Thousands of smallholders and country enthusiasts from all over the UK will be visiting the RWAS Showground, Builth Wells, Wales tomorrow and Sunday for the annual Royal Welsh Smallholder and Garden Festival.
Upwards of 90,000 people are expected to visit the Devon County Show over the next three days. But visitors to the Westpoint, Exeter, showground will find fewer cattle on show due mostly to movement restrictions in place because of TB.
The NFU has called on the Government to introduce transitional arrangements to help the cattle industry cope with plans to transfer the cost of TSE testing of fallen cattle over 24 months.
The NFU says it is concerned that premature changes to Environmental Stewardship (ES) schemes risk making them increasingly complex and could reduce the opportunities for more farmers to get involved.
Allegations that foreign imports are being passed off as British beef by caterers are very disappointing says EBLEX, the AHDB Beef and Lamb Sector Company.
SMALLHOLDERS and country enthusiasts from all over Britain will be coming together on the weekend of the May 17-18 at the RWAS Showground, Builth Wells, Wales for the now eagerly awaited annual Royal Welsh Smallholder and Garden Festival.
BLUE tongue disease is caused by a virus, spread by biting midges. It affects ruminants, including alpacas, and was confirmed in East Anglia on September 28, 2007. At 2pm on March 19, there were 110 premises where blue tongue had been confirmed.
Young pig producers gained a valuable insight into what influences consumers when they buy pork and where the burgeoning markets are likely to be in the future at the first West Country young pig producers dinner held in Exeter recently.
The quality of lambs slaughtered and classified in English abattoirs has held up remarkably well over the past year in the face of the serious marketing disruptions caused by foot and mouth disease and Bluetongue movement restrictions.
A search has been launched across the South West to find people who have given their lives to managing and caring for the countryside and the traditional sports which provide the incentive for a raft of rural management programmes.
The foul smell wafting over large parts of London and the South East this weekend is a taste of things to come if the Government presses ahead with its ill-conceived plan to ban slurry spreading during the winter, the NFU has warned.
CLA members in the South West are to throw down the gauntlet to public sector purchasers and challenge them to take a new look at the origins of the food they buy.
In the wake of DEFRA's recently announced strategy for bluetongue vaccination, Liberal Democrat and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hill Farming Tim Farron MP has today written to Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for DEFRA, to call for extra protection for rare breeds of livestock.
The NFU has taken the opportunity of national Biofuels Day to draw a clear distinction between biofuels produced sustainably to what it calls "The British Model" that yield genuine greenhouse gas savings, and biofuels produced elsewhere in the world with fewer environmental safeguards.
Britain's first ever National Beanpole Week will be held between 19th and 27th April. It will
celebrate native coppiced woodland and the ancient tradition of coppicing, together with the
beanpoles and other excellent products made from eco-friendly coppiced wood.
