Farm Business

A silent cull is taking place on UK poultry breeder farms due to the ongoing labour crisis, chair of the British Poultry Council Graeme Dear has warned.

A ‘silent cull’ is taking place on UK poultry breeder farms due to the ongoing labour crisis, chair of the British Poultry Council Graeme Dear has warned.

A lack of suitable abattoirs is one of the top three greatest barriers to growth for farmers and smallholders selling rare and native breed products.

The case for a network of local abattoirs has been well made, including in a recent report by The Prince’s Countryside Fund, but it may not be a realistic proposition, according to a retail butcher.

As world leaders gathered in Glasgow this week for the COP26 climate summit, the irony of their collective carbon footprint was lost on no one.

An extra 12,000 tonnes of Australian beef could be heading to the UK as part of the Australia-UK trade deal but the impact could largely be offset by reduced EU imports, according to calculations by AHDB. By Cedric Porter

Farm groups have urged Ministers not to put UK producers at a competitive disadvantage, after trade partner Australia refused to sign up to a global pledge to cut methane emissions by 30 per cent over the next nine years.

Lea Valley Growers Association said over half its members have decided it was not worth the risk to plant with no guarantee they could attract the labour they needed

A Conservative peer has said her colleagues in the party believe the Governments effective ban on autumn applications of organic fertiliser is politically driven.

A Conservative peer has said her colleagues in the party believe the Government’s effective ban on autumn applications of organic fertiliser is ‘politically driven’.