Rural Business
Agri Culture – Fred Swift & Stella Stewart: From Sheep to Shop – Increasing the Value of Wool
Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Fred Swift from South Clunes Farm and Highland Clip, and Stella Stewart from Anta. Fred Swift farms South Clunes Farm near Inverness in the Highlands with his wife Sofi and his father. They run a traditional upland farm with cattle and sheep. Fred and his family have transformed the farm…
Rural Roundup – The Whole Farm Plan
Welcome back to the Rural Round-up hosted by me, Kerry Hammond. This show is produced in association with the Scottish Government. On today’s episode I’m joined by George Chalmers & Tiffany Stephenson to talk about The Whole Farm Plan, and what it means for farmers, crofters & smallholders. FAS Resources Preparing For The Future |…
Agribusiness News July 2024 – Sector Focus: Whole Farm Plans
Whole Farm Plans Under the new Agricultural Route Map for Scotland, farmers and crofters will be required to undertake a series of initiatives as part of a Whole Farm Plan if they wish to apply for support payments through the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) from 2025 onwards. The initiative has been designed to help farmers…
Agribusiness News July 2024 – Management Matters: Bluetongue
Update on Bluetongue Virus Serotype 3 (BTV-3) There is a very high probability of a new introduction of bluetongue virus serotype 3 (BTV-3) in livestock across Great Britian this year. The disease is spread through infected biting midges, with a high risk of them being blown over from badly affected countries in Northern Europe. They…
Agribusiness News July 2024 – AI: Servant or Master?
Tempting as it was, Bing was not instructed to write 700 words on how “AI will affect Scottish agriculture”. Well, it was asked but the output was somewhat disappointing so what follows is written by a human. So, what is AI (artificial intelligence)? AI is the science of teaching machines to think for themselves. It…
Agribusiness News July 2024 – Milk
Milk production data The latest GB monthly milk production data from AHDB is estimated at 1,129m litres for May, 12m litres less than May ‘23 and the lowest volume recorded for May since 2016. According to BCMS dairy cow numbers in the GB milking herd are the same as last year, indicating that the drop…
Agribusiness News July 2024 – Sector Focus: Local Food Supply Chains
To promote sustainable food production and consumption while boosting the Scottish economy, the Scottish Government has been championing local food and short supply chains in its policies, like in the Sustainable and Regenerative Farming, National Good Food Nation Plan, Local Food for Everyone strategy report, and Scotland Food & Drink’s Industry Strategy. The concepts of…
Agribusiness News July 2024 – Sheep
Wool trade As shearing gets well under way across the country, it is always interesting to follow the global wool trade. Wool is currently trading similar to last year, with Merino remaining the premium in the market. The Australian price has shown the greatest increase; however, this had fallen -10ac/kg in the month. Figure 1:…
Agribusiness News July 2024 – Beef
Marginal lift in finished price Sluggish retail demand and higher than expected throughputs in April and May coupled with the availability of young bulls has done nothing to install confidence in finishers over the past six weeks as finished beef prices have fallen and remained low. For week ending 22nd June prices for Scottish steers…
Agribusiness News July 2024 – Cereals and Oilseeds
Easing markets undo Spring gains Spring and Summer weather markets often bring additional volatility, and UK Nov ‘24 wheat futures values went up 15% through April and May, then back down again 12% through June. Most of the early price gain was initiated on the MATIF market, reacting to increasing European and eastern continental weather…