Arable

North East MSP Mike Rumbles has called for changes to be made to the Scottish Agriculture Bill to limit Ministers’ power over future policy.

As I write, it feels like the calm before the storm. Usually around this time we would be flat out with T2’s on wheat, but that will not take long this year and we are now playing a waiting game for the spring cereals.

NFU Cymru president John Davies has called on the Welsh Government to pause and review its work on post-Brexit policy as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

A physiotherapy career is not a natural precursor to farming, but Hannah Darby has brought insights from outside agriculture back to the family farm. Chloe Dunne reports.

At the beginning of the month a wise farmer told me if there is no rain in the first week of May then there will be none for the rest of the month. After a brief interlude of 8mm rain last Sunday he has not been far wrong.

Concerns about the continuing spell of dry weather are circulating the industry, with arable farmers reporting cases of patchy crop emergence and compromised yields across swathes of the UK.

Around half of Welsh farmers who applied for Glastir payments for 2019 commitments were still waiting for their money at the start of May, prompting concern about how the planned post-Brexit scheme will function.

The Scottish Agriculture Bill needs a sunset clause to stop Ministers being able to change policy without scrutiny over the coming decades, says Mike Rumbles, MSP for the North East of Scotland.