This Week in Farming: Bluetongue, drilling and pushing grass

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), including those wheat price rises that have been driving conversation this week.

We’ve also got this month’s exclusive arable ag-chem price tracker data.

Now, on with the show.

Bluetongue latest

More than 2,000 farms are now waiting for bluetongue blood test results as the midge-borne disease continues its spread in the South-West and elsewhere.

Industry leaders are urging farmers to place orders for vaccine even as supplies remain scarce to help spur drugmakers into manufacturing more product alongside the existing work to shift supplies from warehouses in the EU to the UK.

We’ve got the latest advice for farmers as cases climb alongside the experience of two sheep farmers in the South West – one of whom vaccinated in time and one who didn’t. Thanks to both of them for sharing their stories.

Finally, if you or anyone you know has been driven into a difficult financial situation by the impact of bluetongue and/or the drought, then the Addington Fund have now started issuing emergency grants to help.

Drought latest

We’ve spent some of this week probing the details on Defra’s £65m drought package for English farmers, after it was announced last weekend.

The department told us its approach is to provide practical help while investing in longer-term resilience, rather than returning to direct subsidy-style payments. That’s code for no cash without strings attached. 

In my editorial this week I find hope in the prime minister’s assertion that the package, while relatively small and non-targeted, is only the beginning.

To drill or not to drill?

The fortunes of farmers in different parts of GB have differed this week, with plenty of moisture (and still some harvesting) to do in Scotland, while varying amounts of rain have fallen on England and Wales.

We’ve got the latest advice on weed management depending on your area, as well as another piece specifically looking at when the right time to drill oilseed rape is to give it the best chance of getting away.

One pest that wasn’t on the radar of Herefordshire farmer Ally Hunter-Blair was the beet army worm – he spoke to deputy arable editor Emma Gillbard about how it has all but destroyed his crop of sugar beet.

And finally, an upbeat piece from Farmer Focus contributor William de Feyter about how teamwork in his arable area helped him secure straw at short notice for his pigs when supplies ran low.

Pushing power

In the battle of the loading shovels, it doesn’t get much bigger than the Volvo L70H. We spoke to a driver who has spent a season pushing grass with it to see how it compared to a JCB equivalent.

And it’s the return this week of our annual buyers guide’s for ATV’s, UTV’s and pickups – packed with prices and specs for more models than you can shake a stick at.

Who’s up and who’s down?

On the up this week is relatively new NFU director general Sophie Throup, who spoke to chief reporter Phil Case about her mission to make organisation’s value so obvious that farmers ask themselves: “Why would I not be a member?”

And let’s have a second cheery one this week with everything else that’s going on.

Also on the up is King Charles who’s been out to see a fine herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle at Ballindalloch Castle in Banffshire to mark the breed society’s 150th herd book.

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 bluetongue, reservoirs and ask who should pay for regen farming?

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