Agricultural Accountants in Somerset
Written and reviewed by the Agricultural Accountants editorial team. Last reviewed 27 July 2026.
Somerset is dairy country, the home of Cheddar, with beef and sheep alongside it and cider-apple orchards through the county. The Somerset Levels add wet grassland grazing and their own farming rhythm. It is a livestock and orchard economy, with the tax to match.
Dairy herds and volatile milk prices make the herd basis and averaging the everyday tools here.
Dairy Herds and Cheese in Somerset
A Somerset dairy herd is a strong candidate for the herd basis, which keeps the herd out of the trading account and can transform the tax on a future sale or cut. Combined with averaging across good and bad milk years, it is the core of getting a dairy farm's tax right, and it is covered in our guide to averaging and the herd basis.
Farms that also make and sell cheese or add value on farm cross into food production, which brings VAT and diversified-income questions on top of the farming accounts.
Orchards, Cider and Succession
Cider-apple growing and cider making are long-term, land-based enterprises, exactly the kind of family farm the inheritance-tax reform unsettled. At the current £2.5 million position, most are under the allowance or close to it, but knowing where you stand is the point of the succession calculation.
Where cider making is a real business, Business Property Relief on the trading side matters as much as Agricultural Property Relief on the orchards, and the two now share one allowance, which is set out in our guide to Business Property Relief.