Dairy farmers

Elle Slade has been encouraged to follow her own path on the family farm and has set up her own successful calf rearing business, whilst working part time at a nearby fattening unit

In today's Farming in Five, chief reporter Rachael Brown reports on the top stories from this week, including the Chancellor being accused of using Ministers as 'human shields' over Inheritance Tax changes, farmers take fate into their own hands by abandoning their SFI applications early despite waiting for offers to be made by the Government, APHA appoints former police chief as new chief executive, and Baroness Minette Batters asked to lead a review into farm profitability. Next week the latest on Donald Trump's trade tariffs and the impact on agriculture, new details revealed for the next stage of Johne's disease plan, and a petition to get farming on the curriculum aims to get 100k signatures

Dairy farmer and NFU dairy board chair Paul Tompkins said while the 10% tariff imposed by the US would ‘not be easy' for UK exporters, there was also potential for ‘increased demand' for UK dairy products in the US

Barber's managing director, Giles Barber said whilst the 10% US tariff was ‘unhelpful' and 'disruptive' it was ‘significantly better' than the tariff imposition on other trading blocks, including the EU

Defra's latest quarterly statistics showed over 13,000 cattle were slaughtered in 2024 due to bTB, a 27% increase compared to 2023

Vale of York dairy farmer and NFU Dairy Board chair Paul Tompkins said consolidation and investment can be viewed as a ‘good thing’, but the lack of competition for milk was a ‘bad thing’ for producers

Phase 3 of the field trials will take place on commercial cattle farms in areas of England and Wales, where there is a low incidence of bTB and are set to be completed in 2026/7

In today's Farming in Five, chief reporter Rachael Brown reports on Arla’s soaring profits, giving its farmer-owners the highest dividend payout in the company’s history, how tenant farmers are being left ‘unprotected’ by the Chancellor’s changes to Inheritance Tax, and the UK's borders have been called into question once again after 600kg of illegal meat was seized in Northern Ireland.

In today's Farming in Five, chief reporter Rachael Brown reports on the tractor rally protests by Scottish farmers and crofters over the weekend, after being postponed by Storm Eowyn, the latest milk prices with Arla holding its price for conventional and organic for February, and thirteen dairy producers in the South West have been handed their 12 months' notice by Saputo Dairy UK

There has been a 23.7% decrease in Scottish milking herds over the last decade, according to the Scottish Dairy Cattle Association