This Week in Farming: Politics, markets, kit and cows

Welcome to another edition of This Week in Farming, your regular round-up of all that is best from FWi over the past seven days.

First, here are your markets (opens as PDF).

Last week’s TWIF was written in the “warm afterglow” of the 2025 Farmers Weekly Awards. For those who were there, here is a chance to relive those moments with the gallery of photos from the night. Can you spot yourself? 

Meanwhile, here’s the News (plus some views)…

Politics a go-go 

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch promised that the Conservative Party conference in Manchester would be “fun”. 

There was certainly plenty to talk about, as shadow ministers declared a “food and farming emergency” at the event.

Sporting a Union Flag jacket, shadow Defra secretary Victoria Atkins blamed the crisis on Labour policies including changes to inheritance tax (IHT) and the abrupt closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

And former Defra secretary Michael Gove admitted for the first time that Tory trade deals with New Zealand and Australia had failed to protect UK farmers. 

In other political news, the Welsh Conservatives called in the Senedd for the new Sustainable Farming Scheme to be scrapped due to the expected loss of jobs and income.

However, Labour and Plaid Cymru members voted down the proposal. 

With party conference season over, all eyes turn to Westminster and next month’s Autumn Budget.

Rumours are building that there may be changes to the government’s IHT plans to soften the blow to family farms.

Up horn, down corn

Agricultural markets have danced to a now familiar tune, with the livestock sector enjoying more buoyant times and crop producers in the doldrums.

With cattle farmers still filling their sheds for winter, the store trade has been busy.

Demand is especially strong for animals that will finish quicker – maybe in time for Christmas.

It is less good news for wheat producers, with milling wheat premiums sliding in response to better quality. Details from Defra of another small harvest has done little to lift the feed wheat price either. 

Meanwhile, fertilisers seem more likely to firm as winter progresses. Hopefully there are lessons to learn from our recent roundtable discussion on protecting arable margins. 

All about the cows

Dairy farmers are still reeling from last week’s cuts. They will not have been impressed to see one dairy raising prices to consumers, while cutting prices to producers. 

As ever, Farmers Weekly has lots of content on how to manage milking herds to best effect.

For example, deputy Livestock editor Shirley Macmillan shares advice on how to dry off high-yielding cows, as well as explaining the best times to condition-score the dairy herd. 

Meanwhile, News and Livestock reporter Anne Dunn considers the benefits of feeding transition milk to calves.

Farmer Focus writer Eurig Jenkins seems to have been getting it right with his bulling heifers, which showed a 97% pregnancy rate at scanning, though the main herd was more like 91%.

Tractors, muckspreaders and UTVs

The FW Machinery team has been as busy as ever, keeping tabs on some new arrivals. 

Case IH has added to its heavy-duty Optum tractor line-up with a trio of higher horsepower models that top out at 435hp.

And Basingstoke-based feeding and bedding specialist RS Agri has broadened its offering with a range of complementary machines to dispose of soiled livestock litter. We put them to the test.

Meanwhile, “fizzier” performance is promised for the latest Can-Am Traxter UTV, thanks to an all-new Rotax engine.

As ever, expensive new kit is proving appealing to the crims in our society, with NFU Mutual warning of a spate of ATV thefts in Scotland, while providing tips to keep them safe.

Shout it from the rooftops

Farmers are often not short of an opinion or two, and Farmers Weekly is happy to give them a platform. Over the past seven days, we’ve heard from:

• Charlie Flindt, who shares some words of wisdom on dealing with tarmac gangs 
• Alasdair Boden, who ponders why misogyny still persists in farming
• Joy Bowes, who considers some of the lighter moments of animal husbandry 
• Will Evans, who ponders the work-life balance dilemma
• FW editor Andrew Meredith, who looks for chinks of light on the farming horizon, not least the issue of inheritance tax.

Listen to the FW podcast

Don’t forget to tune in to the Farmers Weekly podcast, with Johann Tasker, Louise Impey and Hugh Broom mulling over the week’s top news stories and latest market trends.

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