Producers of goat’s milk supplying Delamere Dairy have received a 1p/litre price increase, effective from January.

The increase applied to nine farms supplying around 7m litres of milk a year and took the price to 53.5p/litre for those with a level production profile and who met the required milk hygiene standards.

“With the number of commercial goat herds in the UK still numbering less than 50, encouraging sustainable and well invested milk herds remains a priority for the company,” Delamere Dairy managing director Ed Salt said.

Veal was a best-seller at Waitrose at the end of January after a Countryfile report.

The BBC television programme featured veal on 22 January and since then sales have rocketed by 18%, showing how easily consumer behaviour can be influenced by media coverage.

Waitrose sells more than half of all veal sold in UK supermarkets. It has sold British veal for nearly 20 years and insists all its veal is from calves reared on straw in open housing, and fed a diet of milk and cereal.

Frontier has bought Kent-based specialist agronomy business The Agronomy Partnership (TAP).

The UK’s largest crop input and marketing company has added several agronomy businesses to its stable over the last two years and this move will mean it now has 97 agronomists.

TAP will continue to be based in Wrotham, will keep the TAP name and operate as usual. Martin Dear, director, said this decision would secure funding for future growth and technology investment for customers.

Welsh farmers can receive up to £9,000/ha over 15 years in woodland planting grants.

The Glastir Woodland Creation Grant is available across Wales with a minimum area of 0.25ha. Establishment grants of up to £4,500/ha are available along with a fencing grant of £3.15/m and the Woodland Creation Premium of up to £300/ha a year for 15 years.

A third of the 117 schemes planned so far have been approved by Forestry Commission Wales with the number of trees planted varying from 400 to 10,000.

In addition to providing timber and fuel, woodland can create shelter for crops, stock or buildings. It can also prevent run-off and reduce soil erosion whilst enhancing wildlife and improving shooting income potential.

Cumbria based accountant Dodd & Co has come up with a brilliant tool to help businesses work out how much Annual Investment Allowance they are entitled to.

Most farmers know that the AIA drops from £100,000 a year to £25,000 from April 2012.
However, working out just how much AIA you have available is complicated if your accounting year end does not coincide with the tax year.

The Dodd & Co calculator will do this for you in seconds - all it needs to know is whether you trade as a company or otherwise and what your year end is. It really couldn’t be simpler.

Global beer consumption topped 182.69m kilolitres in 2010, a rise of 2.4% on the previous year, according to Japanese brewer Kirin Holdings.

It sounds even more impressive when put into English - it works out at 329bn pints - or 47 pints a year for every man, woman and child on the planet. Little wonder then that barley supplies are so tight, so to speak.

It’s good news for UK producers. Between July and November, DEFRA reckons brewers, distillers and maltsters used almost 731,000t of barley, 6% higher than the previous year. And malting barley prices remain firm, up around €15/t on September levels and about €73/t above feed barley, reflecting concern over EU supplies this season.

Meanwhile, the latest USDA figures show world barley trade is set to rise by 0.2m tonnes to 16.32m tonnes in 2011/12.

Business insolvencies in farming and food production and retailing rose significantly in 2011 according to an Experian report. A total of 107 agriculture, forestry and fishing businesses became insolvent in 2011, a 9.2% increase on 2010.

The importance of knowing your customer becomes increasingly apparent in food manufacturing with an 18.5% increase to 109 insolvencies in this sector. Food retailing also suffered a 7.7% rise with 196 insolvencies, well above the average of 6.3% across all sectors.

The most improved industry was spirits wine and tobacco with only one insolvency throughout the industry and a 66% decrease on the previous year.

Agricultural supply and specialist retail business Wynnstay Group has revealed its strongest ever set of annual results for the year ending 31 October 2011.

The group has achieved a 42% rise in turnover to £346.18m, driven by increased volumes and contributions from two recent acquisitions - Yorkshire-based Woodheads Seeds in May 2010 and Shropshire’s Wrekin Grain in May 2011. Pre-tax profits increased from £5.88m in 2010 to £6.85 in 2011.

The former co-operative based in Llansantffraid, Mid-Wales, is still farmer controlled with 50% of the company’s 3,804 shareholders being farmers and the remainder outside investors and staff.

HMRC is once again warning farmers to be vigilant against bogus emails telling taxpayers that they are due a tax refund.

The emails are the latest in a series of scams which encourage people to hand over bank details and then have money taken illegally from their accounts.

Rob Hitch, partner at Cumbria based accountant Dodd & Co, advises clients not to open the emails or click any links.

“HMRC will rarely contact you by email. If you’re at all concerned visit http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/index.htm to see if the email you have received is listed.”

Any suspicious emails should be forwarded to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and then deleted.

“You can win ... you can grow … you can be one of the food industry’s great success stories,” was the positive message from Joanne Denney-Finch to producers at Quality Meat Scotland’s conference this week.

IGD’s research showed that farmers were viewed as hardworking, down to earth, professional and vital to the future, said chief executive Ms Denny-Finch.

“I find farmers are usually very pleasantly surprised to discover just how staunchly they’re supported by the public!”

But shoppers hunting harder for deals create complications for retailers and their suppliers, she warned. “Demand is going up and down in waves … sales are harder to predict and profit margins are regularly squeezed.

“Red meat has been relatively less affected and you’ve been spared some of these problems although you could lose out on sales. So if not through price cutting promotions … you will need to keep finding other ways to grab attention and convince shoppers of the value you offer.”