2025: What made the farming news in January and February?

Our review of 2025 kicks off with a look at what made the news in the first two months of the year – from noisy anti-inheritance tax protests in Oxford to illegal meat seizures in Northern Ireland.

See also: Editor’s View: What should be getting you off farm in 2026?

January 2025

• Defra secretary Steve Reed faced angry farmer protests at the Oxford Farming Conference over Labour’s planned inheritance tax reforms, as tensions flared despite his promises of a “new deal” for British agriculture. Farmers also protested with 88 tractors outside Beverley County Hall in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
• Hampshire’s last remaining abattoir, Newman’s in Farnborough, closed permanently on 30 January, delivering a major blow to local farmers and butchers as rising costs and regulations squeezed small processors.
• The birth of Hilda, the first IVF calf in Dumfries’ Langhill herd, marked a breakthrough in breeding methane-efficient cattle, accelerating sustainable dairy farming and reducing the sector’s environmental impact.
• The UK’s first confirmed case of glyphosate-resistant Italian ryegrass was found on a Kent farm, prompting warnings for growers to strengthen herbicide stewardship and vigilance to prevent wider resistance spread. Key advice included avoiding repeat doses, especially on farms where no-till methods are the norm.
• Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm was confirmed as the next host of Cereals, the UK’s leading arable event. The 2026 show will bring together 550 exhibitors and around 25,000 visitors at the Oxfordshire farm made famous by the hit Amazon Prime TV series Clarkson’s Farm.
• The UK government banned imports of cattle, pigs, sheep, and related products from Germany after a single foot-and-mouth case, aiming to protect livestock, food security, and prevent supply chain disruption. Further cases were later recorded in Hungary and Slovakia.
• Red Tractor, the UK’s main farm assurance scheme, faced major scrutiny after an independent review urged a leadership overhaul, stronger farmer engagement, and a full reset to rebuild trust and transparency. The review had been triggered following farmer anger at Red Tractor’s earlier attempt to introduce a “greener farms commitment” to help retailers demonstrate their “green” credentials.
• NFU Cymru condemned Natural Resources Wales’ decision to end waste sheep dip permits, warning it would raise costs and hinder sheep scab control for Welsh farmers.

February 2025

• The government’s new Land Use Framework consultation sparked strong farming-industry warnings that removing farmland to help meet environmental targets risks undermining domestic food production. Both the NFU and the Tenant Farmers Association called for safeguards on food security.
• Thousands of farmers brought 1,400 tractors to London for the “Change Your Tune, Starmer” protest, fronted by the Save British Farming group, demanding a U-turn on the government’s proposed 20% tax on agricultural assets worth more than £1m.
• Port authorities in Northern Ireland seized 600kg of illegal meat, smuggled on the Stranraer-Larne ferry, raising serious biosecurity concerns over the UK’s ability to prevent disease threats such as foot-and-mouth and African swine fever. The incident followed further seizures of illegal meat at Dover, where government budget cuts threatened to undermine the port authority’s inspection abilities.
• Early lambing flocks across the UK were hit by the Schmallenberg virus, leading to deformities, abortions and stillbirths, with testing recommended to manage outbreaks and differentiate it from bluetongue.
• Aberdeenshire farmer Andrew Connon was elected NFU Scotland president, succeeding Martin Kennedy, with Robert Neill and Duncan Macalister named as vice-presidents. The team pledged to champion farmers’ inheritance tax fight and promote industry sustainability.
• Pembrokeshire dairy farmer Mary Raymond lost 26 more cows to bovine TB, cutting her herd to 190 and highlighting the financial, emotional and wildlife challenges, as she called for stronger action from the Welsh government to tackle the disease.
• Defra secretary Steve Reed announced at the NFU Conference in London that £30m would be added to Higher Level Stewardship payments, backdated to 1 January 2025, to better reward English farmers restoring nature. The move followed repeated calls from the NFU, the RSPB, the National Trust and others to achieve nature-restoration goals.

Tom, Hazel and Bertie Church and Martin Towler outside the Treasury © NFU

• Bedfordshire farmers Hazel and Tom Church, with son Bertie and grandfather Martin Towler, handed in pre-loved toys at 11 Downing Street, home of the chancellor Rachel Reeves, highlighting inheritance tax threats to future farmers, as the NFU stepped up pressure on the government.
• Defra statistics revealed there had been more than 1.5m incidents of fly-tipping in the past year – a 6% increase on the previous year’s data. The figure does not include private land.