Running two dairy herds and a commercial property enterprise, Mike King has an efficient business, operating at a high level, but it was not always this way

As a dairy farmer I am very familiar with the extreme highs and lows the market throws at us, and the enormous pressures experienced by businesses like my own during downturns

Once conditions dry out, many farmers will start to think about over-seeding their pastures to improve health and productivity of grassland

Despite the increasing prominence of automated milking systems on dairy farms in the UK, some dairy farmers are opposed to housing cows all-year-round

Well it's wet. I can only hope by the time you read this it's dry, or we're all in trouble

In Somerset, spring is trying to show its face between the rain showers. The warmer weather that we enjoyed recently gave us good growth rates of 34kg of dry matter/hectare per day

After weakening through March, commodity prices are showing some tentative signs of improvement with butter jumping from the €5,500 (£4,719) zone to as high as €5,950 (£5,106) for some trades

Farmers and growers are getting increasingly frustrated and concerned over the wet spring, which is on track to be one of the wettest in living memory, and if the situation does not change for the better soon, the inflationary repercussions will surely be felt later this year

So my time on Defra's Bovine TB Partnership has unexpectedly come to an end. My three-year term ended and was disappointingly, for me, not extended

In his latest article, New Zealand vet Rory Dean, discusses how his client's herds are performing in terms of fertility, looks at some of the disease risks he is faced with, and also discusses his practices current recruitment drive