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.
The NFU is challenging the increasingly fashionable view that livestock farming is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and warning that using climate change as an argument to discourage people from eating milk and meat could be environmentally counter-productive.
Cornwall Farmers announced the election of the fourth new President for the farmer controlled cooperative at their 87th Annual General Meeting held last week at Princetown, Dartmoor.
Big prizes for show Big prizes for Royal Welsh Garden Festival
Gold, silver and bronze medals and cash prizes ranging from £75 up to £350 each will be on offer to nurseries and plantsmen in the competitive trade stand section at this year's Royal Welsh Garden Festival in May. Last year £5250 was paid out in prize money at the event.
Defra ministers should climb off the fence and follow the lead set by the Welsh Assembly Government in taking a proactive approach to eradicating the menace of Bovine TB.
The UK Bluetongue Vaccination Strategy has been agreed with industry stakeholders using the overriding principle of facilitating the rapid transfer of vaccine into animals as soon as it becomes available.
