This Week in Farming: Bluetongue backlog and £200/t wheat

Welcome back to 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 feed wheat finally breaking the £200/t mark amid dwindling exports from the Black Sea region.

Now, on with the show.

Drought latest

Senior farm lobbyists have warned that Defra’s farming roadmap is already at risk of being overtaken by events after a summer of drought and disease exposed our sector’s weaknesses to shocks.

Warning this week that farms are being pushed to crisis point, a coalition of groups have called for a broader package of support measures, including interest-free loans, to be made available to farmers.

Charities are already stepping in to support those most in need, with charity Rabi poised to give up to 1,000 farmers grants of £2,000 from next month.

Warnings came from sectors as disparate as sugar beet and flowers about the impact of the drought this week, while the lack of grass is costing Farmer Focus writer Eurig Jenkins an additional £1,000 a day in silage and concentrates.

Bluetongue latest

A second laboratory has been called into action to help reduce the delays farmers are facing to find out the results of blood tests for bluetongue, with the backlog causing fears that the disease surveillance system is struggling to cope.

I hear the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s Weybridge facility will process about 100 additional tests a day (a newsletter exclusive) but, as I noted in my editorial, the troubled facility is only in the early stages of being redeveloped for the future.

Meanwhile, cases in Scotland have led to the imposition of a control zone in the south west of the country, while farmers across the UK are being asked to complete this survey to help build up a clearer picture of the disease’s impact so far.

Grazing decisions

With rain falling on some parched parts of the country this week, we’ve got the latest advice on how to avoid cow health risks when grazing after drought.

Want to quickly know about an electric fence break or a water pipe leak? There’s also this piece on nifty remote sensors that can help with that.

And just to represent all our readers correctly, here’s Scottish Farmer Focus writer Colin Murdoch speaking about the challenges of having too much grass at the moment.

Beyond the bale

Managing a large and scattered team is becoming a more common problem for contractors as businesses grow in size and complexity.

This week machinery editor Oli Mark speaks to a baling contractor who’s cracked it with a telematics system that allows him to provide seasonal drivers with precise information for every job they do.

And in the latest edition of Contractor Comment, Staffordshire contractor Matt Brewster talks about his latest machinery acquisitions and why there might be a shortage of wearing metal this season.

If you’ve also been struggling, then do write to Andrew.meredith@markallengroup.com and let me know.

Who’s up and who’s down?

On the up this week are oilseed rape growers, after co-op United Oilseeds revealed that this season’s average yield is expected to exceed 4t/ha for the first time – a silver lining around the current arable clouds.

Feeling down are slugs, after researchers moved one step closer to making precision targeting of the arable pests a commercial reality.

Listen to the FW Podcast

Don’t forget to listen to the latest Farmers Weekly Podcast, brought to you by Johann Tasker, Hugh Broom and Louise Impey.

This week, the team discuss how much rain is needed to drill autumn crops, hunt down the latest advice on ordering fertiliser and discuss the outcome of the firearms licensing review.

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