News

Written by Charlotte Cunningham

[Image: ADAS]The first positive light leaf spot symptoms of the 2019/2020 season have been identified by Bayer’s SpotCheck initiative. Charlotte Cunningham reports. Light leaf spot was first identified by SpotCheck on 25 Oct 2019 in Derbyshire and Angus, with samples later positively identified in the Scottish Highlands, Oxfordshire, Yorkshire and Norfolk. The results suggest that this season there may be a lot of latent infection in the crop, which is expected to further develop if temperatures do not fall in the coming months, says Bayer. According to Philip Walker, arable plant pathologist at ADAS, the SpotCheck results to date don’t come as a surprise, who...

Climate crisis will affect lifelong health of young, warn doctors

Written by Damian Carrington Environment editor

Lancet Countdown tracks impacts of global heating covering disease, wildfires and malnutrition

The climate crisis will determine the lifelong health of today’s children, doctors have warned, noting that global heating was already causing harm.

Children are especially vulnerable and the global team of researchers say rising temperatures mean the bacteria causing deadly diarrhoea will thrive while poorer crop yields could lead to more malnutrition...

Increase profitability with versatile spring barley variety

In a competitive arable market, many mixed farmers are considering alternative cereal varieties offering not only strong untreated yields, but high yielding straw for bedding or forage.

Evelina is a spring barley variety which is gaining popularity with livestock farmers looking for a robust versatile crop.

Hampshire arable farmer, Richard Monk has been growing Evelina for three years running with positive results. “Overall it’s an easy to grow and a tidy feed variety to go into ration mixes. It combines well and produces a good-looking grain with a decent specific weight as well as a good straw...

BSPB are aware of the implications of the weather experienced so far this autumn on drilling and seed availability. We’re often asked if you can move seed, here is an explanation of the legal background.

Nearly all modern crop varieties are protected by Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR). The rights may be EU PBR or UK PBR. A protected variety may not be propagated or sold without the permission of the holder of the PBR. This is usually granted via a licence and requires payment of a royalty to the rights holder (breeder). This is how plant breeders derive their income for reinvestment in breeding new varieties.

There are some exceptions to PBR where the rights holder’s permission is not needed. One of these is the farm-saved seed or agricultural exemption. In the...

What motivates us to farm?

Written by [email protected]

BP2019 Seminar - Managing the future of your business: tools and skills for a successful succession
Motivation in farming is a challenging subject to tackle.

Farmers often think about how we do things, but don’t really consider why. People are all different and come into farming from all sorts of angles, be it managers, owners, tenant, lifestyle or hobby farmers.

Read the full story at ahdb.org.uk/news*

Release Date:
Fri, 11/01/2019

Continue reading more on the ADHB...

Written by Rachel Martin

Spring-calving beef farmers in Scotland are advised to consider delaying weaning as a means to burn off excess condition on suckler cows.

It comes after a summer of exceptional grass growth has left many beef cattle in very good condition.

Specialists at SAC Consulting, part of Scotland’s Rural College, say that, suckling cows for longer will help fit mothers lose excess condition, helping them achieve optimal condition for spring-calving.

Longer suckling also has the added benefit of reducing the risk of pneumonia in calves.

The advice comes after excellent summer grass growth led to many cows carrying a condition score of 3 or above. This, in turn, resulted...

Written by Rachel Martin

An estranged wife and her lover who plotted to kill a wealthy farmer after he refused to agree to a divorce have today been found guilty of murder.

William ‘Bill’ Taylor (69), was reported missing from his farm near Hitchin in June 2018 and his body was found in a river a few miles away in February this year.

St. Albans Crown Court heard on Monday, November 4, that the relationship between Mr. Taylor and his wife, Angela Taylor (53), had broken down some time before he disappeared.

Although they separated in 2015, Mr. Taylor refused to agree to a divorce, despite being asked twice by his wife, who started a relationship with Paul Cannon (54), in late 2017.

As a...

What explains the differential cuts in CAP P1 and P2 spending in the Commission’s MFF proposal?

Written by Alan Matthews

As I discussed in this post, the Finnish Presidency has been tasked with presenting a first draft of the MFF ‘negotiating box’ with numbers prior to the next European Council meeting 12-13 December 2019. This will be no mean feat given the wide differences of opinion between the ‘frugal five’ Member States – Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden – that want overall a smaller budget than what the Commission has proposed, and other...

101: Learn more about the Livestock Information Programme

Written by AHDB

This podcast looks at the Livestock Information Programme. (LIP) It’s a joint effort between Defra and AHDB to create a new system of tracing and managing livestock data, and is backed by an industry design group comprising representatives from all parts of the livestock and meat production industry. Hear from Richard Laverick, Chief Officer for the Livestock Information Programme and Ray Keatinge, Livestock Information Product Manager who talk about what the programme is and how it will benefit the industry.

For more information, visit: https://ahdb.org.uk/LIP...

Written by John Swire

Zinc content in forage is rarely deficient (less than one per cent of forages samples will have a deficiency) and the amount of zinc in forage compared to the amount available from a bolus is significantly greater (often 100 times greater).

