Author Posts: Farmers Guide

The North Country Cheviot is experiencing a surge in popularity outside its Scottish heartland as awareness of the breed’s versatility and easy lambing continue to grow. 

Determined rural thieves are targeting expensive quad bikes used by farmers to tend to livestock during the lambing season, latest NFU Mutual claim figures reveal.

M&S launches industry-leading bee programme – introducing over 30 million bees to its Select Farms – to boost pollination, improve product quality and produce delicious British honey for its customers.

In recent years, ICL UK (formerly Cleveland Potash) has successfully expanded its product offering from traditional potash and phosphate fertilisers to produce and launch a range of ICL FertilizerpluS products that include; Granular Polysulphate, ICL-PotashpluS and ICL-PKpluS into the UK market. This range of products is all based around the inclusion of Polysulphate (polyhalite) which is a multi-nutrient sulphate fertiliser produced exclusively in the UK at Boulby Mine in the North Yorkshire Moors.

The upturn in agricultural tractor registrations (over 50hp) seen in recent months continued into March, normally the peak month for registrations each year.

Pitchup.com welcomes the news that Wales has now joined the English government in temporarily relaxing permitted development planning laws, allowing landowners to set up temporary ‘pop-up’ campsites for up to 56 days across the year. 

Rural crime in the UK hit an eight-year high in 2020, costing farms and rural businesses around £54 million. Gareth Williams, CEO at Gigaclear, a leading rural broadband provider, talks to us about the essential role that Smart WiFi can have in keeping rural communities safe from crime.

Nick Harper, of chartered surveyors Hawkspur, explains options on making money from land you don’t own, biodiversity net gain for development, and more.

With more farmers looking to diversify and capitalise on the staycation trend, sustainable cabin company The Box BnB, is working with UK farmers to support their diversification strategies and provide holidaymakers with a unique experience.

Many farmers are currently making use of unused land for holiday cabins and glamping, as the general public are itching to get away for a staycation when lockdown restrictions ease later on in the year. Such business opportunities come at a good time; with the phasing out of the Basic Payment Scheme, many farmers are looking to find alternative revenue streams.

Glampsan general manager Jon Trelfa shared his advice on toilet and waste management options for diversified farms wanting to offer camping facilities.

Opportunities to showcase machinery over the last 24 months have been few and far between, but whilst the exhibition unit slept, Weaving says its design and production team have been busy rolling out new innovative changes to its product lines.