Arable

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.

In response to withdrawal of the multisite fungicide, chlorothalonil on May 20, the Fungicide Resistance Action Group (FRAG) has updated its fungicide resistance stewardship advice.

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.

In promising to uphold the UK’s high food production standards, but refusing to explain how, the Government has displayed a failure of imagination on post-Brexit trade policy, says Tom Lancaster, acting head of land, seas and climate policy at the RSPB.

Banning imports is an impractical and probably illegal idea which was always doomed to fail, but there are other ways to protect our domestic food standards, says Cambridgeshire Fens farmer Tom Clarke.

The NFU has urged farmers to submit their 2020 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) applications ahead of the June 15 deadline to ease pressure on the Rural Payments Agency.

A North-West police force has fined a young farmer caught talking on his mobile phone while driving a tractor and rake. 

Targeting oilseed rape crops on more fertile fields and more extensive use of manures could help crops better cope with the challenges of cabbage stem flea beetle, says Suffolk farm manager, Simon Eddell.