The NFU has launched a special website which looks back over the past 100 years as part of its centenary celebrations.

The website features an interactive timeline which readers can scroll through and read about key events which have affected agriculture and the NFU since its inception.

The union was started following a meeting in an ante-room at the Smithfield Show on December 10 1908 which had been called because of a row between farmers and butchers over who should pick up the bill for beef carcases that had to be condemned because of TB.

The website, which features articles on the NFU's past presidents, legislation which has shaped the agriculture sector, and diseases outbreaks that have affected the industry, will be added to throughout 2008.

Anthony Gibson, NFU Director of Communications, said: "If the history of the last 100 years proves anything, it is that the farming community and the NFU make a winning combination, capable of rising to almost any challenge - and there'll be no shortage of those in the future."