2 ‘Agriculture’ defined

5.07 Land can only qualify as ‘agricultural land’, protected by the 1986 Act, if it is used for agriculture, and so used for the purposes of a trade or business.¹¹ ‘Agriculture’ is defined by s 96(1), which states that it ‘includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming and livestock breeding and keeping, the use of land as grazing land, meadow land, osier land, market gardens and nursery grounds, and the use of land for woodlands where that use is ancillary to the farming of land for other agricultural purposes’.

‘Agriculture includes...’

5.08 The statutory definition is inclusive, and not exhaustive. Land used for purposes not enumerated in s 96 may still constitute an agricultural holding, provided the user thereof may properly be termed agricultural. Decisions on the analogous definitions found in the Rent (Agriculture) Act 1976, the Rating legislation, and the Town and Country Planning legislation will also be of assistance (if not authority). In the context of the 1976 Act a similarly inclusive definition has been held to include all operations involved in the farming of land for commercial purposes, but not every rural activity.¹² So, for instance, arable farming (an obvious omission) would be included – although not, it would seem, the growing of weeds for the purpose of testing weed killers.¹³ The planting of several hectares of vineyard, and erection of buildings for making wine has, on the other hand, been held to amount to the use of land for ‘agriculture’.¹⁴ It was said in Hemens v Whitsbury Farm and Stud Ltd¹⁵ that an ‘inclusive’ definition, such as that in s 96 of the 1986 Act, does not extend the definition of agriculture without limit. Rather, the definition must be construed in the agricultural context in which it occurs, and by reference to those matters expressly admitted to qualify as ‘agriculture’ by the terms of s 96 itself.

‘Livestock keeping and breeding’

5.09 ‘Livestock’ is defined to include ‘any creature kept for the production of food, wool, skins or fur or for the purpose of its use in the farming of land or the carrying on in relation to land of any agricultural activity’.¹⁶ Animals reared for sport or entertainment, or their decorative qualities, are not livestock, and are not to be regarded as reared in the course of agriculture.¹⁷ So, pheasants reared for sport are not livestock, with the consequence that gamekeepers employed in their production are not employed in ‘agriculture’, properly defined.¹⁸ Similarly, racehorses cannot be livestock within the definition, and land used simply for keeping (but not grazing) horses cannot comprise an agricultural holding – unless horses are kept for the production of meat or for use in farming the land.¹⁹ It should also be noted that the definition in s 96 is wider than that in the Rent (Agriculture) Act 1976, applicable to tied cottages. The latter defines livestock by reference to ‘animals’, and while including birds, expressly excludes fish. Section 96 refers instead to ‘creatures’ reared for the production of food, wool, etc., which phrase would clearly encompass fish, mink, and possibly other less common forms of stock.²⁰

‘Use of land as grazing land’

5.10 Grazing is per se an agricultural use, as defined by s 96(1), irrespective of whether the animals grazed are themselves ‘livestock’ (above). Thus land used for grazing horses will be used for ‘agriculture’, even if land used for keeping or exercising horses is not. If the substantial user is predominantly for grazing, it follows that the land can qualify as an agricultural holding within the 1986 Act.²¹ The land must be used for grazing in connection with a trade or business to qualify as an agricultural holding, but the business need not itself be agricultural in nature.²² Land let for private grazing on a non-commercial basis is not, however, agricultural land within the meaning of the 1986 Act.

5.11 ‘Grazing’: although it does not have to be by ‘livestock’, it should be appreciated that ‘grazing’, properly defined, describes the use of land for feeding animals. It will not suffice if horses are fed elsewhere and turned onto the land occasionally.²³