review ahead of Candlemas and Lady Day. It comes after a large number of notices were served last year before the jump in cereal prices and the improvement in milk prices.
NFU tenants national spokesman Peter Crozier said: "After such a long period of depressed prices in the arable and cereal sectors, the recent upturn is welcome. But I hope that landlords will allow time for tenants to make much needed investment in their business to ensure there remains a profitable future for the tenanted sector.
"This upturn does not necessarily mean there has been a return to profitability, although in recent years input costs have continued to rise and recent returns have not allowed for reinvestment in many businesses. While rent reviews are part of the agricultural calendar there can be little justification for a rent review for livestock farmers while there remains a continuing lack of profitability in the sector."
Meurig Raymond, NFU Deputy President, added: "Tenants need time to adjust to this fast changing market. One swallow does not make a summer and all farming businesses need to invest in the future. A quick fire action by landlords to secure a rent increase will not assist the tenanted sector, and may well damage their position as landlords in the longer term.
"I always remind members of what the NFU offers tenant farmers facing a rent review. The rent database has been available to NFU members for a number of years now, as well as the Tenant First Advice Service which members who subscribe to the LAS can access.
"The NFU Mutual also offers a policy to protect tenants from the potential professional costs of a tenancy dispute. If tenant farmers want advice relating to their tenancy they could do a lot worse than speaking with the NFU."
