Arable

Achieving a balance between productive farming and providing a habitat for our once common farmland birds is not for the faint hearted. Gaina Morgan meets Ian Gray to find out more about how he and his partner,

Despite Government’s recent introduction of tougher measures to enforce the Covid-19 lockdown, farmers across the country have continued to report an influx of visitors flouting the rules.

Farming groups have warned against plans to cut the use of synthetic pesticides by 80 per cent by 2030 and to phase out their use completely by 2035.

Across continental Europe, severe frosts have impacted rapeseed crops across France, Poland and Germany.

A nationwide recruitment campaign to help produce, manufacture and deliver food to meet increasing consumer demand amid the coronavirus pandemic has been launched by the agricultural industry.  

Although it welcomes the news that Biscaya (thiacloprid) has received Emergency Use Approval for sugar beet in England this season for control of aphids that spread virus yellows, Bayer has admitted to supply concerns.

It is not just shoppers who are stockpiling in the face of coronavirus, with countries holding back grain to keep for their own food supplies, helping push up UK grain prices.

Although not always a popular cropping option in recent years, oats could see a consistent rise in acreage and a return to popularity amongst UK growers, thanks to several factors now in the crop’s favour. Farmers Guardian reports.

Ryan Coates, 27, runs Newtoncroft Farms, alongside his father Brian and uncle Martin in Newton Harcourt, Leicestershire. He is Leicestershire Young Farmers’ Club county chairman, vice-chairman of Midlands and East Anglia Hereford Breeders’ Association and a member of UK Hereford Youth.