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All articles about Opinion

Read our farming columnists’ views beyond the agricultural news headlines. See what they make of farm policy and the big stories of the day on topics from Brexit and food security to farm subsidies and pesticide use. Matthew Naylor, Charlie Flindt and Will Evans are among our regular writers.

Community

NEWS

Opinion: SFI should support farmers with drainage schemes

News from the arid East is that it has been a particularly easy harvest. The grain dryer has barely been stoked up, our 20-year-old New Holland has performed almost faultlessly,…

OPINION

Opinion: Would farmers vote 'none of the above'?

Elections are in the news. In India, nearly a billion people are engaged in a lengthy voting process. Earlier this year the Russians re-elected President Putin, and in November the…

YOUNG FARMERS

Mike Neaverson: New tractor prices make me hanker for old kit

I have about as little interest in new tractors as I do in taking horse riding lessons, or operating a cattery. If a machine has tyres of an adequate dimension…

OPINION

Opinion: Outdated attitudes make farmers the 'outsiders'

Week after week, we are reminded of how incredible the farming community is. Whether it’s the hundreds who opened their gates for Open Farm Sunday, or fellow farmers supporting tenant…

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Insights

OPINION

Opinion: 'Let them eat bacon,' says David Alvis

Embarrassing as it may be, I am something of a fan of “I’m a Celebrity, get me out of here!” Bizarrely, I never seem to tire of watching C-list celebs…

OPINION

Opinion: None the wiser on post-EU farm support

To the Farmers Club in Whitehall to hear farms minister at Defra (and famous Eurosceptic) George Eustice deliver a talk. As recently as February, Mr Eustice was promising the NFU…

Succession planning: Not easy, but essential

My father and I have finally tackled the thorny matter of succession. I can’t see why most farmers make such a fuss about it – it barely took us a…

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News

NEWS

Opinion: ‘I fear Labour's next assault will be on farmers’

Shadow farming minister Robbie Moore MP gives Farmers Weekly his verdict on what the Budget could mean for farmers… After the wettest 18 months on record, farmers are in desperate…

OPINION

Editor's View: Industry needs to tackle water issues head on

How should the farming community respond to this week’s news that law firm Leigh Day could bring a multimillion pound legal claim against Avara Foods over its alleged role in…

OPINION

Analysis: What could Johnson’s departure mean for farmers?

Boris Johnson is yesterday’s man. All eyes now are on who will put themselves forward to be the next Conservative Party leader and prime minister. Mr Johnson currently seems determined…

Opinion: What are we allowed to eat these days?

Even by recent standards of confused and contradictory reported advice on healthy eating, it has been a bumper couple of weeks. A glance through the papers and the news channels…

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Opinion

OPINION

Editor's View: What Wales gets right about farming politics

“I am here where I would always be”. Those words were among the opening remarks of Wales’s first minister, Rhun ap Iorwerth in a sauna-like tent at the NFU Cymru…

OPINION

Opinion: Blackgrass fight could be lost if key chemicals go

There are a few contenders for the pest, weed or disease that causes the most problems on our arable and beef farm in Lincolnshire. Cabbage stem flea beetle is one,…

OPINION

Opinion: Himalayan balsam presents a huge threat to crofters

There’s an old trope about crofters being lazy. I still hear such talk from blow-ins and visitors. The ironic Crofters’ Psalm goes: "Oh, that the peats would cut themselves /…

OPINION

Opinion: Connectivity holds the key to technical excellence

Farming has always been an early adopter of technology that works. GPS guidance, variable rate application, automated milking – UK farmers have embraced these not out of novelty, but because…

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Video

OPINION

Will's Way video: New baby, ploughing and pigeon patrol

In his latest update, ex-Sky News reporter-turned farmer Will Sargent talks through a hectic time on the farm cultivating land, protecting oilseed rape crops from pigeon damage and getting ready…

Will's Way video: Pigeons, muckspreading and paperwork

In his latest update, ex-Sky-reporter-turned farmer Will Sargent recounts battles with airborne pests, demolition work and even a bit of harvesting in March. Watch his video diary, see the farm…

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