This Week in Farming: Roots, herbal leys and Clarkson’s Farm
© Clare Wise Welcome back to another edition of This Week in Farming, the best content from Farmers Weekly in the past seven days.
But first, another reminder that that FW will be celebrating its 90th birthday this June.
To help honour the occasion, we’re going to do a special interview with a farmer born in each decade since we were founded – in the 1930s.
Contact us if you’d like to get involved, or know a good storyteller who should be.
Now, on with the show.
Farming’s battles take toll
How are you feeling today?
A big swathe of farmers are suffering with poor mental health, which is why farming support charity Rabi is pivoting to more proactive mental health outreach and lobbying on the topic, it has been announced.
Community reporter Matilda Bovingdon sat down with CEO Alicia Chivers to find out more.
And separately, in our monthly Farm Doctor series, farmer’s daughter and qualified doctor Camilla Baker discusses the signs and symptoms of dementia, including guidance from charity Alzheimer’s Society on how, when and where to seek help.
Roots to success
It’s been a miserable season for root growers with some crops established last year still stuck in the ground and drilling plans for this year upended by the weather.
The arable team has pulled together timely advice for potato and sugar beet growers in a special focus on the two crops this week, including:
- Why industry-wide effort is needed to tackle potato virus threat
- Potato blight: What UK farmers can learn from Europe
- Are alternative weed control techniques viable for beet?
- Sugar beet rubbery taproot disease: What farmers need to know
Farm policy latest
Welsh farm lobbyists met with the new rural affairs secretary, Huw Irranca-Davies on Thursday (19 April) to discuss what the response from Cardiff Bay should be to the significant flood damage suffered this spring.
Speaking to the NFU Tenant Farmers’ Conference, he said the latest version of the SFI, set to launch this summer, will be more accessible to those on rented holdings.
And in Scotland, farmers have slammed delays to sea eagle management aid pledged by the Holyrood government.
Herbal ley success
A simple mix of one grass, one herb and one legume has knocked out a traditional ryegrass and clover ley on a Durham farm that is seeing the benefits to livestock from the SFI-compliant mix.
Livestock reporter Michael Priestley went to visit husband and wife partnership Clare Wise and Stewart Chapman of Manor Farm, who see it as a great way to build resilience in their system.
Elsewhere on the livestock channel this week, this reminder of the importance of cobalt in growing lambs is worth noting.
A split trial in Dorset revealed a 3.52kg uplift in weight gain and reduced susceptibility to worms in lambs supplemented appropriately.
Who’s up and who’s down?
The legions of fans of Clarkson’s Farm will be feeling buoyed this week by confirmation that season three of the popular show will be arriving on Amazon in early May. The trailer is out now.
Tractor manufacturers will be feeling less cheerful after the latest statistics from the Agricultural Engineers Association revealed that registrations of new machines were 14% down in the first three months of this year compared to the previous one.
Listen to the FW Podcast
Don’t forget to listen to the latest edition of the Farmers Weekly podcast with Johann Tasker and Sandy Kirkpatrick online.
Alternatively, bring us with you in the cab by downloading it from your usual podcast platform