Blog

New machinery technology promises gains in efficiency and performance, but turning those benefits into measurable financial returns remains a key challenge for farmers and contractors, says Toby Whatley

Livestock specialist Katie Fallon discusses the highs and lows of working with sheep

This week from Farmers Guardian readers: Hilary Wilson, Appleby, highlights concerns about vegetation overgrowth following livestock removal and the importance of hill farming in maintaining biodiversity and landscape heritage

It is nice to see this Government pledge to make school food healthier. But what will really make the biggest impact is further education around food and farming, says digital editor Emily Ashworth

A keen market attender, livestock reporter Ellie Layton gave auctioneering a go in a YFC competition this weekend, giving her a whole new appreciation for what it takes to be an auctioneer

As part of an exclusive 12-month blog for Farmers Guardian, the new cohort of youngsters on the McDonald's Progressive Young Farmer programme talk about their hopes for the future and the impact they can make. This month we hear from Ashleigh Yates, from Kent

Alan Carter farms in partnership with his parents, Paul and Christine, on a 162 hectare (400-acre), 400-cow dairy unit at Constantine, Cornwall, with 130 milking cows, supplying Saputo. Alan, also a Parish Councillor, and his wife Sarah, have two children, Ross and Dana

Dan Hawes grew up on an arable farm in Suffolk and now produces strawberry and raspberry plants for the UK fruit market with Blaise Plants, sister company to Hugh Lowe Farms, Kent. The business grows outside, under tunnels and in glasshouses and produces more than four million plants a year. The arable side includes environmental schemes, with a mix of wheat, oilseed rape, beans and barley crops

Roythornes Solicitors' Oscar Scotney writes on how trusts can be a great tool to help protect assets

This week's opinion from throughout the world of agriculture: Kerriann McLackland, head of estates at the Countryside Regeneration Trust