This Week in Farming: Beef price, Budget and AI on farm

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’s your markets (opens as PDF), with another dispiriting increase in the price of red diesel this side of the pond, even as president Trump unveils an $8bn fuel support package for American farmers to compensate them for the cost of the war he started.

Now, on with the show.

Bullish on beef

There’s been a slew of news on the beef front this week with levy board the AHDB coming out to forecast that strong prices will stick around in 2027 as herd numbers continue to decline.

Strong exports are also helping, with volumes up 8% in the first six months of this year compared with year-earlier levels.

And retailer Aldi also announced fresh plans to work with processor APB to smarten up its green credentials by paying for environmental actions on up to 1,000 beef farms across the UK.

Green agenda

And it was a green agenda of a different sort over at Fendt this week as the premium Agco brand revealed the changes its making to its 500-series models, including a bigger-bored engine and a new transmission.

We’ve also got our annual Ultimate Guide to buying a combine, as well as a separate guide for buying a big square baler.

And in the latest edition of What’s in Your Shed? we visit Somerset farmer and Hawkstone Farmers Choir member Andy Fussell, who explains why he’s getting less brand loyal as time goes by.

Tech tonic

A new tractor might improve your productivity, but what mark will artificial intelligence leave on our sector?

A big one, according to Staffordshire farmer and tech entrepreneur Clive Bailye, who has co-founded a tech startup to build a virtual agent to automate some of the tasks previously done by farmers and their advisers.

He told Farmers Weekly how it built his SFI application last month, enabling him to comfortably submit before the money ran out.

In my editorial, I note the technology is becoming increasingly embedded, but fret about the broader risks to the economy that the companies pushing it may pose.

Budget day looms

By the next instalment of this wildly popular newsletter we’ll know the contents of chancellor John Healey’s first Budget and what that will mean for farming.

Farmers and members of the Tory party gathered in Berkshire for another campaigning moment on IHT this week, while the government pressed on with its plans for a fertiliser import tax, although it looks set to have less impact than some initially feared.

And with fuel prices so high it may be easy to forget there’s currently a discounted rate of fuel duty at the moment.

The Countryside Alliance has chosen that as its pre-Budget campaign – sending a letter to the Treasury last week asking for the cut to be made permanent.

Who’s up and who’s down?

Feeling tense this week are proponents of gene editing, as they wait for a High Court ruling next month on whether there will need to be additional rules on labelling of products bred using the technology.

But on the up is Cornish beef farmer Ben Thomas, who scooped this year’s Farm Carbon Toolkit’s Carbon Farmer of the Year award, after impressing judges with his extensive, low-input beef finishing system. Congratulations to him.

Listen to the FW Podcast

Don’t forget to tune in to the Farmers Weekly Podcast, with Johann Tasker, Abi Kay and Hugh Broom.

This week the team discuss the fertiliser tax, meat exports, the work of the Voluntary Initiative and the UK’s first commercial olive harvest.

You’ll find it anywhere you get your podcasts, or listen free on the FW website.