RSPB mistaken to blame farmers for kestrel decline, says CLA
The CLA yesterday (Monday, 19 July 2010) expressed disappointment that the RSPB has partly blamed a sharp decline in kestrel numbers in recent years on intensive farming. The RSPB made the comment to a national newspaper after the latest Breeding Birds Survey was published by the British Trust of Ornithology (BTO). It recorded a 36 percent drop […]
Improved Dry Cow Management Brings Success at Bridgwater College
Over the years, so many feeding strategies have been promoted to improve dry cow nutrition that dairy farmers, vets and herd managers have often been left wondering which way to go! When Steve Jones became Farm Manager at Rodway Farm, Bridgwater College in Somerset, he decided to undertake a review of the dry cow nutrition […]
Mole Valley Farmers first cut silage analysis
“Quality silage from the South but quantity an issue”. The latest results from Mole Valley Farmers grass silage analysis of first cut silage point to a potential upside in autumn/winter milk production this year if forage stocks are properly managed. Data from approximately 200 dairy farms show some key pointers with excellent results for energy, […]
Waitrose post boosts global food security
Research into global food security problems has been given a boost thanks to a new partnership between Waitrose and Aberystwyth University. In the first move of its kind in the UK, the supermarket is funding the Waitrose Chair of Sustainable Agriculture at Aberystwyth University’s Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS). Professor Gareth Edwards-Jones […]
UK Tractor Registrations Down in First Half Year
UK registrations of agricultural tractors (over 50hp) reached 7,772 units in the first 6 months of 2010, a decline of 15.7% on the same period in the previous year. Since reaching an extraordinarily high peak in March 2009 (on a moving total basis) the market has been in steady decline to a level closer to […]
Potato growers benefit from combined AHDB resources
Levy-payers are starting to benefit from combined resources and elimination of duplication, brought about by the amalgamation of the six industry-funded levy bodies into the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), Mr Stevenson told 200 growers and purchasers at the Potato Councils East Midlands Potato Day held at QV Foods near Spalding. The potato industry […]
What a whopper! To feed anaerobic digester
Two of the largest hoppers ever built by Tong Peal are now being assembled into a Lincolnshire anaerobic digester, one of the first exemplar projects supported by the Environmental Transformation Fund. The project is taking shape at Staples Vegetables plant at Wrangle, near Boston, where vegetables out-of-specification at the packhouse or bypassed in the field […]
Green light for scheme to deliver green energy from food waste
A new technologically advanced scheme to deliver power and heat from food waste in County Durham has secured planning permission with the unanimous backing of the Durham County Council planning committee. Emerald Biogas will now deliver the North Easts first commercial anaerobic digestion plant on the Newton Aycliffe Industrial Estate. It will use food waste […]
FUW paper predicts that badger cull would substantially reduce TB
UNDEB AMAETHWYR CYMRU FARMERS’ UNION OF WALES A paper published by the Farmers Union of Wales today (Monday July 19) suggests badger culling in north Pembrokeshire could reduce bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) incidences by around a third – and this could even be a significant underestimate. The paper, prepared by the union’s agricultural policy director Dr […]
