uplands

Defra announces rate increase to reward nature-friendly farming

The NFU said that with no legislative target for food production, it was the ‘poor relation' in negotiations and believed the Government was wrong to assume farm productivity levels would compensate for the loss of agricultural land

Government says plans to redefine 'deep peat' will protect human health and environment

Dan farms 650 ewes at the National Trust-owned Parc Farm on the Great Orme, a limestone headland which rises up 208 metres (682 feet) on the North Wales coast near Llandudno

Anyone not currently on Natural England's shortlist will have to 'wait until later in the year' for guidance on how to access the scheme

In today's Farming in Five, chief reporter Rachael Brown reports on the latest from the fallout of the Sustainable Farming Incentive closure. Defra is under scrutiny over its failure to give farmers' notice as the industry questions whether all the budget has been spent. She also looks ahead to next week, a special podcast on Donald Trump, tariffs and what this means for machinery markets and UK farming going forward and the livestock team are heading to Borderway UK Dairy Expo at Carlisle this week, the first dairy show of the year

NFU president Tom Bradshaw to say there is ‘so much more to do' and there is still time for this Government to 'reset its relationship with farming and rural Britain'

David Morley, of H&H Land and Estates said with a dwindling Basic Payment Scheme and no means of making up this lost income, it was farmers who have demonstrated a ‘long-term commitment to delivering environmental enhancement who are being unfairly penalised'

New analysis shows hill farmers are only receiving 8% or £39m of the Government's new farming support scheme, the Sustainable Farming Incentive, despite the uplands occupying ‘around 15% of England's area'

The NFU has expressed ‘extreme concern' to reports the scheme is now unlikely to open until mid-2025