This Week in Farming: Lambing, life insurance and a new D-Max

Welcome back to This Week in Farming. We’re another week closer to spring and word reaches me that some adventurous types have been out with a fert spreader already.

In the markets this week (opens in PDF), crops continued to go sideways but it was another bullish week for beef. Is it a bubble? Is it the new normal? Only time will tell.

Now, on with the show.

Come the hour, Connon the man

“I have the fire in my belly to defend farming and crofting across Scotland,” says Andrew Connon, the new president of NFU Scotland, after taking the reins from outgoing president Martin Kennedy at the union’s conference in Glasgow this week.

The union also unveiled a free membership category for members of the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs.

In his outgoing address, Mr Kennedy gave his support to proposals by some farmers to increase pressure on the Westminster government to modify its changes to inheritance tax by refusing to take sewage sludge from water companies.

Earlier in the week farmers staged a major tractor rally along the Edinburgh bypass and in other locations across Scotland and union officials met with MPs from all parties in Westminster to lobby against the tax changes.

Let there be life… insurance

Meanwhile, businesses across the UK are taking specialist financial advice from accountants and business advisers over how to mitigate some of the crippling impact of the inheritance tax changes.

For some, a life insurance policy will be a costly but effective way of reducing the risk of being landed with a big bill.

Business editor Suzie Horne asks the experts what the options are and what to consider.

Also in business this week, it’s the turn of Wales in our regional analysis of land values in 2024 – with some parts of the nation seeing a significant increase in the amount of land coming to market.

Let there be… lambs

The bulk of shepherds may not be lambing yet, but there are more starting every day, so it’s the perfect time for last minute preparation.

Here are 20 tips, tricks and techniques from award-winning sheep farmers, including my wince-inducing favourite: Save your back.

We also have this interesting piece on a quick-drying alternative to iodine and another that looks at the troubling side-effects of applying fertiliser with sulphur in it.

My name is D-Maximus Aurelius

Isuzu’s popular pickup is back with a facelift after a record-setting year, when it saw sales surge to a best-ever 6,574 in 2024.

Machinery editor Oli Mark runs through the changes, including the farmer-friendly addition of a rough terrain mode.

Elsewhere in the Machinery section this week, we return to Suffolk contractors Derek and Linda Keeble to delve deeper into the off-season part of the business, including an impressive-looking excavator coppicing tool.

Who’s up and who’s down?

Riding high this week is anyone who sold a bull at Stirling as the prime beef job propels prices higher across the sector.

Feeling gloomier are bosses at Welsh Water after legal firm Leigh Day signalled its intent to add the utility to a legal claim that seeks compensation from alleged polluters of the River Wye.