This Week in Farming: Beef insight, SFI latest and Cereals
© Tim Scrivener Welcome back to another edition of This Week in Farming, your one-stop shop for the best Farmers Weekly content from the past seven days.
First, here are your markets (opens as PDF), with another slip for red diesel. As it’s the start of the month, we’ve also got our updated ag-chem input prices.
Now, on with the show.
About the author
SFI latest
Well, Defra promised that the SFI would open for smaller English farm businesses in June and it has kept that promise…just.
An update this week said that farmers would be able to apply from 30 June, the civil service equivalent of handing your essay in to teacher with five seconds to spare.
The department also confirmed that delinked payments would finish a year earlier than slated, although they had already been pinched down to an almost negligible amount.
Writing the editorial this week, deputy editor Abi Kay discusses the premium that farmers place on stability – something the government must take more seriously.
Where now for beef?
Cattle numbers are falling overall but half of farmers are growing their herds.
That’s one of the key findings from a recent Farmers Weekly survey of beef producers in partnership with the National Beef Association, Dunbia and KW that looked to probe the sentiment of business owners.
It suggests that the optimism of larger producers is still not overtaking the accumulated impact of smaller farmers leaving the sector. A roundtable of experts looked over the detail and discussed what it means for the future.
It should be noted that most of the recent price drops happened after the survey data was gathered and discussed – which Farmer Focus writer Duncan Morrison ruminates on.
Cereals thriller
Recent heavy rain has been a relief to many growers but it will have stepped up the threat of disease. We’ve the latest advice from our Crop Watch agronomists.
Many will be hoping to pack away the sprayer next week and have a trip to Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat farm for the Cereals event where they will be a plethora of things to see and do – including a packed line-up on the Farmers Weekly stage.
If you’re taking a bunch of energetic pals, it’s not too late to enter your team for the new Britain’s Fittest Farmer Team event.
Quite a Scamp
The Suzuki Jimny graces our cover this week, but with quite different attire in the form of a fit-it-yourself Scamp bodykit that will interest those who fancy a good chunk of time in the workshop with their beloved runabout.
Elsewhere, machinery contributor James Andrews took a trip to Lancashire for our latest What’s in Your Shed? series, visiting dairy farmers John and Will Tyrer.
Who’s up and who’s down?
On the up this week is of course the brilliant Hawkstone Farmers Choir after they sang their way to victory in the final of Britain’s Got Talent last Saturday (30 May).
Feeling gloomy will be everyone involved with the cull of untraceable cattle at Falkland Estate in Scotland, a nasty business the reasons for which have not yet been fully explained.
Listen to the FW Podcast
Don’t forget to listen to the latest Farmers Weekly Podcast, with Johann Tasker, Louise Impey and Hugh Broom.
This week the team discuss the carbon markets, the most recent update to the farm assurance review and Baroness Minette Batters’ new book – an account of her time as NFU president.
You’ll find it anywhere you get your podcasts, or listen free on the FW website.