This Week in Farming: Bluetongue, Budget, beef, and beet

Welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Farming, the quickest way to catch up on the biggest stories from Farmers Weekly over the past seven days.

This week’s magazine features a rather fitting water management special with tips and tricks to tackle flooding, water retention and storage on-farm.

But first, here are your latest market prices. Beef prices hit new highs, while feed wheat eased back to £181.6/t.

Now, what else has happened?

Westminster washout

Many farm businesses previously hit by flooding are still waiting for support through Defra’s £50m Farming Recovery Fund, with a Freedom of Information request, submitted by FW chief reporter Philip Case, revealing that only £2.1m has been distributed so far.

The impact of last winter’s flooding was recently demonstrated by the UK’s 2024 harvest figures, which showed wheat production plummeted by 21% to 11.1m tonnes.

Record-breaking rainfall throughout September and a challenging October have also delayed drilling and left growers nervous of another potential washout, similar to last winter.

However, this year’s sugar beet harvest has got off to a more promising start, with good sugar levels and yields reported in excess of 100t/ha.

As extreme weather seems to be increasingly frequent, FW editor Andrew Meredith looked at what role farmers may be required to play in storing floodwater on their land as part of Defra’s long-awaited Land Use Strategy.

In Wales, a wet autumn has piled pressure on slurry rules, with a three-month ban on muck spreading now in place until 15 January next year.

However, it’s not all bad news for Welsh farmers, as 96% of claimants have now been paid their first advance under the 2024 Basic Payment Scheme.

Bluetongue woes

With bluetongue zones in place across much of the east of England, livestock farmers face a new conundrum as some abattoirs in the midlands have imposed price cuts of up to 50p/kg for lambs from within the zone.

More worryingly, a new bluetongue strain has been detected in the Netherlands which may not be covered by the emergency vaccines currently available in the UK.

Stretched budget 

The autumn Budget on 30 October is little more than a week away, and lobbyists have been firing on all cylinders to ensure their messages get across in time.

Welsh agricultural campaign group Digon yw Digon sent its own plea to the prime minister, warning of the dire consequences of any cuts to the farming budget, stating that Welsh family farms are already “on their knees”.

Fuel merchants are (unsurprisingly) encouraging farmers to place large orders of fuel, but if potential fuel duty rises are included in the Budget, this could be a wise move.

There had previously been talk of an increase in the number of land transactions as sellers try to rush through last-minute deals ahead of any potential changes to inheritance tax in the budget.

However, the amount of land coming to market appears to have slowed slightly as the budget looms, but opportunities remain with blocks of bare land and residential farms still up for grabs.

Despite a fairly dormant land market, certain landlords and agents have tried to push through ‘unjustified’ rent increases of up to 50%, much to the dismay of the Tenant Farmers Association.

Commodity watch

A record finished beef trade has been trickling down through to all cattle classes with early suckled calves returning to £3/kg at auction markets.

Pig prices have slipped back a touch in the last month as a greater number of fattened pigs come forward in the UK. However, across the EU, supplies remain tight overall and Danish Crown has been forced to cut 500 jobs due to a shortage of pigs.

On test this week

Fendt’s four-cylinder 620 Vario has been put through its paces by FW machinery editor Oliver Mark, who found that it was able to punch well above its weight.

Meanwhile, seven UK-made mole ploughs were compared in a buyer’s guide, considering the different prices and options available.

Listen to the podcast

Don’t forget to tune into this week’s FW podcast, you will find it anywhere you listen to podcasts, or free to listen to on our website.