This Week in Farming: Protests, sprayer gadgets and grants

Welcome back to This Week in Farming, your one-stop shop for the best content from Farmers Weekly in the past seven days.

First, do you detect a hint of spring in the air? Word reaches me that grass growth is suddenly accelerating in some warmer parts.

Send any pictures and videos of cattle being turned out to ryan.wood@markallengroup.com – our resident social media guru.

Now, on with the show.

Protests abound

It’s been another week of protest for many European farmers, with the roads around Paris blocked by French food producers and Belgian growers on the streets of Brussels.

What about here? We asked established unions and newly formed activist groups for their thoughts in this week’s magazine lead story.

In my editorial this week, I look at the barriers to British farmers following the lead of their counterparts across the Channel and note that anger currently is ripest in Wales.

This was evident in the huge turnout at Welshpool Livestock Market for a discussion on the topic this week amid ongoing anger about the Welsh government’s plans for the uplands.

Fertiliser planning

It’s been a tough winter for many autumn-sown crops, so how best to look after those that have survived?

That’s the question the arable team posed to eight farmers scattered across the country, ahead of spring jobs really getting going.

After the cost of fertiliser spiked two years ago, there’s been a renewed focus on nitrogen use efficiency, with expert Clive Blacker noting that typical farms are only 50-60% use efficient, while 70-80% is achievable.

Find out more how a Defra-backed project is helping to better understand how that can be achieved.

Libel survival

It’s not often footballers’ wives get a mention in FW, but fear not, we haven’t turned into a gossip rag.

Instead, we’re looking at how to avoid getting mired in legal difficulties by making untrue statements about a farmer or their business.

Known as defamation law, it includes statements made in person or online, and, in a farming context, may include incorrect assertions that a business has gone bust.

Elsewhere in the business section this week, check out this important piece on structuring a new diversified business correctly to avoid falling foul of tax law.

Sprayer focus

It’s not just the fertiliser spreaders that are getting dusted off at the moment but sprayers, too, of course.

Who better to weigh in on the myriad of different tech options available on modern machines than reigning Farm Sprayer Operator of the Year Mark Jelley?

Machinery editor Oli Mark met him in Northamptonshire to discuss the finer points of Bateman versus Chafer self-propelleds.

We also take an in-depth look at how Buckinghamshire arable farmer Charlie Edgley and his nifty workshop team converted a Kongskilde Wing Jet pneumatic spreader into an Avadex applicator and cast an eye over the latest cheap RTK options.

Who’s up and who’s down?

On the up this week will be any English farmer who is in the market for solar panels, robotics or automated equipment, after Defra launched the latest round of its Improving Farm Productivity grant scheme.

It will pay up to 50% of the cost of a project between £25,000 and £500,000.

Feeling down this week will be the staff and investors at the Small Robot Company, which announced this week that it has been put into liquidation.

It had worked on small machines that could map fields for weeds and then spot spray them.

Listen to the FW Podcast

Don’t forget the latest edition of the Farmers Weekly podcast with Johann Tasker and Sandy Kirkpatrick.

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