Livestock

Running a team of teaser rams with ewes before tupping has the potential to manipulate lambing date and shorten the lambing period, Hannah Noble reports on how to best manage and utilise teasers on-farm.

Tim May has made some big changes to the Kingsclere estate over the past decade, shifting from entirely arable to incorporate grassland and three livestock enterprises. Clemmie Gleeson finds out more.

Beef and lamb prices continue to be above those last year against a background of higher retail sales, the prospect of increasing foodservice sales and pressure on slaughter numbers.

Ultrasound scanning of calf lungs is a novel way of assessing for sub-clinical pneumonia, so that earlier treatment or a preventative program can be put in place.

Mure Grant, 20, is a sheep farmer’s son from Thurso, Caithness, and recently competed in Scotland’s young handlers section at the international sheepdog trials.

I have absolutely no objection to high animal welfare standards, but selling them as a magical business opportunity for UK farmers after Brexit is beyond laughable, says Norman Bagley, head of policy at the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS).

In Scotland, as in the rest of the UK, the Tories are preparing to sacrifice farmers on the Brexit altar by trying to prevent the Scottish Government from maintaining EU standards, says John Finnie, Green MSP for the Highlands and Islands.

With more than one million people backing food standards by signing the NFU petition to protect them in law, we may yet force the Government’s hand on this issue, says Tim Farron, agriculture spokesman for the Liberal Democrats.

Nine in ten farmers (87 per cent) do not know what their farm’s carbon footprint is, according to research by Lloyds Bank. 

Arla farmers are set to see a 0.63ppl price cut in July after the co-operative warned it was still feeling the effects of a demand shortage caused by the coronavirus lockdown.