Latest farming opinions OPINIONOpinion: Live auction marts – the key to fair livestock pricin...Livestock auction markets have been at the heart of British farming for generations, bringing farmers and buyers together and helping livestock find its true value through open and transparent competition.… OPINIONOpinion: Lessons from NZ in cultivating future farm leadersThe trophy was the biggest I'd ever seen. It stood proudly up on the stage, waiting to be thrown up in victory, with big words reading ‘Young Grower of the… OPINIONEditor's View: Old era of food certainty is nearly over“Today, we are undoubtedly in the era of self-sufficiency,” proclaimed Mike Anderson at the inaugural Conference on Food and National Security. When you hear those words from someone who has… OPINIONOpinion: Let’s be the heroes not victims of climate changeFarmers are on the front line of climate change. That has been made scorchingly obvious this summer as pastures became deserts, harvest finished earlier than ever, crop failures made it… OPINIONOpinion: We must capture winter water to combat droughtsIt now being September, summer is officially over. I don’t know how yours went, but, in this corner of East Sussex, it was extremely hot and very dry. Some parts… OPINIONEditor's View: Stage set for pivotal September for farmingThe runners are already assembling on the starting line of what is set to be this month’s biggest race in England. Not Doncaster Racecourse’s 250th St Leger Stakes, but the… OPINIONOpinion: Ag courses need to work harder to attract studentsI’ve reached an age in parenthood where my eldest daughter is considering going to university. Charley’s keen to do an agriculture degree, combined with either business or biology. She has… OPINIONOpinion: Never mind recent purchases – things will get betterConfident that this summer was destined to be wetter than a service station toilet seat, in the spring I ordered our first proper grain dryer. Second-hand of course, and it… OPINIONOpinion: Time for farming to reset the language on net zeroThe year 2019 seems an age ago, but it was a time with an intense focus on the debate around climate change and net-zero carbon emissions, which became a priority… OPINIONEditor's View: Major gap in our animal health defencesIt is the plot of a thousand Hollywood movies – the grizzled, old veteran being dragged back into action long after they are past their best to do one more… OPINIONOpinion: Importing food, 'offshoring' emissions and moralsI’ve had some interesting conversations recently regarding cheap food imports and the impact they have, not only on British farmers, but also on farmers in poorer countries around the world.… OPINIONOpinion: We have to build the future we want, not pray for itAs I like to remind people, I spent my Covid lockdown designing and building a factory for coldstoring and processing fresh produce. Occasionally, in nightmares, I remember the stress of… OPINIONEditor's View: Drops of comfort in a deeply troubling time“Don’t p*** on me and tell me it’s raining,” seems to sum up the reaction from English farmers to Defra’s response to the drought this week. The hurried reshuffle of… OPINIONOpinion: Shifting responsibility is deadly in farmingDriving with the family in France recently I passed a farmer repairing a roof from a ladder raised up in a tractor front loader bucket. My immediate reaction was: He’s… OPINIONOpinion: Is your business struggling, surviving or transforming?For years, we’ve heard warnings that UK agriculture is at a crossroads and, while many farming businesses have folded over the past two decades, the system has never fully imploded.… OPINIONOpinion: A small acreage can yield a big resultI am painfully aware that for most of us this has been a pretty rubbish arable harvest. After long hours in the combine, with relatively few trailer loads to empty,… OPINIONEditor's View: Resilience stocks need replenishingThere is one word that has appeared time and time again in Farmers Weekly over the past few years. Resilience. We encourage resilience in the face of drought, flooding, volatile… OPINIONOpinion: I'd rather be playing 12-bar blues than harvestingHas it really been nearly four years since I finished my last-ever land of wheat, and trundled back along the headland of Rough Field to the header trailer, contemplating my… OPINIONOpinion: Burnham soundbite doesn’t spark growth of hopeI am all agog to see what Andy Burnham’s promise of “growth in every postcode” means for the postcode area that contains my partner’s farm. At the moment the “growth”… More articles
