This Week in Farming: Budget, sheep feed and beef latest

Hello and welcome back to This Week in Farming, your essential round-up of the best news and features from the past seven days.

Here’s five hot topics that have been driving traffic to the Farmers Weekly website, and a reminder of what’s coming up on the next edition of the FW podcast.

Beef scandal latest

Last week, we revealed that there was a Food Standards Agency investigation into imported beef products that had been mislabelled as British and sold in northern supermarket Booths.

This week, further information into the investigation came to light when it was learned that the supplier to Booths was Loscoe Chilled Foods – which have now had their global assurance certification suspended.

Find out here how they have responded to this going public, as well as what experts think this says about the broader supply chain.

Supermarket sweep

Dealing with supermarkets can clearly be a rough-and-tumble business, but if you think you’ve got what it takes then here’s the latest advice on bargaining with the big buyers.

It’s been a bruising week for Tesco’s suppliers after it was revealed the UK’s biggest retailer was planning to introduce an additional fulfilment fee that most would have to pay to continue to be eligible for sales via the website.

NFU president Minette Batters said the move from Tesco was a stark demonstration of the lack of fairness within the supply chain.

Sheep savings

Back behind the farm gate, it’s been an encouraging time recently for livestock producers as falling grain prices will be helping to alleviate input costs.

There’s still no excuse for using more than you need to though.

So for an inspiring read on how one business is managing with less, read the story from Livestock reporter Michael Priestley, who went to visit Scottish border farmer Alex Robertson.

For the same output of 1,550 lambs, the farm has:

• Cut 90-100t of ewe rolls out of the system
• Cut 30t of creep from lamb finishing
• Cut at least 250 bales of silage for the same flock size. About 600 bales are needed each year
• Cut fertiliser use from 41t to 25t.

Focus on fungicide

Corteva’s fungicide Inatreq came under the spotlight after it launched last year, with some farmers reporting that the chemical caused issues with their sprayer.

Not everyone experienced the issues and a lengthy investigation by the US-owned manufacturer highlighted five key areas of focus for operators this year.

Some, however, are concluding that its use is too high a risk – we spoke to one farmer who will be using it this season and one who won’t.

Elsewhere, we caught up with world wheat yield record-holder Tim Lamyman to discover why he backloads his spray programme to keep disease out of his record-breaking crops.

Budget update

Jeremy Hunt’s budget mostly drew attention for the changes to pensions and childcare, but what else was in it for farmers?

The fuel duty cut being maintained for another year will be welcomed by some, but there was also a promise to consult on changing inheritance tax so that land used for environmental services will enjoy the same relief as agricultural land.

Also in parliament this week, the bill to permit gene editing in crops cleared its final hurdle prior to being granted royal assent and landing on the statute book.

FW Podcast

Coming up in this week’s edition of the Farmers Weekly podcast – as well as discussion of the latest hot topics in farming, there’s another chance to win £50 with our commodity cashback competition.

Listen here or bring us with you in the cab by downloading it from your usual podcast platform.