This Week in Farming: Tractor tests, beef fraud and tax tips

Welcome back to another edition of This Week in Farming, your one-stop shop for our best content from the past seven days.

But first, here’s your markets – and would you just look at those finished beef prices.

Now, on with the show.

Tractors galore

This week’s Tractor Special sees the machinery team eyeing up some alternatives to the big name brands, with editor Oli Mark giving his verdict on the Deutz-Fahr’s snappily named 6150.4 (156hp, on-farm price around £90,000), with a peculiar transmission.

There’s also a look behind the scenes at a Dorset dairy farm keeping high-hour New Hollands running smoothly and an analysis of the range-topper from Kioti, the latest budget brand attempting to crack the UK market.

It will face stiff competition in a crowded market, particularly amid declining sales as I note in my editorial this week, which also touches on the debate among farmers over whether the rule banning U13s from cabs should be overturned.

Beef fraud warning

Misrepresentation of red meat and poultry with regard to status, origin or durability date remains one of the most common types of food crime in the UK.

That’s according to the latest food crime report from supply chain watchdog the Food Standards Agency.

This is a topic we here at FW remain very interested in. If you have any information to share, please email abi.kay@markallengroup.com to arrange a call.

Harvest update

There’s a mighty push happening in Scotland this week to get combinables in the shed, with reports on Wednesday that spring barley was about two-thirds done in Perthshire.

South of the border, thoughts are turning to maize harvest for those with the tall crop, while others are putting the finishing touches to drilling plans.

For respected Farmer Focus writer Keith Challen, this is a harvest to remember for all the wrong reasons. He reckons it’s one of his worst in 35 years of management.

Tax doesn’t have to be taxing

With plenty of other arable farmers in a similar position, it seems a good time to mention this article on tax averaging, where tax savings can be made in a number of scenarios, including when profits are less than 75% of the previous four-year average.

With Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s much-awaited budget now looming on the horizon (30 October) there’ll be much coverage in the build-up and aftermath of all the changes, so stay tuned to the business pages.

Elsewhere in business this week, editor Suzie Horne also reports on yet another development pressure on farmland – this time from data centres.

Who’s up and who’s down?

On the up this week is Baroness Batters of Downton, who scooped a top industry award from the Royal Agricultural Society of England.

Feeling down this week are National Trust (NT) tenants Andrew and Kate Lamont who have been left angry and frustrated over plans by the landowner to not extend their tenancy beyond 2026.

This is despite it being gifted to the NT by the previous landowner, Stanley Long, on the understanding it would be used as agricultural land in perpetuity.

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.