2025: What made the farming news in November and December?

Our review of 2025 concludes with what made the news in November and December – from the chancellor’s Autumn Budget to tractor runs and farming festivities.

See also: Farmers take festive tractors to London protest

November

• In early November, Baroness Minette Batters submitted her long-awaited Farm Profitability Review to Defra, delivering 57 recommendations to help support the farming sector. Details were scant as Defra opted to hold off publishing the full report until “before Christmas”, but bolstering farm tenancies and targeting support to “active farmers” emerged as were expected to be.
• Cases of avian flu increased across the UK during the autumn, prompting the introduction of a poultry housing order in England for keepers of more than 50 birds from 6 November. The Welsh government soon followed suit, introducing similar measures from 13 November, as did Northern Ireland.
• Methane-reducing feed additive Bovaer was back in the headlines after concerns were raised by Danish farmers linking the product to cattle illness and deaths. The manufacturer moved quickly to reassure the industry, stating that Bovaer was not identified as a contributing factor. Meanwhile, the government quietly shelved a target to cut methane emissions from UK livestock by 30% by 2030.
• An administrators report following the collapse of Oxfordshire meat processor Mutchmeats revealed that more than £3m was left owed to 99 unsecured trade creditors, with many local farmers and auction markets left out of pocket.
• Agricultural machinery was on show in November, both at the gargantuan Agritechnica event in Germany, and in the City of London at the Lady Mayor’s Show, where a convoy of JCBs and a pea harvester took to the streets to give Londoners a glimpse of farming reality.  
• A major tractor demonstration in Westminster was planned for 26 November to coincide with the chancellor’s Autumn Budget. However, the Met Police pulled the plug at the eleventh hour. This did not sway many though, with hundreds of tractors still coming to town. Two were impounded and a small number of farmers were arrested.
• As for the Autumn Budget, the chancellor announced a small concession on the upcoming changes to inheritance tax. This will now allow the £1m agricultural property relief threshold to be transferred between spouses, effectively doubling its value. Industry groups fear this will not be enough to protect many family farms from the so-called “death tax”.

December

• England’s Landscape Recovery scheme was given a £500m boost for the next 20 years, but faced criticism after it emerged that Defra had the ability to pull the plug on the long-term agreements with just 12 months’ notice using an exit clause. Industry advisers fear this will discourage private investors from committing to joint-funded schemes at a time when long-term taxpayer support is also under threat.
• Christmas festivities began in Buckinghamshire as Winslow town square hosted its annual Primestock Show, where this year’s champion beast, a Limousin-cross heifer, sold for £7,600.

Winslow Primestock Show champion © MAG/Charlie Reeve

• More than 30 Labour MPs abstained from a vote on proposals to restrict reliefs from inheritance tax during an initial debate on the Finance Bill in parliament. Just one Labour MP, Markus Campbell-Savours from Penrith and Solway, voted against the government – and was immediately suspended from the party.
• Bluetongue was confirmed in Northern Ireland, with four cases either confirmed or suspected on farms in County Down. Cattle were barred from attending the Royal Ulster Winter Fair.
• The UK dairy sector donated 340kg of cheese to the Chelsea Pensioners as part of the annual Ceremony of the Christmas Cheeses, a tradition dating back to 1692.
• Defra launched a review into fairness in the supply chain for the combinable crops sector, building on the new contract arrangements introduced in the dairy and pigs sectors in recent years.
• A standoff took place in Calais after four refrigerated lorries carrying £650,000 worth of British lamb were seized by French border authorities for alleged wool contamination, before being cleared to return to the UK.
• Farmer-led protests returned to Westminster on 16 December to coincide with the second reading of the Finance Bill in parliament. While opposition MPs were again able to voice their discontent over inheritance tax on farm assets, no vote was taken and amendments will not be considered until the “committee stage” next year.
• Respondents to Farmers Weekly’s annual Sentiment Survey cited government policy as their greatest challenge in 2025, and their greatest concern for 2026. (See p16 for full analysis.)
• The Farm Profitability Review from Minette Batters was finally published in the days before Christmas – sadly, just after Farmers Weekly was put to bed…