Livestock

With an eye on expanding cow numbers in the next couple of years, the Darke family decided to replace robots with a rotary parlour. Rebecca Jordan visits them to find out how the new system is working.

There was a positive atmosphere at UK marts despite the threat of Brexit

Bird flu has become an increasing concern around the world, leading to hundreds of thousands of birds being culled.

With direct payments on their way out, farmers should consider rewilding on marginal land to boost the income they make from food production, says Dr Stephanie Wray, director of RSK Wilding.

The PM must negotiate a three to six-month adjustment period as part of any EU trade deal, so farmers have time to prepare for the new relationship, says Mike Rumbles, North East Scotland MSP.

With BPS on the way out, and Defra not yet ready to offer support which fills the gap, farmers must take steps now to survive the Brexit transition, says Dr Julia Aglionby, executive director at the FCL and chairwoman of the Uplands Alliance.

In the 80s, Thatcherism tore the heart out of British manufacturing, with long-term social consequences. We cannot let the same thing happen now to English farming, says Labour Shadow Defra Minister Daniel Zeichner.

A new market record was set at the Christmas primestock show and sale at Darlington.

Farmers have hit out at the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) Sixth Carbon Budget report which lumps eating red meat and dairy in with air travel and gas boilers as the highest global emitters of C02.

In an increasingly competitive environment for research funding, directors at the Moredun Research Institute raised concerns around future access to Scottish Government funding in a recent press briefing.