This Week in Farming: Drought, Ferraris and barley premiums

Welcome back to This Week in Farming, your weekly catch-up of the best content from the Farmers Weekly website over the past seven days.

Every Saturday we round up the five most eye-catching topics from the website that you might have missed and look ahead to what’s coming up in the FW Podcast.

Drought update

Welcome rains have fallen across many parts of the UK this week, although much more will be needed to end what are now serious water shortages in many parts of the country.

After officially declaring a drought in some parts of the country, Defra took steps to ease the impact on some livestock farmers this week by relaxing rules on the grazing of buffer strips and other environmental margins.

Yet the impact of the dry conditions is now already so severe that some vegetable growers are warning of losses of up to 50% and the planting of future crops remains extremely challenging.

In the Scottish Borders, growers in the catchment area of the River Tweed have been the latest to be slapped with an abstraction ban and charity Forage Aid is already gearing up to support farmers this winter if needed.

Harvest latest

Everyone has found the dry season different though, with Farmer Focus writer Richard Harris remarking that harvest has been the least stressful for many years at his holding in south Devon.

Arable reporter Emma Gillbard went to see Eleanor Gilbert, better known on social media as Berkshire Farm Girl, who has seen harvest come to a close well ahead of the usual time by resorting to night-time combining for sufficient moisture in tinder-dry crops.

They have seen less than half their average rainfall of 500mm this year, knocking straw yields.

As thoughts turn to next season’s crop, it’s a good time to consider more barley say traders, as big premiums are on offer for growers who can hit brewing and malting spec.

High performance kit

It’s not just a big red combine that you’ll find in Harry Metcalfe’s field, but also a shiny red Ferrari Testarossa.

Regular machinery freelance writer James Andrews went to see the Youtube star and former owner of Evo magazine for the latest What’s in Your Shed? instalment.

Find out all the info, including what the petrolhead’s most embarrassing machinery mistake was and catch up with all the other instalments of the long-running series.

Cutting beef costs

If big kit isn’t your thing, then you might be pleased to read how the Sordy family, from Northumberland, will be spending less time in the cab by leaving their suckler cows outside for more of the winter.

“Housing cattle through winter is great in many ways for peace of mind and routine,” says Harry Sordy, who farms with parents John and Jennifer, wife Helena and brother Peter.

“But diesel is more expensive, machinery costs are up and the price of wrapping a bale is up too.”

The moves they’re making to cut these costs will hopefully see cattle have a home in their business for many years to come, but it got me pondering in my editorial whether we will see the national beef herd start to move east in the decades to come.

Beef prices are currently riding high, says acting livestock editor Judith Tooth in this week’s edition of Taking Stock, with the drought potentially already taking a toll on cattle weights.

Lump Sum Exit Scheme update

Farmers in England opting to roll their remaining Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) funding into one big cheque will be able to take that payment as early as this autumn, the Rural Payments Agency has said.

This can be done if they withdraw their regular BPS application.

Farmers Weekly understands about 700 farmers have applied so far for the scheme, which will see payments subject to capital gains tax, with the application window open until 30 September 2022.

Here’s a reminder from earlier in the year about the critical details and pitfalls of the scheme.

Listen to the FW Podcast

Don’t forget the latest edition of the Farmers Weekly podcast with Johann Tasker and Hugh Broom too.

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