In a week of sunshine and showers, farming has had its fair share of good news and bad.
When Gordon Brown called a Food Summit to tackle the global food crisis many hoped for some significant signals on prices paid to farmers. They should have known better, the summit yielded warm words, but little of substance. The challenge now is for the NFU and others to use the raised awareness to drive home the fact that low prices drive low output.
In Wales farmers are to get £9m of EU-approved foot and mouth compensation. Good news for some, but extraordinary news for English producers, who must carry the cost themselves, while Defra, which was responsible for licensing the lab the disease came from, refuses to pay for its mistake and has the temerity to tell farmers they should share the cost of future disease outbreaks. And all this in the week that a new report repeats earlier calls for animal health labs to be upgraded.
Meanwhile, fuel costs are hitting farmers and contractors hard, pushing up contracting rates and leaving one contractor fearing for the future of his business.
We've also been busy finding out about the practicalities of bluetongue vaccination - like when the vaccine will be available and some of the issues around undertaking the vaccinations on-farm, with three practical videos explaining what is involved.
And here's a cheering thought - the NFU is probably one of the most powerful lobbies of government policy in the land, well that's what Lord Michael Heseltine reckons, and after all his years in politics he should know.
Other highlights:
Morrisons supermarket gets £100.000 whiter than white compensation from the Office of Fair Trading.
A landmark wind farm project in Scotland gets the thumbs down.
Farming Help charity tops £40,000.
Fresh Start Academy gets a big thumbs up.
A busy week on-farm, and in the news!