Farming Category
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Avian flu outbreak in Yorkshire
Defra has announced that a case of avian flu has been confirmed on a duck breeding farm in Yorkshire. Immediate action has been taken, including introducing a 10km restriction zone and culling all poultry on the farm to prevent any potential spread of infection. Poultry farmers are reminded that some strains of avian influenza cause a notifiable disease so if they suspect any strain of avian influenza they must inform their nearest Animal and Plant and ...
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New £97m supercomputer for Met Office
Government plans for a new £97 million Met Office supercomputer mean forecast updates will be available every hour, with higher detail weather information for precise geographical areas. The world-leading High Performance Computer will help the UK to predict disruptive weather events such as flooding, strong winds, fog and heavy snowfall more effectively. It will also open up the potential for higher resolution models, which will have the ability to pinpoint more detail for small scale, high-impact ...
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Help stop the quagga mussel threat
Anyone who uses lakes and rivers is being urged to help slow the spread of an invasive mussel recorded in the UK for the first time this month. The quagga mussel, first spotted by Environment Agency teams carrying out water quality testing on the River Wraysbury, has now been confirmed in nine locations in the south east. To slow the spread of the species, anglers, sailors and others should use the "check, clean, dry" approach by thoroughly ...
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Badger culls resume
Natural England has today confirmed that all the criteria have been met to allow the second of four years of badger culling to start in west Gloucestershire and west Somerset, to prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis. Operations in these areas where bovine TB is rife will be carried out under the existing four-year licences which allow six weeks of culling to take place every year between 1st June and 31st January. Start dates for culling ...
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Fears calmed over Russian food import ban
The news that Russia has imposed a ban on food imports from the EU, US and a number of other countries, as a result of tensions over the Ukraine, should not alarm British producers. According to a government spokesman, ministers are still considering the impacts of the ban but do not expect it to have a significant overall effect on our agricultural industry. Apparently, the affected agricultural exports to Russia account for just 0.2% of the UK's ...
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New measures to strengthen bovine TB controls
In a new consultation, the Government is proposing further measures to strengthen the UK's bovine TB cattle controls, as follows: The removal of pre-movement exemptions for cattle moving between several holdings under the same farm ownership, known as Sole Occupancy Authorities. This will remove the possibility of some cattle keepers in the high risk and edge areas moving their animals over long distances without any TB testing. There will still be the ability to move cattle ...
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Cash to promote and inform on EU agricultural produce
Trade organisations representing UK agricultural sectors have a fresh chance to apply to the Rural Payments Agency for EU funding towards promotion and information programmes for agricultural products. Producers of one or more of the products listed below can apply for up to half the cost of marketing their goods abroad in a scheme designed to raise awareness and increase sales of EU food products. The application process for the two schemes, one for internal markets (EU ...
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Rural Payments Agency looking for new people
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is looking for new people to join the Independent Agricultural Appeals Panel. Appeals panels meet to consider appeals from farmers and traders against decisions made by the RPA in administering the various schemes that it operates, and makes recommendations to the Farming Minister for his final decision. RPA customer director, Justin Chamberlain, comments: “We have made significant improvements in the service we provide to customers in recent years and ...
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Leap in Scottish farmland prices
According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the cost of farmland in Scotland jumped to £4,438 per acre during the first six months of 2013, with growth in prices driven by sustained demand from farmers and investors alike. As prices look set to continue the upward trend, the RICS warns that it is imperative that industry professionals get to grips with the region's new approaches to the Land Use Strategy and are aware of ...
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22% rise in wheat area for harvest for 2014
A new survey from HGCA (the cereals and oilseeds division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board) claims there will be a sharp rise in the total area of wheat and winter barley for harvest 2014, compared to a year earlier. A team of agronomists assessing 280,000ha of arable land have forecast that the total wheat area, including spring wheat, will increase by 22% to 1.98m hectares at the UK level. Winter barley is also set to ...
