This Week in Farming: London, lamb trade and bluetongue

Welcome back to another edition of This Week in Farming.

There’s snow falling and it’s still November – wouldn’t it be nice if that was the most remarkable thing to discuss this week?

Before we (snow) plough on, here’s your markets.

Now, on with the show.

Day of defiance

The most remarkable thing that did happen in the farming world this week was thousands of farmers descending on London on Tuesday (19 November) to do their bit to protest the changes to inheritance tax.

NFU members occupied every meeting room in parliament during their mass lobby of MPs while thousands more filled a big chunk of Whitehall, attracting the attention of every newspaper and TV news channel in the country.

Farmers Weekly had a team of eight on the ground to capture all the action in words, pictures and sound. Here’s a roundup:

• Watch what farmers had to say about why they were attending in our video from the event and review our picture gallery of photos from the day
• Listen to the special edition of the FW podcast from the scene with Johann Tasker and Louise Impey
• Read what Defra secretary Steve Reed had to say in front of the Efra select committee as events were unfolding outside – including a speech from Jeremy Clarkson
• In a rare break with protocol you must also read this brilliant parliamentary sketch in The Critic magazine about Mr Reed’s performance – and run-in with beef farmer David Barton
• And back on the farm – here’s what it means for our Arable Insights farmer panel.

Budget fightback: What next?

The campaign to persuade Labour to change its mind is fuelled by emotion but fought on a battlefield of competing sets of statistics, as I note in my editorial this week.

Farming’s allies continue to probe the Treasury’s claims that this will only affect a quarter of farmers, with one survey showing that half of farmers believe it could make their business unviable.

The NFU say its analysis shows that 75% of farms will be liable for a tax bill, even after the reliefs are taken into account and president Tom Bradshaw pledged that Tuesday’s events were just the beginning of its campaign to see the measures reversed.

And cracks in the Labour party over the issue are becoming more apparent, as the party’s mayor of York and North Yorkshire David Skaith called for an impact assessment.

Buoyant beef and lamb

Scarcity is driving beef and lamb prices well ahead of year-earlier levels with beef processors reportedly paying 560p/kg deadweight for larger loads of finished Aberdeen Angus cattle.

Meanwhile, store lamb prices have followed the rising fat ring with auctioneers saying they are now £15/head more than the year.

However, those in bluetongue restriction zones are still seeing lower prices than those unaffected.

Driving down dairy diseases

You’ll find the latest Dairy Update supplement in this week’s print edition but here’s the most important articles – all focused on tackling costly diseases.

First there’s this look at how Canadian vet and dairy farmer Jodi Wallace improved calf health without resorting to the medicine cabinet.

Then there’s two articles on tackling mastitis – one on how to reduce it through positive heritable traits, and another on how a free data tool helped one Somerset farming family reduce incidence rates by 40% in two years.

Who’s up and who’s down?

Following on from the above it’s worth noting that it’s UK agriculture’s antibiotic use that is this week’s joyful dropper – with most sectors now having hit their target to reduce usage, or exceeded it.

Continuing with the animal health theme, on the up this week are positive attitudes to the bluetongue vaccine according to fresh survey data, although significant concerns remain.