Defra Secretary George Eustice has been at it again, claiming the rise in farmgate prices over the past 12 months shows that farmers can recoup the money they are starting to lose due to reductions in the Basic Payment Scheme.
With warmer weather making a very much welcome return and providing some relief for farmers everywhere, it is also a reminder that the year is marching on and that spring has sprung for many.
As war rages between Russia and Ukraine, is now the time for UK governments to press the pause button on agricultural policy reform and focus instead on producing enough food to feed the nation?
Two years on from its last in-person conference in Birmingham, the NFU and its members returned to one of the UK’s fastest growing cities; a city whose young and diverse population buzzes with the push and pull of urban life on the streets outside the conference venue.
Princess Anne waded into the debate about Environmental Land Management (ELM) by questioning who exactly was going to benefit from the scheme.
Plans to ban meat at a Lancashire primary school and at Oxfordshire Council events have prompted scorn from across the farming spectrum this week.
Whether Defra’s lump sum offering sparks a race for the farming exit door in England is yet to be seen, but there is no doubt it will be appealing for many farmers, particularly tenants eyeing retirement.
Insensitive and crass comments by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) regarding now being an opportune time to slim down the national pig herd got the short shrift they deserved.
In an era of labour shortages which are causing significant challenges to some larger agricultural businesses, the role of the family farm in British agricultural life could be set for a long-overdue reappraisal.
LAND - they are not making any more of it. And, therefore, the price of it continues to rise as demand comes from a growing number of avenues.