This Week in Farming: Sheep Event, dairy decline and new kit
© Tim Scrivener Welcome back to This Week in Farming, your one-stop shop for the best Farmers Weekly content from the past seven days.
But first, here are those all-important market prices.
Now, on with the show.
Sheep flock shrinkage
All things ovine were under discussion this week as the National Sheep Association’s biennial Sheep Event returned to the Three Counties Showground on Tuesday (30 July).
Farmers and lobbyists used the opportunity to warn incoming food security minister Dan Zeichner that the national flock has shrunk to its lowest level in 25 years.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom, though. Dan is still enjoying a honeymoon period after entering Defra just three weeks ago, as I explain in my editorial this week, and the lamb price looks set to stay strong for the rest of the year.
Elsewhere, we unveiled Somerset sheep farmer John Small as the latest participant in 90 and Counting, our profile of a farmer born in every decade since our founding in 1934.
Dairy decline
Continuing with the theme of sectors in reverse, data published this week by the AHDB revealed that a further 6% of dairy farmers have left the sector in the past 12 months.
There are 440 fewer producers than in April last year, although milk production has increased in recent months to bring it back to a similar amount to year-earlier levels, and farmgate milk prices have also edged up.
Here’s one dairy farmer doing well: Oli Chedgey. He spoke to attendees at the British Grassland Society’s summer meeting about how his simple system has helped pay down finance fast.
Machinery highs and lows
When you’re at the mercy of machinery, you never know what disruption is round the corner.
In our latest Contractor Comment, we return to Devon-based Cropmech to hear about the latest highs and lows after a wet spring, including a malfunctioning new baler and a second-string sprayer.
And if you didn’t make it to the Royal Welsh Show last week, here’s our round-up of the best of the new kit on offer, including tiny tractors, mini diggers and nifty gadgets.
Business Clinic assistance
It’s the return of our monthly Business Clinic series this week, where experts tackle your pressing legal, tax and farm management questions.
This time they dig into the following:
- Should I become VAT-registered as a smallholder?
- Getting local authorities interested in roadside ragwort
- Can council add agricultural occupancy condition?
Who’s up and who’s down?
Feeling cheerful this week is Kent Farmer Focus writer Andy Barr, who has been happily contemplating a larger-than-expected heap of rapeseed now safely in the shed.
Defra secretary Steve Reed will perhaps be the one feeling down this week as he, like other cabinet ministers, contemplates finding spending cuts from his department after chancellor Rachel Reeves asked for help plugging a £20bn black hole in her figures.
Listen to the podcast
Don’t forget to tune into this week’s FW podcast with Johann Tasker and guests.
You’ll find it anywhere you listen to podcasts, or free to listen to on our website.