This Week in Farming: Beef, IHT in the Budget and Deere

Welcome to another edition of This Week in Farming, your regular round-up of our most important content from the past seven days.

But first, if you’re in need of a blast of cheer, look no further than our lambing gallery, where you’ll find a plethora of lovely pics from this year’s ovine arrival season – do keep them coming in.

Now, on with the show.

Beef exporters jerked around

Thanks to the Australian trade deal we’ve opened our doors to potentially increasing amounts of Aussie beef, you’d think we’d have the right to send some the other way.

Wrong. It turns out our bungling trade department hasn’t got around to asking permission.

And so far the office of international trade secretary Kemi Badenoch still hasn’t bothered responding to livestock reporter Michael Priestley’s questions.

That hasn’t stopped him from also filing this story on updates to mega-processor ABP’s grid and weight limit as the UK market pivots away from sucklers and further towards dairy beef.

Bovine TB latest

Continuing with the cattle theme, two important developments in the battle to control bovine tuberculosis in England this week.

First was chief reporter Philip Case’s scoop that results from tests on potential cattle TB vaccines have led to further delays before any potential widespread rollout.

Then Defra announced that it would be consulting on narrowing the scope of culling badgers for TB control in future, alongside a slew of other potential operational changes.

In-depth budget analysis

Thought there wasn’t much in the budget that affected farmers? Think again.

Buried in the detail were quite a few relevant measures – chief among them a provision to ensure that inheritance tax will not apply to land in environmental schemes.

This kicks away another potential barrier to those considering participating in long-term private- and public-funded projects, such as the ones that members of the Environmental Farmers Group participate in.

In my editorial this week, I note that the prospect of a bigger Defra budget after the election looks less likely than ever, so cost-neutral measures may be all we have to look forward to for a while.

John Deere decisions

It seems nowadays that it takes a laptop to fix a tractor as often as a spanner, but calling out the geeks was a transformative moment for Somerset contractor Jack Dowding.

He tells Nick Fone the benefits he’s seen from having his John Deere fleet remapped and which range he’d dearly love to buy.

In other news for fans of green metal, Deere launched its most powerful tractor yet with the flagship 9RX model now turning out a startling 913hp.

That puts it ahead of the iconic Dodge Demon muscle car, which clocks in at a measly 840hp, although don’t expect the tracked 9RX to match the Demon’s top speed of 211mph.

Who’s up and who’s down?

Uplifting story of the week must go to this excellent tale of cow-based collaboration in Powys which has helped two farming families thrive and build stronger businesses.

Any English farmer with a big heap of untreated urea in the shed will be feeling a bit anxious this week, as the 31 March deadline for spreading it draws ever closer.

Defra insists there will be no delay to the voluntary scheme, which limits the spreading of untreated urea to a 15 January to 31 March window and will operate as a new Red Tractor standard.

Listen to the FW Podcast

Don’t forget the latest edition of the Farmers Weekly podcast with Johann Tasker and Sandy Kirkpatrick.

Listen here or bring us with you in the cab by downloading it from your usual podcast platform.