Fertiliser manufacturer fined £500k for polluting river
Farmers Weekly Omex Agriculture, a Lincolnshire-based manufacturer of liquid fertiliser and plant nutrition products, has been fined more than £500,000 after a catastrophic leak caused large-scale pollution in a local river. In a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency (EA), Lincolnshire Magistrates’ Court was told a 28-mile stretch of the River Witham was polluted with […]
Farmers Weekly Podcast Ep 160: How are police tackling the rural crime wave?
Farmers Weekly NFU Scotland is seeking assurances that governments in Westminster and Holyrood will continue to fund farming to at least the same levels beyond the life of the current UK parliament. NFUS director of policy Jonnie Hall said getting future funding commitments from both governments was now the union’s “number one priority” for Scottish […]
Firm funding assurance beyond 2024 NFUS number one priority
Farmers Weekly NFU Scotland is seeking assurances that governments in Westminster and Holyrood will continue to fund farming to at least the same levels beyond the life of the current UK parliament. NFUS director of policy Jonnie Hall said getting future funding commitments from both governments was now the union’s “number one priority” for Scottish […]
Cereals 2023: U-turn on pledge to move past income foregone in ELM
Farmers Weekly Farming minister Mark Spencer has rowed back on a Defra pledge to move beyond income foregone payments in the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme. Former Defra secretary George Eustice was insistent that base payments in both the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship+ needed to rise in order for the government to […]
Thunderstorms bring brief reprieve to rain-starved farms
Farmers Weekly Farming minister Mark Spencer has branded the idea of a food price cap “communism” and claimed no one in government was “ever seriously considering it”. Just two weeks ago, there were multiple reports that the government was proposing to follow Hungary and Croatia’s lead in implementing the policy to tackle food price inflation. […]
Cereals 2023: Farming minister slams ‘communist’ food price cap
Farmers Weekly Farming minister Mark Spencer has branded the idea of a food price cap “communism” and claimed no one in government was “ever seriously considering it”. Just two weeks ago, there were multiple reports that the government was proposing to follow Hungary and Croatia’s lead in implementing the policy to tackle food price inflation. […]
Scots farmers issue urgent plea for bracken control herbicide
Farmers Weekly Hill farmers in Scotland have issued an urgent plea to the government to reauthorise a selective herbicide used to control bracken. NFU Scotland said an application for the use of Asulox (asulam) was submitted to the Chemicals Regulation Division of the Health and Safety Executive last November, but a decision has not been […]
Opinion: Beavers spark guffaws – and confusion
Farmers Weekly For readers of a certain age, any talk of “beavers” will cause an involuntary guffaw as it conjures up the memory of Leslie Nielsen and Priscilla Presley’s innocent innuendo in a scene from the 1989 hit comedy Naked Gun. So it was that, suppressing a smirk, I headed to the 1,200ha Knepp Castle […]