This Week in Farming: IHT, stewardship and pests
© Tim Scrivener Welcome back to another edition of This Week in Farming, your one-stop shop for the best Farmers Weekly content from the past seven days.
First, here are your markets (opens as PDF). The milling premium over feed continues to shrink, and barley prices have fallen sharply on the week.
Now, on with the show.
Inheritance tax latest
There will be no farmer-friendly changes to the proposals to amend inheritance tax, the farming minister has said.
In news that came too late for this week’s magazine, Angela Eagle told the BBC Farming Today programme on Friday (17 October) the Treasury would look to push the changes through as announced at last year’s Budget.
Countryside Stewardship
After months of lobbying, Defra has granted 5,500 English participants in Countryside Stewardship a one-year extension to their contracts at a cost of some £70m.
The fact we had chosen to run a piece this week looking at how farmers had successfully returned stewardship land to arable cropping is emblematic of how late in the day this decision has come.
I tackle that topic, and the Velcourt news that’s been reverberating around the arable sector, in my editorial this week.
Top of the chops
Claas has now formally pulled the wraps off the Jaguar 1200, its new flagship forage harvester, and we spoke to a contractor who’s been using it all season ahead of the launch.
The move sees the German manufacturer join rivals John Deere and Krone in the 1,000hp harvester club.
Elsewhere in machinery this week, contractor Matt Brewster is the latest interviewee for What’s in Your Shed? as he talks us through 17 years of machinery decisions great and small.
Pest pressure
Mild and gentle weather continues to offer ideal establishment conditions for many arable farmers, but the same weather is also pleasant for pests in crops that are up and way, which is troubling this week’s Crop Watch agronomists.
Arable Farmer Focus writer Robin Aird is set to monitor conditions with sticky traps, and is a little concerned about reports of limited supplies of pre-emergence staple flufenacet.
Some growers will be looking at forward crops this season and wishing for an old-fashioned method of control: sheep. Here’s a guide to get the integration started.
Who’s up and who’s down?
On the up this week is meat processor Pilgrim’s Europe, which has seen profit after tax of £128.4m for 2024, up by 20% on the year.
The company is owned by Brazilian firm JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker.
But commiserations this week to staff and owners of UK sprayer manufacturer Chafer, which has reported financial difficulty by filing a notice of intention to appoint administrators.
Listen to the podcast
Don’t forget to tune in to the Farmers Weekly podcast, with Johann Tasker, Louise Impey and Hugh Broom.
This week, the team discuss the Advertising Standards Agency’s spat with Red Tractor, and give their take on the state of the arable sector after the recent Velcourt and Countryside Stewardship news.
You’ll find it anywhere you listen to podcasts, or listen free on the FW website.