This Week in Farming: HLS uplift, vaccines and mini Masseys

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

First, the markets (opens as PDF) where there have been slips again in red meat prices – but happily for those in the market for fuel, diesel also continues to fall.

A reminder that we launched our new arable inputs prices table last week, which will be updated on a monthly basis.

Now, on with the show.

Payment uplift for HLS

Some cheer for English farmers in the HLS scheme as Defra finally unveiled the promised increased payment rates for various scheme options, albeit lower than the equivalent options in Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

Speaking of SFI, the Tenant Farmers Association lost an appeal this week to widen the number of farmers eligible to get their applications in.

And fears are growing about the overall future budget for farming as we close in on the results of the government’s spending review, which looks set to impose deep spending cuts across many departments.

While this will ostensibly only set Defra’s budget for English farmers, it will have a ripple effect on what is allocated to the rest of the UK too.

Trust the ‘Tractor’

Red Tractor has said Alistair Mackintosh will stay on as chairman of its ownership body, Assured Food Standards, after previously occupying the role in an interim capacity.

Mr Mackintosh spoke to chief reporter Phil Case this week to set out his priorities including rebuilding farmer trust in the organisation.

One farmer who says the inspection body has ruffled his feathers is broiler grower Paul Stephens.

He says Red Tractor has turned into a “dictatorial quango” as he continues to resist efforts to divide his business into two separate units for auditing purposes.

Dairy Update

It’s the turn of our (mostly) monthly splurge of dairy content under the Dairy Update banner in the magazine, with something for herds of all types:

• Advice on parlour maintenance for expanding herds
• How passive transfer testing gives calves a good start
• How spring block calver uses nurse cows to rear replacements
• What farmers can gain from a vet discussion group.

Jaguar skills

A few warranty protected youngsters or a bigger selection of well-worked veterans?

Machinery writer James Andrews spoke to Haverfordwest contractor Neil Jones to find out why he’s plumped for the latter in his fleet of self-propelled foragers in this week’s magazine cover story.

At the other end of the size spectrum, Massey Ferguson has unveiled its latest compact tractors, with a 20hp and 25hp model.

Who’s up and who’s down?

On the up this week is Ragley Estate farm manager Andrew Keyte, whose optimism and willingness to try new things came across in this interesting piece on his experiments with niche crops on a huge variety of soil types.

Feeling up, down, and generally out of kilter this week are many farmers’ vaccine storage facilties, according to drug manufacturer MSD.

They’re advising farmers in England to take advantage of the now-open Farming Equipment and Technology Fund, which includes part-funding for specialist vaccine fridges.

Listen to the podcast

Don’t forget to tune in to the Farmers Weekly podcast, with Johann Tasker, Louise Impey and Hugh Broom. 

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