Brexit

WHEN Minette Batters stood on the NFU conference platform last week and declared that throwing our world leading welfare standards on the funeral pyre of global trade would be ’morally bankrupt’ and ’insane’, she meant it as an admonishing challenge to Government, not as something to aspire to in wider policy construction.

Nearly half a billion pounds worth of livestock was sold through Scotland’s auction marts in 2019.

The Labour Party has warned offering lump sum payments to help older farmers retire will not necessarily give new entrants access to land, and may drive consolidation in the sector.

Scotland’s globally accredited high food standards ‘should not be sacrificed’ in order to secure non-EU trade deals, the Scottish Government has warned.

The Tenant Farmers’ Association (TFA) has called on the Chancellor to reject his adviser’s suggestion that the UK does not need farmers.

The Government’s immigration policy is xenophobic and does not consider the needs of Scottish farmers and crofters, says John Finnie, Green MSP for the Highlands and Islands.

Selling on the deadweight gives control to buyers, but if all slaughter stock was sold at auction, competition and prices would almost certainly increase, says Neil Farmer, an arable and sheep farmer from the Herefordshire-Worcestershire border.

NFU president Minette Batters has said her new top team’s priority will be to work on ‘getting Brexit right’.

The House of Lords will test the Government’s commitment to protecting standards in trade deals, with peers almost certain to add a new clause to the Agriculture Bill, says Bristol East Labour MP Kerry McCarthy.

Defra Secretary George Eustice was given a rough ride during his debut appearance as Secretary of State at NFU conference this week.