This Week in Farming: Trump, grain and recruitment

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

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

There’s been some softening of red meat prices in the live ring this week, but arable markets continue to look becalmed, except for a couple of quid coming off the milling wheat premium.

All very dull apart from the straw market – a link to a story on that near the end.

Now, on with the show.

Inheritance tax latest

Credit to the farmer who teed up GB News to ask US president Donald Trump an inheritance tax (IHT) question that left the prime minister squirming on Monday.

We’ve got the latest response to his comments, including clarification on what the US equivalent tax position is for our farming friends stateside.

Meanwhile farmers in the UK continue to gear up for more protests against the proposed change to IHT.

And business editor Suzie Horne delves into the detail of heritage relief – a mitigation that remains standing that some may benefit from.

Recruitment done right

Attracting talent and getting the best out of a team are frequently among farming’s biggest headaches.

The livestock team have tackled the issue head-on this week with a close look at the topic from a dairy perspective.

This discussion on when to hire a second-in-command is sure to resonate with many looking to grow their business, while attitude being a barrier to the use of adequate calf pain relief when treating sick animals (and many things beside – as I opine in my editorial) will give some pause for thought.

Come back next week for two more pieces on the topic.

Elsewhere in livestock this week, we have an article on Cornish sheep farmer Dave Rendle, who has seen pleasing year-on-year improvements in his autumn-lambing Poll Dorset flock after embracing the use of estimated breeding values.

The pain in grain

Harvest has stuttered along this week amid the showers, even as many have had their first nibble of wheat, with soil type and location giving even wider yield ranges than normal after the dry spring and summer.

New arable reporter Lois King went to Berkshire’s Benham Estate to find crops hitting spec but yields down 35% on their light land against the five-year average.

Machinery editor Oli Mark caught up with Northumberland contractor JO Straughan, which has seen decent winter cereal yields further north, but gave the lowdown on a costly big baler breakdown.

And we’ve launched this year’s version of our map listing the top five best-yielding winter oilseed rape varieties, which will continue to be updated through the season as more data comes in.

Welsh subsidy spat

A spat over whether non-active farmers should be eligible to receive money from the public purse simply for having the right to turn out to common land has divided Welsh farming organisations.

Some graziers’ organisations have claimed this will lead to a continuation of the current situation, where wealthy entitlement holders receive public money for “doing nothing”, while NFU Cymru and the Farmers’ Union of Wales were more cautious.

In other Welsh news, the Senedd’s public accounts committee has strongly criticised the purchase of Gilestone Farm in the Brecon Beacons by the Welsh government in 2022, to help secure a local music and arts festival.

Who’s up and who’s down?

On the up this week to the dismay of livestock farmers, and the pleasure of arable farmers, is the price of straw as widespread thin crops continue to yield very few bales to the hectare.

Feeling glum are insurance firms and farmers who cover and own a Toyota Hilux, as industry data reveal them to be the most stolen newer vehicle in the UK.

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.