This Week in Farming: Welsh SFS, a castle and a Spartan
© MAG/Oliver Mark Welcome back to another edition of This Week in Farming, the best content from Farmers Weekly in the past seven days.
First, here’s your markets (opens as PDF). It’s been another week of gains for rapeseed, even as other arable markets mostly drift sideways, with beef also edging upwards.
Now, on with the show.
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Sustainable Farming Scheme latest
Whether they’re heading to the Royal Welsh or sat in a tractor cab, there’s much to ponder for Cymru-based farmers following a major update on the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) from cabinet secretary Huw Irranca-Davies this week.
It will open for applications from March next year, with farmers now facing a choice between getting involved or swallowing a 40% cut to their BPS cheque, prompting Conservative members of the Senedd to call for a final vote on the SFS.
In my editorial this week I note that Mr Irranca-Davies’ tactics appear to be a canny blend of carrot and stick, and he is likely feeling relatively pleased with his performance so far.
In other Welsh news, there have been some tweaks to the controversial bluetongue border rules which will see English livestock permitted to travel to Welsh markets providing their onward destination is slaughter.
Defend the North
If you have several million pounds and are worried by how porous the English border is with Scotland, then step right this way.
Willimoteswick Castle sits within a ring-fenced 463-acre Northumberland holding and is on the market for £4.4m. It’s just one of several properties featured in this week’s selection of launches, but perhaps the only one that has a reasonable chance of defending against cattle rustlers.
We also have a brace of fresh advice pieces for rural landlords and developers, with the first looking at the changes to energy efficiency standards in England and Wales, while the second delves into planning conditions – a critical topic on the road to consent.
Arable: The next generation
There’s fresh thinking aplenty in this week’s arable section, with this cheerful piece profiling two farmers who have made a second career in agriculture after first working in completely different sectors – great to see their ambition and drive.
Then we’ve got two more on the outlook for varieties – first in the short term, with this analysis from arable editor Richard Allison on Sprinter, a new wheat option for late drillers which is a cross between a winter and a spring variety.
Then, in the longer term, this in-depth look at how gene editing will muscle its way into the mainstream, along with biological seed treatments, shaking up the way crops are bred and cared for.
Wallet-zapping electric
Another week, another selection of costly electric vehicles arrive on the scene.
First up, the convoluted-but-fascinating origin story of Spartan (involving Russians, Czechs and Indians) has culminated in a vehicle that is three parts Mercedes G-Wagon to one part Suzuki Jimny, according to machinery editor Oli Mark.
And a much more well-known brand has also had a recent product launch: Fendt. They’ve slapped a £200,000 price tag on the 75hp e107S Vario, their first full-size plug-in electric tractor, which is now on sale in the UK.
And in other machinery stories, check out how an innovative contractor turned parts from a fire-ravaged Kuhn baler into a front-mounted unit to shorten grass chop length for the forage wagon behind.
Who’s up and who’s down?
Going up and down in a few years will be crowds of screaming punters at a new Universal Studios theme park in Bedfordshire, and diversified farmers in the area are already planning how to cash in.
Feeling rather more down this week is NFU deputy president David Exwood, after learning of broadcaster Chris Packham’s latest attack on the sheep industry. He, and other members, hit back over Mr Packham’s claims.
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.