Husbandry in UK Law

The definition may, of course, be wide enough to include other buildings, such as a broiler house, and if it is, effect must be given to the language, But the clear impression which I receive from the statutory language is that the buildings exempted were to be ancillary or complementary to the agricultural purpose of the land, and not vice vorsa. In the, present case If one begins with the land, one finds there Is no land upon which poultry farming is carried on.

Applying that test to this case, I cannot see that any act which the Defendant did is capable of being treated as sufficient to dispossess the plaintiffs. The Defendant never even thought he was dispossessing the Plaintiffs; he never claimed to do more than work the soil, as he thought he was permitted to do.

But here again there must be a limit. Everything is saleable at a price, so even storage for a time or very simple treatment is not strictly necessary. One must have regard to ordinary and reasonable practice. But there comes a stage when further operations cannot reasonably be said to be consequential on the agricultural operations of producing the crop. I agree with Lord Hunter when he said in Assessor for Midlothian v. Buccleuch Estates 1962 S.C. 453 at page 459:

But for this concession I do not think I should have found it easy to conclude that the packing station in Gainsborough 9 miles or so away was occupied together with the agricultural land in the sense in which those words are used in the definition, and it may be that I would have had difficulty in coming to that conclusion in relation to the 5 layer houses at Norton Brisney some 6 miles away and some of the other buildings.

In its context "occupied together with agricultural land" may connote more than common ownership. My impression on reading the definition of "agricultural buildings" is that it was an attempt by the draftsman to define a farm in statutory language and that it was intended to include buildings used and occupied together with the land for the purpose of farming the land, not buildings far distant and not used in connection with an operation on the land even though owned by the same person.