This Week in Farming: Trade, tenancies and big tractors

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

First, here’s the markets (opens as PDF). Red diesel is down the best part of a penny on the week, while prices of most grains and meat hold steady.

Now, on with the show.

UK-US trade deal

Analysts are digesting the available details of the trade deal unveiled this week by US president Donald Trump and UK prime minister Keir Starmer.

The 13,000t tariff-free quota for beef to travel in each direction has caught the eye of farmers.

There’s been no change on the hormone beef ban, so US product will need certifying in some way that it is hormone-free.

News editor Phil Clarke has the details on what we know so far on beef, ethanol and more.

Next week’s visit to the UK by US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins should generate a few more headlines, as she looks to trumpet the safety and quality of American-produced goods to British consumers.

Here, Ms Rollins comments on her forthcoming visit to the UK from the Oval Office (link opens in Instagram).

Environmental farm business tenancies

If the Crown Estate and the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) have their way, we could be closing in on a major change to the structure of tenancies.

After a long period of joint development, the landowner and the lobbying group came together last week at a TFA conference in Windsor to unveil their environmental farm business tenency (eFBT). 

They say it is better placed to grapple with the reality of modern agriculture than a normal FBT.

Business editor Suzie Horne went along to find out the details on eFBTs, and in my editorial this week, I mull the likelihood of whether the eFBT will be taken up more widely.

Is it too dry?

It’s now officially the driest spring since 1961, and folk are increasingly searching their weather apps for signs of rain.

On the upside, there’s less in the way of crop disease than some years, as agronomists advise flexibility in planning for the upcoming T2 sprays.

Of course, it’s a mixed picture nationally and, as always, our regional agronomists have tailored advice depending on your location. Read this week’s Crop Watch bulletin here.

Workshop legends

In the latest instalment of the Machinery team’s occasional Workshop Legends series, freelancer Nick Fone meets the articulated tractor king, John Nicholson.

With expertise on everything from American prairie monsters to mysterious machines from behind the Iron Curtain, this is a fascinating insight into the career of an engineer at the top of his game.

Elsewhere in machinery this week, we’ve got all the details on Izusu’s first fully electric pickup, and Massey Ferguson has unveiled a twin-chamber conventional baler. Hopefully, it won’t be double the trouble.

Who’s up and who’s down?

On the up this week is Welsh hill farmer Katie Davies, who has been named Farming Woman of the Year at the National Women in Agriculture Awards. 

Feeling more glum will be some of Powys County Council’s farm tenants, after one of the region’s MPs revealed they face eviction after bureaucrats put part of their agricultural estate up for sale to meet a funding shortfall.

Listen to the podcast

Don’t forget to tune in to the FW Podcast, with Johann Tasker, Louise Impey and Hugh Broom. This week, Johann and Louise filed a report from our Transition Live event.

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