This Week in Farming: Farming Roadmap, FW Awards and harvest

Welcome back to This Week in Farming, your one-stop shop of the best Farmers Weekly content from the past seven days.

First, here are your markets (opens as PDF). Whisper it, but beef has edged up a touch.

Now, on with the show.

Road to nowhere

There wasn’t much pomp and ceremony as Defra published its Farming Roadmap, a plan for the next 25 years of agriculture in England, with a ceremony in Epping Forest cancelled due to the ferocious heat.

Nor did it deserve much given the lukewarm reception from all corners. In my editorial this week I compare it to coleslaw at a barbecue – a dish without much capacity to change things.

In other farm policy news, Keir Starmer’s departure has stalled talks on the EU dynamic alignment deal, we’ve had the first sign of what a Plaid Cymru government will mean for agriculture in Wales and nature payments have started rolling in Northern Ireland.

Harvest 2026

Combine spotters have had their first (non-crimping) sight of the season as the earliest-ever barley harvest gets under way in Suffolk.

Meanwhile, Farmer Focus writer Keith Challen is ready to roll in Leicestershire after getting his combine thoroughly serviced ahead of its sixth year of work.

Top of the blocks

This month’s Dairy Update focuses on block calving, with deputy livestock editor Shirley Macmillan visiting Warwickshire farming brothers Jonathan and Alistair Hughes who run an organic herd of 650 crossbred cows.

Read how they’ve cut their calving spread from 16 weeks to 9.5 – without resorting to hormones, buying in replacements or culling cows.

Meanwhile, Gwynedd father-and-son team Tomos and Ifan Ifans have battled back against an expanding workload brought about by herd expansion by using cow collars to save 150 hours of labour in breeding season.

Muck to money (saving)

More cows inevitably means more slurry, which for some is a challenge and others an opportunity – especially with the price of bagged nitrogen.

Machinery editor Oli Mark went to Northern Ireland to find out why County Down-based BH Estates have spent £700,000 on a centrifuge – a first-of-its-kind piece of kit in the UK – will help farmers make better use of the nitrogen and phosphate in slurry.

And in the realm of more familiar machinery, we run the rule over the first refresh of the Manitou MLT telehandler series since its launch in 2017.

Who’s up and who’s down?

On the up this week are all our brilliant finalists for the 2026 Farmers Weekly Awards.

Full profiles of all the shortlisted candidates will start trickling out in a few weeks, and if you want to come and experience the glitz and glamour of farming’s biggest night for yourself then you can book a table.

Some of the shareholders of Farmers Fresh are feeling glum as profits at the firm have plunged. One of their processing sites has been shut and directors (two of whom have resigned) were reportedly unable to answer their questions at the recent AGM.

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 hear NFU president Tom Bradshaw’s verdict on the Farming Roadmap, as well as Defra’s recent TB strategy update, 

And you can hear from Cheffins chairman Bill King on how 10 years of Brexit has changed the second-hand farm machinery market.

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