Agriculture -Latest news

Farmers Weekly Livestock farmers across the UK are being urged to stay vigilant after bluetongue virus (BTV) was detected in a dairy cow in Kent – the first confirmed case of the virus in Great Britain for 16 years.  The single case of the BTV 3 strain was confirmed at a dairy farming business near Canterbury, ...

Farmers Weekly Snails may not be a regular choice in British and Irish diets, but in mainland Europe they remain popular as an everyday staple and delicacy. Yet, in Ireland, snail farming (also known as heliciculture) has seen increased interest from landowners in the past decade, as rising temperatures in European growing areas make snail production ...

Farmers Weekly If I were Keir Starmer, dreaming up new radical agricultural policies to put into my manifesto, I would – drum roll please – give every farmer free access to an ecologist. I’ve worked with some awesome ecologists this year, and their understanding of landscapes and what’s happening (or often, not happening) in terms of ...

Farmers Weekly Stewards of climate action To achieve truly sustainable agriculture, the farming community as primary owners and stewards of the nation’s land needs to rapidly adjust its practices and approaches to how land is optimised due to climate change. The impacts of which, as farmers, you continue to witness first-hand, such as the wetter milder ...

Bluetongue does not affect human health or food safety.

How to spot bluetongue, what to do if you suspect it and how to prevent it spreading.

Farmers Weekly Researchers are discovering more about early life programming and how critical this is for adulthood, according to Trouw Nutrition’s Dr Leonel Leal. This starts with colostrum, but also includes feeding transition milk, feeding more milk replacer, and weaning later, with a gradual step-down policy. He said it is recognised how the first 1,000 days ...

Farmers Weekly Our photo of the week is this timely picture displaying a Remembrance poppy on a vintage Fordson tractor. The photo was submitted to our photo competition gallery by Kerry Adams, who said: “At a ploughing match on a cold winter’s day I noticed a friend warming his hands up his Fordson. Central heating ...

Farmers Weekly Consolidation is the theme for this year’s Ultimate Guide to trailed combination cultivator drills – not in the soil-firming sense, but rather in the way manufacturers are sticking to tried-and-tested products. Drill specs Download the complete buyer’s guide to no-till and trailed disc cultivator drills PDF. New model introductions are limited to a 9m ...

Farmers Weekly British Sugar says it has no plans to withdraw its offer to beet growers of £38/t for the 2024/25 supply contract, risking further fallout with the NFU. The NFU has said publicly it will not resume negotiations with British Sugar while what it terms the processor’s “unilateral” beet price offer to growers remains on ...

Farmers Weekly The rams went in with the ewes at the end of October, and as I write this I can see the shocking orange raddle (chosen by my father) on several ewes already. It looks like it will be a busy first couple of days at lambing time. The rams we have chosen this year ...

Farmers Weekly It is often said that young people, and society at large, feel disconnected from where their food comes from, place little value on food producers, and perceive the agri-food industry as a major contributor to the climate crisis. Similarly, they express minimal interest in pursuing a career in the sector, which is why driving ...