By unlocking the export potential China offers the pig industry, not to mention the red meat sector as a whole, we could gain entry into a marketplace which comprises a fifth of the world’s population.Agriculture in the national news - July 1
A DAILY look at how agriculture has caught the headlines across the country (Thursday, July 1).
Tenant representatives enjoy positive Ministerial meeting
Politicians framing new laws affecting agriculture should realise that not all farmers are owner-occupiers – and rules governing tenancy arrangements are often complex and need understanding.
That was the message delivered when the Tenant Farmers’ Association’s national chairman, Greg Bliss, national vice-chairman, Stephen Wyrill and chief executive, George Dunn met Defra Secretary of State Caroline Spelman and Farming Minister, Jim Paice in London.
Study links bee decline to cell phones
A new study has suggested that cell phone radiation may be contributing to declines in bee populations in some areas of the world.
Bee populations dropped 17 percent in the UK last year, according to the British Bee Association, and nearly 30 percent in the United States says the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/30/bee.decline.mobile.phones/?fbid=hrEtvUyb6js
Call on the Government to scrap wages board
Farmers are unhappy about the latest rise in agricultural wages — and the NFU has now called for the scrapping of the Agricultural Wages Board.
It has called on the Coalition Government to abolish the Board as soon as possible.
Following negotiations, the Board has recommended that minimum hourly pay for Grade 2 standard rate and above, increase by 2.8 per cent from October 1, from £6.40 per hour, to £6.58.
This is Devon
http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/farming/Government-scrap-wages-board/article-2359380-detail/article.html
US sowings ‘curve ball’ sends corn price soaring
Corn jumped 10% in Chicago, dragging wheat 8% higher, after US officials threw “a curve ball” by slashing its estimate for sowings of the grain by nearly 1m acres – rather the increasing it as investors had expected.
American farmers planted 87.9m acres of a corn, the US Department of Agriculture said, a figure which, while higher than last year’s sowings, fell 1.3m acres short of market expectations.
Agrimoney
http://www.agrimoney.com/news/us-sowings-curve-ball-sends-corn-price-soaring—1926.html
Pay organic farmers to grow food, the same as green energy groups are subsidised
ORGANIC farmers and consumers should be given financial incentives akin to those used to promote renewable energy, it was claimed yesterday.
Patrick Holden, director of The Soil Association, said he would like to see governments at Westminster and Cardiff reward farmers and consumers for their efforts to protect the environment because it can cost them more to do so.
NFU calls for coalition in bid to reduce on-farm deaths
The NFU is to call for an industry coalition on health and safety after new figures revealed agriculture has the highest fatality rate of any industrial sector.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) chairman, Judith Hackitt, addressed the NFU Council yesterday ahead of the release of the annual provisional workplace fatality statistics. These will show that there are around 45 deaths on farms every year.
FoodBev
http://www.foodbev.com/news/nfu-calls-for-coalition-in-bid-to-reduce-on-farm-deaths
Much A Moo About Nothing: Cows boost milk production after listening to Shakespeare
Farm workers have boosted the milk production of a herd – by staging private performances of Shakespeare for the bovine audience.
The herd increased production by four per cent after a theatre company rehearsed scenes penned by the bard.
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