This Week in Farming: Truss, slurry and inflation

Hello and welcome to This Week in Farming, Saturday’s round-up of the best stories in agriculture.

Here are the five biggest agenda-setting topics from the past seven days, as well as a look ahead to this week’s Farmers Weekly Podcast.

Truss departure

It’s been another week of turmoil in Westminster after Liz Truss departed as prime minister after facing up to the fact that she no longer commanded the support of her backbench MPs.

Here are my initial thoughts on who could be next in line for the top job at Defra, with the usual caveats that events are moving extremely quickly at the moment.

If the next environment secretary is not someone who has held the post already since 2016, they will be the fifth secretary of state to oversee the implementation of the Environmental Land Management scheme, serving the fourth prime minister.

It won’t just be that in their inbox, of course. As noted last week they will inherit the recently published Rock Report, which news editor Phil Clarke analysed here.

Inflation latest

They will also have to decide whether the government needs to play any role in tackling rampant agricultural price inflation.

Latest figures from the country’s largest buying group, AF, show that in the 12 months to September 2022 the cost of farm inputs went up by an eye-watering 34%.

Pig producers are among the hardest hit, with the industry having made a collective loss of more than £700m since October 2020.

Pig consultant Peter Crichton said: “The flood of imports continues to undercut the domestic market, so it looks as though there is more pain before we see any significant long-term gains in the profitability of the beleaguered UK pig industry.”

Some in the sector may be helped by a dip in grain prices this week, after a recovery in the value of the pound, following much of the mini-budget being scrapped.

Renewable energy special

Amid all these increases in costs, it was a particularly timely moment for our livestock and business team to focus on the benefits of renewable energy in the broadest sense. If you missed any of the content here’s a round-up:

• The Cornish dairy farmers who’ve swapped diesel for methane in their New Holland tractor
• The Pembrokeshire sheep farmers who’ve adapted their business to accommodate a solar park
• The latest advice from farm business consultants on cutting energy costs and selling self-generated electricity back to the grid

More will be published in the coming days.

Spotlight on slurry pumping

Never say that Farmers Weekly doesn’t get its hands dirty to bring you information on all aspects of the industry. This week our machinery team donned their overalls to take a closer look at slurry pumping gear.

Lancashire farming and contracting outfit Thompson Brothers has also been looking at ways to cut fuel use, which led to the construction of this £43,000 self-contained umbilical pumping trailer to replace a tractor on the job.

“We’re saving hours on the tractor, have reduced fuel consumption and now have the capacity to carry 2,600m of pipe to each job,” said operator David Kirkham.

If you’re looking for an off-the-shelf option, Herefordshire contractor Martin Desborough shares his thoughts on the £50,000 pumping trailer built by Tramspread.

And here’s insight from Cumbrian contractor Graham Hayllar on another home-built outfit.

Clarkson: Right or wrong?

To the surprise of absolutely no-one, Jeremy Clarkson has sharply divided opinion again – this time on the tricky topic of red tape.

Our columnist Matt Naylor had his say this week on Clarkson’s recently launched campaign to cut half the red tape out of farming, and it wasn’t overly complimentary.

Our Facebook audience quickly divided into Camp Clarkson and Team Naylor – who do you support?

Listen to the FW Podcast

Don’t forget the latest edition of the Farmers Weekly podcast with Johann Tasker and Hugh Broom, too.

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