Livestock Farmer Focus FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Relief as national park idea is abandonedIn my last article, the possibility of our area being nominated as Scotland’s next national park loomed over us. However, we have recently heard that these nominations have been quashed… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: What would Dragons’ Den think of my farm?Do you support direct action or not? It’s a difficult question, and the answer possibly depends on where you live now UK agriculture is devolved. I think the English Sustainable… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Welsh challenges felt in town and countryFebruary 2024 will go down in history as the month Welsh farmers came together and said, “Digon yw digon,” “Enough is enough.” Temperatures have been rising for many years. Matters… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: More efficient cow type is a work in progressWaterlogged paddocks, failed crops and full lagoons are a common sight. Some of the harvested beet land remains undrilled and what was drilled is patchy. Spring cropping will have to… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Australian trade deal may not be all badI’m writing this while sitting in our daughter’s apartment in Sydney, enjoying sunshine and warmth. I have not ventured far into the country on this trip. However, we did travel… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Wet season forces sheep inside earlyWe spent February desperately hoping for some drier weather with lambing due to start any day. I’m sure everyone is in the same boat. We brought our indoor-lambing flock into… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Agriculture should be on a wartime policyI love agriculture. I live and breathe it and wouldn’t want to do anything else…well, most days. When fellow Farmers Weekly contributor Joe Stanley warned farmers protesting and raising their… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Activity monitor helps lift pregnancy rateFieldwork is far from our minds with the ground being so wet. As is often the case, I imagine everything will be squeezed into a tiny work window. The ice-cream… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Welsh government’s habitat proposals look daftI am sure most in the wider farming community are aware of the unrest in Wales about the new “Sustainable” Farming Scheme. I attended one of the NFU Cymru roadshows… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Falling pig price spoils otherwise good monthThings on the farm feel as though they are all going well. I have also had a bit of reassurance, as I recently reviewed the last quarter against the targets… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Calving under way with one assisted so farSpring calving kicked off here and quickly hit top gear. We had an expected start date of 1 February and by 11 February we were 50% calved. As always, you… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Ewe scan distracts from tricky early calvingDespite winter bringing challenging weather, the ewes scanned fine. We had seven empties, 11 singles, 123 twins and 14 sets of triplets to give us 193%. The remaining 26 hoggs… More articles