Former Liberal Democrat Leader and candidate for Westmorland and Lonsdale Tim Farron has slammed the Tory and Labour attitude to farming in his opinion piece for Farmers Guardian

The grass might have been slow at growing this spring, but with the warm May weather, lambs have soon bounced back and trade for outfits of sheep and lambs to go out to grass has remained high, says Kyle Hawksworth

Dan Hawes grew up on an arable farm in Suffolk and now produces strawberry and raspberry plants for the UK fruit market with Blaise Plants, sister company to Hugh Lowe Farms, Kent. The business grows outside, under tunnels and in glasshouses and produces more than four million plants a year. The arable side includes environmental schemes, with a mix of wheat, oilseed rape, beans and barley crops.

Alan Carter farms in partnership with his parents, Paul and Christine, on a 162 hectare (400-acre), 400-cow dairy unit at Constantine, Cornwall, with 130 milking cows, supplying Saputo. Alan, also a Parish Councillor, and his wife Sarah, have two children, Ross and Dana

This week from Farmers Guardian's editor Olivia Midgley

Dan Jones farms 650 ewes at the National Trust-owned Parc Farm, which sits on the Great Orme, a limestone headland which rises up 208 metres (682 feet) on the North Wales coast near Llandudno. His Farm Business Tenancy covers the 58 hectares (143 acres) at Parc Farm, plus 364ha (900 acres) of grazing rights on the hill

James and Isobel, with their two young children, recently bought their first farm, and plan to run beef and sheep over 13.8 hectares (34 acres), renting a further 44.5ha (110 acres). James works for tech firm Breedr as a product manager. You can follow them on Twitter @jpbwfarm.

Anglia Ruskin University will host 65 schools from across Essex to teach children about local farming, the challenges in agriculture and where their food comes from

Will Evans reckons the ‘perfect’ Kerry Hill has yet to be born and he is making it his mission to breed that animal. Debbie James reports