News
- Drone trial helps target herbicides and improve water quality February 3, 2023Farmers Weekly The initial phases of a three-year trial of drone technology is revealing promising signs that could help farmers target herbicides for blackgrass control and improve local water quality. Ten arable farmers in Kent and West Sussex are trialling the Skippy Scout mobile app and drone system to target herbicide applications and cut costs. […]Emma Gillbard
- Wynnstay profits almost double in 2022 February 3, 2023Farmers Weekly Profits have almost doubled in the last year at Welsh-based agricultural supply group Wynnstay after higher revenue due to soaring feed and fertiliser prices. The company made a pre-tax profit of £21.12m for the year ending 31 October 2022, up by 92% from £10.99m during the previous year. Commodity inflation helped drive revenue […]Charlie Reeve
- UK Flour Millers speak out in support of imported wheat February 3, 2023Farmers Weekly Industry trade association UK Flour Millers has stated that the milling industry’s use of imported wheat is not undercutting UK growers, despite the views held by some farmers. Imported wheat is used by UK millers due to high protein content, quality, and provenance rather than price, according to UK Flour Millers. In a […]Charlie Reeve
- NFU sky lantern petition tops 100,000 signatures February 3, 2023Farmers Weekly More than 100,000 people have signed an NFU petition urging the government to ban the release of sky lanterns across England and Wales. The petition, which was launched in May 2022, is supported by the National Fire Chiefs Council, the RSPCA and Keep Britain Tidy. The latest initiative forms part of a wider […]Jonathan Riley
- Dutch cattle farms sealed off after BSE case February 3, 2023Farmers Weekly Government vets in the Netherlands have begun tracing and culling cattle after a cow carcass tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a Dutch abattoir. The farm that supplied the nine-year-old cow was in the South Holland province and has been shut down while investigations continue. See also: What has Rishi Sunak […]Jonathan Riley
- Sprayers: Where are they made? February 3, 2023Farmers Weekly Unlike a number of other machinery types, British manufacturers still maintain a strong presence in the market for crop sprayers – particularly for self-propelled machines. More than half a dozen well-known names with factories in Britain are active in the sector and continue to invest in new spray technologies, greater comfort, safety and […]oli mark
- Eustice: Ditch ‘outdated’ income foregone payments in ELM February 3, 2023Farmers Weekly Former Defra secretary George Eustice has urged his successor, Therese Coffey, to ditch “outdated” income foregone payments in the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme. Speaking to Farmers Weekly last week, Ms Coffey confirmed the income foregone methodology would continue to be applied when calculating payments in two of the ELM schemes – […]Abi Kay
- How farm data integration could improve N use efficiency February 3, 2023Farmers Weekly Collating and analysing data from multiple different farm machinery and other sources in a single place has long been a bugbear for many farmers. Accurate in-field analysis is only practical and possible with complete farm data integration, claims Jim Williams, chairman of data analytics start-up AgAnalyst. Its first product, DataBaler, is aimed at […]Richard Allison
- How to use grain futures and options to manage risk February 3, 2023Farmers Weekly Grain futures and options provide a way of managing volatile grain markets, but understanding how they work is critical to using them successfully. The futures market is a formal, regulated forward market for commodities, where set tonnages of a standard quality are traded for delivery at set times to a nominated futures store. […]Suzie Horne
- Analysis: What Defra’s ELM update means for farmers February 3, 2023Farmers Weekly Six years in the making, it is finally here. Defra has given farmers in England much-needed clarity on how it plans to support them to deliver environmental outcomes which underpin sustainable food production in its new post-Brexit farm payment scheme. The government’s bespoke Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes have been designed to replace […]Philip Case