Latest farming opinions OPINIONOpinion: Rush to build houses harms countryside and farmersHow many more new houses do we need? Everywhere you go, the urban sprawl gets bigger, infilling gaps between town and ring road on green belt, destroying farmland and habitat.… OPINIONOpinion: EU 'alignment' would be death-knell for cerealsOne piece of kit that gets a decent workout on the farm is our trailed sprayer. For the past decade and a half, we have had a model of keeping… OPINIONEditor's View: I'm all for civil servants and farmers mixingWhat has been the greatest farming controversy of this still relatively young year so far? Some of you will answer the sorry state of the Sustainable Farming Incentive, our lead… OPINIONOpinion: Farming has training problems, not hiring shortagesWe talk regularly about the problem of insufficient young people coming into agriculture and horticulture. A recent report from the School of Sustainable Food and Farming at Harper Adams University,… OPINIONOpinion: It's time to introduce a fit-for-purpose tractor testTractor runs used to be a Sunday afternoon jaunt for a few dedicated vintage tractor enthusiasts. But this once-steady pastime has surged in popularity over recent years. Drivers will travel… OPINIONEditor's View: Is the government losing its ambition on SFI?Is the UK government, regardless of which party is in control, capable of delivering ambitious policies? That’s the question I’ve been pondering this week following the revelation that Defra is… OPINIONOpinion: Farmers have been 'heroes' of consumer cost controlThe advertising guru Rory Sutherland (if you don’t know who he is, you should look him up) recently posted a piece of work about property inflation versus food price inflation… OPINIONOpinion: Who needs musical talent? I'm a workshop alchemistThe cattle are in, the fields are relentlessly deluged and there is only so much fun to be had from sitting on a tractor cutting roadside hedges and annoying cyclists.… OPINIONOpinion: Farming in Kenya? It's costly and there's no supportWhat are the differences between farming in Kenya and the UK? This is a question I am often asked when I’m back in the UK. I’m not sure what people… OPINIONEditor's View: Volatility takes toll on long-term dairy planConversation at this week’s Dairy-Tech event at Stoneleigh was understandably dominated by the current market situation. Production volumes are not dropping fast enough to help prices level off. Indeed, a… OPINIONOpinion: Landscape Recovery small print is a cause for concernTry doing anything online nowadays – buy a rail ticket, book a restaurant, arrange a delivery – and 10 to one you will be asked to tick a box saying… OPINIONOpinion: Veggigeddon – not quite the game it used to beOn the family WhatsApp group, we’re keen players of “Whamaggedon”. This is, of course, the lighthearted game of trying to avoid hearing “Last Christmas” by Wham as December goes by.… OPINIONOpinion: Tighter supplies will only drive more food inflationRecent figures published by the government show that overall inflation may now be down to 3.4%, but also that food price inflation is markedly above that figure. For the 75… OPINIONEditor's View: Creaking jobs market may tempt more into agThis week saw a trip to the House of Commons courtesy of Arla, which launched a report conducted in partnership with Harper Adams calling on MPs for a new strategy… OPINIONOpinion: Rural young men need positive role modelsMatchmaking wasn’t on my list of future careers when I left school, but once again I found myself hosting the Callander Young Farmers Take Me Out competition. Not every guy… OPINIONOpinion: Food and farming need 'executive council'Anyone who has dabbled with boats will know a tiller and daggerboard are essential parts of a vessel. Without the former, the helmsman is unable to dictate a direction of… OPINIONEditor's View: Lax food security must end in dangerous worldThe flow of illegal meat imports across the border has for some time been one of the most salient threats to both the food and farming industry. So it was… OPINIONOpinion: IHT change is welcome, but it's still a bad policyThe increase in the agricultural and business property relief announced before Christmas was a welcome surprise. The rise from £1m to £2.5m came on the back of lots of hard… OPINIONOpinion: Farmers need to form alliances to gain political cloutFarmers are practical people. They rise early, work hard, and deliver the food that sustains the nation. Yet in the world of politics, they too often find themselves at the… More articles
