This Week in Farming: Telehandlers, travel and fruit

Welcome to the final This Week in Farming for 2024. It’s been a year hasn’t it.

Thank you for your support of Farmers Weekly along the way, and a very merry Christmas to faithful readers of this bulletin in particular.

As a special festive treat, I am declaring this week’s edition a ‘bad news and politics-free’ zone, and stuffing as much of our special Christmas content in as possible.

So lets get cracking.

Fruit corner

Thinking of a new enterprise in 2025? Or are you just feeling fruity? Here’s two reads to tickle the tastebuds.

First, how first-generation cider-maker Polly Hilton is helping Devon apple growers to bring some of the few remaining traditional orchards back into production. Scrumpy-tious.

And if that isn’t sweet enough, here’s how the Mee family took their Northamptonshire arable farm in a very different direction from combinable crops – by getting into blueberry production.

The price is right

The crystal ball has been given a careful rub and the results are in – there’s plenty of optimism for output prices for next year.

Scarcity is set to keep the sheep trade well up in the short and medium term, and there may even be some cheer for arable farmers, with one analyst predicting wheat prices will climb back above £200/t early in the year.

Big world out there

Sometimes simply staying at home isn’t enough is it?

We’ll have plenty more articles based on the theme of ‘broadening horizons’ across the Christmas period, but here’s two to whet your appetite.

First, a great insight into what it’s really like to work on a combine crew in the USA for eight months, travelling through a huge swathe of the Mid West.

Second, read how young farmer Wil Evans’ visits to ranchers and gauchos in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile on a Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC) scholarship helped adapt his family business in North Wales.

Lift the burden

Telehandlers are often the workhorse on farms of all types – but if yours is in need of replacement, the choice can be bewildering.

We sat down with drivers of six of the most common mid-sized models to hear their thoughts on likes and gripes.

Here’s the first three (with the rest online next week) – the Manitou MLT 741-130 PS+, the Kramer KT407 Ecospeed and the JCB Loadall 542-70 Agri Xtra.

Who’s up and who’s down?

On the up this week are boffins at agchem manufacturer Adama after the firm revealed this week that it hopes to bring a fungicide with a new mode of action to the market in 2027.

And feeling down – but not really – is columnist Will Evans (no relation to the above), who bemoans the challenges of having children, but decides there may be some upsides too.

Listen to the podcast

Don’t forget to also tune into the final FW podcast, of the year, with Johann Tasker and Louise Impey.

You’ll find it anywhere you listen to podcasts, or free to listen to on our website.