Livestock

A top price of 1,670 was achieved at the Hampshire Down Sheep Breeders Association premier breeders online timed auction hosted by Harrison and Hetherington.

The Government has announced the launch of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with two of the world’s largest sheepmeat exporters, sparking concern that the UK’s domestic sheep market could be severely undermined.

The US’s largest beef processors have been ordered to provide information in relation to anti-competitive practices during the pandemic.

With the 2020 show season cancelled as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have launched a competition which will give you the chance to showcase your stock this year.

In February, a key Government adviser was telling Ministers UK food production is not critically important. Let’s hope the pandemic has shown our trade negotiators the opposite is true, says Neil Farmer, an arable and sheep farmer from the Herefordshire-Worcestershire border.

Many fear nature restoration represents a threat to farming communities in the uplands, but nothing could be further from the truth. ‘Wilder farming’ is a better way to describe the changes needed than ‘rewilding’, says Defra non-executive director Ben Goldsmith.

The UK Government has so far shown it does not care about protecting our standards, but Ministers can fix their betrayal of farmers by banning low-standard imports in the Trade Bill, says Deidre Brock, SNP food and rural affairs spokesperson.

Trade Ministers are trying to build bridges with farmers, but without legal guarantees to protect our standards, their efforts will not be enough, says Mark Bridgeman, president of the CLA.

A petition calling on Government to put laws in place to prevent UK food standards being undermined by future imports has received more than one million signatures.

The ‘vast majority’ of farms in England will survive the withdrawal of direct payments, Defra’s director general for food and farming, David Kennedy, has said.