Business News

Government faces a stark choice: back British food production in order to secure a home-grown supply of sustainable food or risk seeing more empty shelves in the nation’s supermarkets, the NFU warned today.

Family business celebrates over a century of working in the agricultural industry.

Leading rural insurer NFU Mutual is urging farmers to act now to protect their farms from the devastating impact of storms as winter approaches.  

With annual inflation now in double figures, salaries are being driven by not only a shortage of good staff, but also the cost -of-living crisis, according to Knight Frank’s biennial Estate Staff Salaries Survey.

With edible insects being hailed as a sustainable source of high protein food, researchers at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) have been awarded more than £10k to develop a strategy for using them in animal feed.

A team of students from Pipers Corner School in High Wycombe have been crowned winners of LEAF Education’s National Competition in Food, Farming and Natural Environment 2022.  This year’s finalists’ weekend, run by LEAF Education, in partnership with Bayer and Coleg Cambria, was held at Coleg Cambria in Llysfasi, North Wales, over the weekend of 21-23 October.

Buoyant milk prices mean improving milk from forage is a ‘no brainer’ on UK dairy farms. But high input costs mean doing this cost-efficiently is set to remain essential in 2023.

Farms and estates that have set up contract farming, share farming and grazing agreements should urgently review them to avoid losing out on valuable tax reliefs, warns Tom Heathcote, Head of Knight Frank’s Agri-Consultancy team.

Former Director General of MI5, The Baroness Manningham-Buller LG DCB said home grown food production is integral to our national security, at the NFU’s 2022 Henry Plumb Memorial Lecture.

Those looking to sell farmland and estates in 2023 are being advised to prepare for a sale well ahead of the spring season to make their property more attractive to buyers.

Twelve young agricultural engineer apprentices received cash awards at the Midlands Machinery Show in recognition of their talent and dedication. Each received a £500 award, paid in £250 instalments over a two-year period, with most looking to spend the money on tools.

For the last 18 years the FBS has been undertaken independently by Rural Business Research (RBR). However, change is afoot with the handover of the contract to Promar International. In this moment it feels important to reflect on the work that precedes the next chapter and the survey’s importance to agriculture’s past, present, and future.