This Week in Farming: Assurance, ploughing and Transition

Welcome back to This Week in Farming, the best place to check you’re up to date on the best Farmers Weekly content from the past seven days.

First, here’s your markets, with another sharp increase in red meat prices and a softening in the cost of diesel.

Now, on with the show.

Vindication for critics of farm assurance

An in-depth report into the state of farm assurance in the UK was published this week after being commissioned early last year by the national farming unions and the AHDB following widespread criticism of Red Tractor.

The four commissioners came up with nine recommendations for change that are built around putting farmers back at the heart of schemes and restoring trust in their ability to do good for the industry.

In my editorial this week, I note that the sharp criticism of Red Tractor in particular means that farmers will now be watching closely to see how those in charge respond.

Dealer gloom, but Lamma booms

The past 12 months has seen an unprecedented number of machinery dealerships closing their doors and being put in the hands of administrators or liquidators.

While smaller family-run businesses bore the brunt of the hardship, some larger firms were hit too, including well-known Lincolnshire outfit Burdens Group.

Check out our run-through of known closures here, along with which sites have been taken on by other businesses.

And our Lamma coverage also continued this week – you can run through all the new kit updates here.

Growth agenda

Those who criticise regenerative farmers for being too dogmatic will be very interested in this feature on Essex farmer and zero-till expert Simon Cowell, who is making a cautious return to the plough this year.

With some soils unmoved for 20 years, he hypothesises that the benefits of the low-cost cultivation strategy may now be eclipsed by negatives, including locked-up nutrients and even yield potentially being inhibited.

And in a separate but equally interesting farmer story, check out how Oxfordshire farmer Piers Cowling has trimmed his workload and nitrogen use (by 60kg N/ha) without any detrimental effects on yield.

Transition latest

Our Transition project is the place to go for additional in-depth content on how to manage to adapt your business to cope with the changing farm policy landscape.

In the latest quarterly supplement, published in print this week, you’ll find articles on arable resilience, the latest on the Welsh Sustainable Farming Scheme, the latest from our Transition farmers, and much more.

And if that’s helpful, how about attending our Transition Live event in May? You’ll find all the details on the packed agenda at the University of Leeds Spen farm here.

Who’s up and who’s down?

On the up this week are definitely farming brothers Jack and Sam Laidlow, who became the youngest ever British sidecar champions last year.

Find out how farming helped them to the pinnacle of their sport in their interview with news editor Phil Clarke.

Feeling gloomy this week are sugar beet growers, after Defra confirmed what they had long anticipated – that there would be no derogation to use a neonicotinoid seed dressing to protect their crops from the virus yellows disease this year.

Listen to the podcast

Don’t forget to tune in to the FW podcast, with Johann Tasker, Louise Impey, and Hugh Broom.

You’ll find it anywhere you listen to podcasts, or free to listen to on our website.