This Week in Farming: Bluetongue changes and rent reviews
© Tim Scrivener Welcome back to another edition of This Week in Farming, your one-stop shop for the best content from Farmers Weekly in the last seven days.
First, here’s your markets (opens as PDF) and red diesel is up another 2p/litre, matching surging prices at the pumps amid rising prices for crude and a squeeze on global refining capacity.
Now, on with the show.
Bluetongue latest
Livestock keepers can now get a more accurate picture of the bluetongue threat in their area, after the Apha unveiled an update to their online case map at the beginning of the week that will see suspected, as well as confirmed, cases marked.
It was the first part of a two-phase update, with Friday (11 September) seeing Defra scrapping almost all blood tests in England for animals suspected of being infected with the midge-borne disease after the laboratory backlog became intolerable.
Farmers are now being urged to get ahead with prep for the 2027 midge season by vaccinating this winter, while the parliamentary committee that scrutinises Defra has launched an investigation into its handling of the outbreak so far.
Food security failings
The UK’s declining food production was thrust back into the spotlight on Wednesday (9 September) as the NFU sought to make it central to their campaigning agenda at its Back British Farming day.
It was hot on the heels of a conference on food security in London that I attended and remarked upon in this week’s editorial, as well as warnings from meat processors over troubling gaps in food resilience plans.
For Farmer Focus writer Andrew Wilson lays bare the challenges of food production in his latest piece, with the dry summer playing havoc with unirrigated root crops, contributing to his decision to yank sugar beet from the rotation.
Cropping advice
It’s been a miserable week for the sugar sector generally, with AB Foods warning this week that operating losses in its sugar division (home to British Sugar) are expected to be between £70m and £170m.
Back in the field, growers are being warned to stay vigilant for pests and diseases as conditions turn damper.
Away from beet, we’ve got nutrition advice to get newly-established crops off to the best start, a blast of positivity from farmers about oilseed rape and a look at how Staffordshire grower Rob Atkin has buffered his arable resilience with nature friendly farming.
Rate review clamour
Our lead story this week sees the Tenant Farmers Association calling for tenants to trigger rent reviews this autumn as many farming businesses grapple with falling profitability after a difficult summer.
Rent reviews triggered by the traditional Michaelmas date of 29 September would see reductions potentially implemented one year later.
Who’s up and who’s down?
On the up this week are the lawyers, after a curious spat over whether there is one or two official Hereford cattle breeds looks set for its day in court.
And feeling glum are those in favour of badger vaccination to combat bovine TB, after boffins in Wales said that evidence that operational vaccination programmes produce measurable reductions in cattle TB remains “limited and indirect”.
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 rent reviews, rural crime week, the crisis in pig profitability and new farming film Derek vs Derek.
You’ll find it anywhere you get your podcasts, or listen free on the FW website.