Farmers must treat the latest changes to farming subsidies cautiously and prepare fully, warns a leading firm of land agents and rural chartered surveyors.

Laura Carrick, rural chartered surveyor at Vickers & Barrass in County Durham, says farmers need to start to prepare for post-Brexit changes and the move away from the EU-wide payment system, in the light of the National Audit Office's early review of the farming programme*.

Under the programme, farmers who are compensated for the amount of land they farm, will instead be rewarded for delivering environmental benefits.

Current land-based payments to farmers will be phased out over a seven-year period starting from 2021. They will be succeeded by public funding for public goods at the core of which, will be the Environmental Land Management System (ELMS).

New farmer-led field lab to control brome grass and prevent herbicide resistance

Arable farmers are invited to investigate methods for controlling the different species of brome grass in a new field lab with Innovative Farmers and ADAS.

The new farmer-led trial will look to identify methods that help slow or prevent herbicide resistance amongst increasingly widespread weeds – with surveys showing sterile brome to be the second most problematic grass weed in the UK, after black-grass.

The not-for-profit network Innovative Farmers, which enables farmer-led research, will connect farmers and agronomists with researchers from ADAS to identify when the weed typically emerges in the field, and what cultivation types, depths and timings are most effective in controlling it.

After the successful innovation tour to New Zealand in 2018, global chemical producer BASF is offering growers using Adexar and Librax the chance to win one of 40 places on an innovation tour to Germany in November.

The tour will focus on farm efficiencies, profitability and sustainability to better understand how on-farm decisions can influence yield, crop health, and future innovations that could impact their choices.

BASF’s Tim Short commented: “We are delighted to be offering the fully-funded innovation tour again this year. The success from 2018 highlighted the value farmers place on seeing new innovation first-hand and forming a network to compare and contrast their farming businesses.”

“We will be including a day at Agritechnica to see what new technologies will be driving change, with more than 2,800 exhibitors and 52 countries present.

Fifteen Scottish Enterprise Rural Leaders and five Rural Youth Project delegates were the first to experience Rotterdam’s floating dairy in action on a recent urban/rural learning journey to the Netherlands.

As the first visitors to the farm, delegates tasted the success of innovation sampling one of the first batches of bottled milk with CEO Peter Van Wingerden.

The floating farm wasn’t the only tour to leave delegates swimming with ideas. An action packed schedule included visits to a carbon neutral chicken farm and PigMe, a business where pigs are farmed and lazed in fields, forests and meadows over 10 locations close to the consumer with dedicated caretakers.

Scottish dairy farmer, graduate of the Scottish Enterprise Rural Leadership Programme and Chair of the NFU Scotland Next Generation Colin Ferguson came away from the trip inspired with a new appreciation for Dutch innovation and collaboration in bridging the urban/rural divide.

This year's edition of Europe’s Leading Outdoor Technical Arable Event returns to Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire on June 12th & 13^th and we are proud to be partnered with Cereals 2019!

The show promises to be the biggest yet, with a number of unmissable additions such as more exhibitors, speakers, live demos and new product launches than ever before! Best of all, the Early Bird ticket offer is still on, but only for the next 24 hours so now is the time to book your ticket!

Early Bird discount will come to an end at 9am tomorrow (Wednesday 15th May), meaning two-day tickets will be increasing from £20 to £25.

Still debating whether to get your tickets? Here’s SEVEN reasons why you simply can’t miss Cereals 2019.

A new magazine aimed at farmers and landowners with diversification plans is being launched later this month. Farm Diversity offers news and views from the industry on a range of agricultural topics, and also features the products and services which can help rural businesses make diversity a success.

The magazine will cover: 

• renewable energy

• leisure & tourism

• food and drink

• retail

• consultancy

• arable & pastoral diversification

• recruitment & training

• groundworks/landscaping

The Gwaredu BVD £10 million three year voluntary screening programme is available to all Welsh cattle farms, and is managed by Coleg Sir Gâr’s Agriculture Research Centre in partnership with the Royal Veterinary College. BVD screening is undertaken at the same time as TB testing to provide the necessary support and guidance to ensure farmers can correctly and quickly identify herds infected with BVD. Support will also be available to find the persistently infected (PI) animals from infected herds.

Carter Jonas, the national property consultancy, and Farmers Weekly, the market leading media brand for the UK agriculture industry, have unveiled that more than two thirds (68%) of farmers and landowners have diversified to support and boost income. The findings are from a new survey completed by 250 Farmers Weekly readers.

One of Worcestershire’s leading providers of land-based activities, training, education and work experience has completed its £500,000 relocation to a new site near Hallow, Worcester. Paving the way for new home for Wildgoose Rural Training.

The Farm Business Innovation Show is Europe’s leading event for farmers, landowners and estate owners looking to find creative new ways to generate revenue from their land and need expert advice to make it happen! Voted ‘Trade Show of the Year’ by the EN Awards in 2016, the show is returning to NEC in Birmingham on the 6th & 7th November 2019 and is still completely free to attend.

Diversification in the world of farming and rural business is the act of finding new streams of income that can be added in order to increase income and keep the traditional farm running. These revenue streams can range from family attractions to weddings or even renting your outbuildings as office space... The opportunities are endless! 

This event provides rural entrepreneurs with the inspiration, resources and advice needed to diversify, innovate and succeed through 200 seminars, 500 inspiring exhibitors, case studies of people who have been there and done it, and expert advice on everything from planning permission to setting up a website.