Agriculture -Latest news

Farmers Weekly New government farm support schemes weighted towards the environment and the countryside risk UK food security, a major new report suggests. The independent report, commissioned by the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) and launched at its annual conference in Peterborough on Wednesday 15 November, warns that none of the planned or ratified agricultural policies in ...

Farmers Weekly The scrapping of a proposed licensing scheme to regulate the spreading of livestock slurry in Wales has been described by a wildlife charity as a “significant backward step” for nature recovery. In October, the Welsh government said it would allow livestock farmers to continue spreading organic manures on land at the higher rate of ...

Farmers Weekly Converting a set of Georgian barns into holiday lets 20 years ago involved market research by post for dairy farmers Joanna and David Burroughs. Today, their daughter, Lindsay Miller, is using social media to develop the business at Wheatacre Hall, near Aldeby in Norfolk. The result is a farm shop, a café planned for ...

Farmers Weekly A Herefordshire farmer who was jailed for causing damage to a protected river has defended his actions, insisting they helped prevent flooding to local properties and land. Several homes along the River Lugg flooded during Storm Dennis in February 2020 and John Price said he did the river works in late November 2020 to ...

Farmers Weekly This week, will government targets to protect 30% of UK land leave enough left to maintain UK food security? We try to find out by asking the head of agriculture at Natural England, the government’s landscape agency. See also: What next for Natural England’s protected landscapes plans? We know agriculture is part of the ...

Farmers Weekly The UK’s largest potato supplier is investigating a farm-scale net-zero project which aims to increase efficiency and long-term sustainability across the entire potato supply chain. Whether it concerns variety choice, cultivations, fertiliser, storage or transport, the three-year project, run by potato supplier Branston, hopes to establish a production method that combats carbon emissions while ...

Farmers Weekly This month, I’ve handed over to my wife, Debbie, to share details of a mission to Ukraine she hopes to help with. She intends to be a driver for the next convoy of 4×4 pickups to make its way to Ukraine as part of the Pickups for Peace initiative. This charity was started by ...

Farmers Weekly Farmers have faced yet another difficult autumn drilling season as continuous rainstorms play havoc with those attempting to get crops in the ground. Some growers who managed to get fields drilled have witnessed devastating flooding and damage to crops, in what was the wettest October in England since 2000, with 147.2mm of rain recorded ...

Farmers Weekly Vaderstad is bringing its Seed Hawk no-till tine drill back to Europe, with a frame that folds to road legal proportions of just under 3m wide and 4m tall. The trailed machine is available in 6m, 8m and 9m working widths. It puts seed in the ground using the firm’s knife coulter system, which ...

Farmers Weekly Buoyed by the success of its compact E-worker, Merlo has introduced a full-size electric agricultural telehandler that has a 7m boom and can lift 4.3t. The TFe 43.7 promises similar performance to the firm’s popular TF42.7 conventional machine. Power comes courtesy of a large lithium-ion battery pack housed in what would be the engine ...

Farmers Weekly Straw contractors have access to some handy extra reach and lift capacity with the launch of JCB’s 542-100 telehandler. The new model can lift 4.2t and is capable of pushing loads to a heady height of 9.8m, making it the longest boom agricultural telehandler in the firm’s line-up. Engineers have managed to achieve this ...

Farmers Weekly Farmers and growers took to the streets of London at the weekend in a major celebration of the best of British agriculture. Representatives of the Worshipful Company of Farmers and Red Tractor, NFU Student and Young Farmer Ambassadors and young people involved in Surrey Docks City Farm joined the historic Lord Mayor’s Show on ...