Welcome to a different This Week in Farming, your common round-up of the most effective content material from Farmers Weekly and FWi over the previous seven days.
However earlier than we get into it, a fast request to full our annual Sentiment Survey which is dwell till subsequent Tuesday (7 November).
It takes about 10 minutes to finish, is handled anonymously, and there’s even a £50 voucher for one fortunate participant.
Moist, moist, moist
There’s little doubt that the primary subject of dialog, as so typically, is the climate.
Storm Ciaran, approaching high of Storm Babet simply two weeks in the past, has heaped additional distress upon many meals producers throughout swathes of the nation.
A lot of the blame is being levelled on the Atmosphere Company which stands accused of “hypocrisy and negligence” over its failure to keep up watercourses.
Farmers say they’re consistently being instructed to take care of their soils and wildlife, however all their good work is being undone by important injury to farmland after heavy flooding.
In the hunt for an answer, the NFU is orchestrating a letter-writing marketing campaign, urging members to contact their MPs.
A pattern letter calls on MPs to again the NFU’s “Built-in Water Administration Technique”, to fund new flood defences and guarantee city areas pay their justifiable share for flood safety.
NFU Cymru convention
The inclement climate did little to forestall a very good turnout of farmers at NFU Cymru’s autumn convention, held in Llandridnod Wells on Thursday (2 November).
Local weather change was on the agenda, with one senior adviser from the UK’s Local weather Change Committee castigating the Welsh authorities’s efforts to assist farmers meet the mounting problem, however warning that additional motion on tree planting and emissions will likely be wanted to realize web zero.
There was additionally dismay when rural affairs minister Lesley Griffiths instructed farmers there can be no further cash for the non permanent Habitat Wales Scheme, which can change Glastir in 2024. Some farmers danger shedding 70% of their present funds.
Crimson tractor, inexperienced tractor
The row over Crimson Tractor’s “Greener Farms Dedication” rumbles on…
This week, we reported on calls by the AHDB for the assorted opinions of Crimson Tractor – and there are a number of, together with the AHDB’s personal evaluation into requirements and the NFU’s evaluation into governance – to be amalgamated right into a single evaluation, commissioned by the Crimson Tractor possession board.
This request was superceded, nonetheless, when Crimson Tractor chairwoman Christine Tacon voiced her assist for the NFU’s method and introduced that additional work on the Greener Farms Dedication was to be placed on maintain, pending the result of the evaluation into Crimson Tractor governance.
What the cluck?
Chickens have been within the information this week.
The egg sector has welcomed a brand new authorities session which goals to finish unfairness within the provide chain, significantly in relation to contracts and pricing.
That is in fulfilment of a promise given by prime minister Rishi Sunak ultimately Could’s “Farm to Fork” summit in Downing Avenue.
There was excellent news on the meat facet, too, with commerce in poultrymeat set to renew with Japan, after avian influenza scuppered a earlier commerce deal.
It solely applies to cooked meat and breeding inventory, however may very well be value £10m over the subsequent few years.
Much less excellent news has been the revelation that the Meals Requirements Company’s meals fraud squad has been referred to as into motion, investigating allegations of intensively produced broiler rooster being handed off as free-range.
Market updates
As ever, enterprise reporter Charlie Reeve has been busy maintaining a tally of the commodity markets.
On the up has been the lamb commerce, with completed inventory again above 570p/kg deadweight, buoyed by tighter provide.
It’s been a extra static scenario for each feed wheat and milk costs, with ex-farm feed wheat quoted at about £177/t, and most milk patrons holding farmgate costs regular for November and December.
Relations within the sugar sector appear to have soured, with British Sugar providing growers a contract value £38/t for subsequent 12 months’s crop – though negotiations with the NFU Sugar are nonetheless ongoing.
NFU Sugar mentioned it was “outraged” by the pre-emptive transfer and this week, it wrote to Defra farming minister Mark Spencer asking his division to urgently intervene within the ongoing sugar beet pricing row.
Hearken to the Farmers Weekly podcast
Lastly, don’t overlook the most recent version of the Farmers Weekly podcast with Johann Tasker and Hugh Broom.
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