As most animals will get above 90% of the zinc required from forage the amount supplied in forage is about 20 times the amount that an animal would get from a bolus. For these and other reasons there is no value in including zinc supplements in a bolus.

Whilst zinc is known to be critical for many enzyme factors, zinc deficiency is very rarely reported. According to Teagasc* “Zn deficiency can be induced by high feed Ca levels...

Written by Agriland Team

As tillage farmers here at home struggle to plant, the same is true across the water in the UK and as the situation drags on LIFFE wheat price has climbed in the past week, as can be seen in the table below.

Looking ahead, November 2020 wheat was at £152.50/t on Friday afternoon, November 1. This was down slightly from October 28, when it hit £153.50/t – the highest it has been since the end of the harvest.

Also Read: ‘If we don’t have a weather problem grain prices fall’...

Written by Matt Hopkins

Farmers and contractors operating fleets of machinery from different brands will in the near future be able to […]

The post John Deere, CLAAS, CNH Industrial and 365FarmNet Form DataConnect appeared first on PrecisionAg.

Continue reading on the Precision Ag Website...

Written by John Swire

Lubricants giant Fuchs has signalled its commitment to climate protection by announcing it will be completely CO2-neutral as early as next year.

FUCHS, which has its UK headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent, will be CO2-neutral globally by January 1 2020 – from energy consumption in production to consumables in administration.

In order to implement CO2-neutrality in just two months’ time, Fuchs will offset its CO2 emissions, which have not yet been avoided so far, with compensation measures.

This will be done by the company investing in high-quality climate protection projects aimed primarily at promoting renewable energies.

The projects are accredited, approved and...

Written by Charlotte Cunningham

Drilling of crop plots at the 2020 Cereals Event site in Cambs is nearing completion, with stands of oilseed rape and cereals emerged and growing away, despite the difficult conditions. Charlotte Cunningham reports. According to crop plot manager Paul Scrimshaw, 100% of the exhibitor plots had been drilled by the end of October, with the Choice Cereals plots – featuring most of the approved and candidate winter wheat and barley varieties – now ready to go in. “Like elsewhere in the UK, we’ve experienced very tricky wet conditions – although we’ve escaped more lightly than some areas in the West Midlands,” says Paul. “We’re on light land and the whole 50ha site was...

Written by Agriland Team

Reports that Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia has been bought by a consortium led by Petter Stordalen “exposes complete hypocrisy and hidden agendas”, according to the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA).

ICSA president Edmond Phelan said the buy-out “exposes the hypocrisy” behind the EAT Lancet report which earlier this year advocated a global switch to a plant-based diet on climate change grounds.

Commenting on this, Phelan said:

“How can the EAT Lancet report have any credibility when one of its major backers is now buying an airline...

Europe must act on intensive farming to save wildlife, scientists say

Written by Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent

EU’s agriculture policy needs urgent reform, organisations tell incoming commission president

The EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) should be overhauled urgently to stop the intensification of farming practices that is leading to a steep decline in wildlife, scientists from across the bloc have urged.

Five organisations representing more than 2,500 experts have written to Ursula von der Leyen, the incoming president of the European...

Written by Agriland Team

Emergency services were called to the scene of a road incident where a tractor and trailer carrying 11t of potatoes overturned in the UK over the weekend.

The incident took place on Friday, November 1, in the Littleport area of Cambridgeshire, England, on the edge of the A1101 road.

The unit was transporting a large quantity of potatoes at the time, which spilled across the road and surrounding area when the trailer flipped over.

Taking to social media, police officers from Cambridgeshire Constabulary Rural Crime Action Team posted photographs of the incident, noting that fortunately the driver in question only sustained minor injuries.

On scene of a...

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Nelson German E-wheat continues to show staggering results

Nelson is a standout variety which has delivered more staggering results in 2019 trials. The news hits at a great time, due to rising demand for German E winter wheats

You can read this update from Cope Seeds on TFF's AGVendor...

New wheat varieties available next autumn

Cope Seeds trials new varieties 5 years ahead to ensure we find the most suitable varieties for the organic market possible. The first exciting variety available on a larger commercial level next autumn is KWS Extase. Over 5 years of testing KWS Extase has produced an impressive untreated yield with strong standing ability. The second variety is KWS Firefly, which has shown to be a high yielding variety with good disease resistance. Hear more from Gemma Clarke in her latest blog post....

Written by Charles O'Donnell

The Government has officially launched a £50 million scheme aimed towards increasing tree-planting rates in an effort to boost carbon sequestration.

The Woodland Carbon Guarantee scheme was announced today, Monday, November 4, and it is hoped that it will encourage farmers and landowners to plant more trees and create more woodland in return for payment.

According to a Government statement, the scheme will give “land managers in England the long-term financial income they need to invest in carbon sequestration”.

Successful participants will be offered the option to sell ‘woodland carbon units’ to the Government over 35 years at a guaranteed price set by...