This Week in Farming: Tax cuts, fit farmers and new Valtra

Welcome back to This Week in Farming, your weekly update of the best news and views from the Farmers Weekly website.

Every Saturday we round-up the five most eye-catching topics from the website that you might have missed and look ahead to what’s coming up in the FW Podcast.

Return of politics

With the 12-day period of mourning concluding on Monday (19 September) at the funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth II, politicians returned to their desks and to parliament.

In my editorial, I saluted the efforts of all the planning linked to the event, noting that a long-term strategy and well-motivated staff were needed for all sectors to succeed.

This week has been marked by a flurry of announcements, with details emerging midweek of an energy price cap for businesses which will halve the cost of gas and electric until March 2023.

However, rural groups condemned the smaller support package for those reliant on heating oil.

Then Friday brought a set-piece moment for new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who unveiled a further series of measures intended to stimulate economic growth in an unofficial budget.

These included scrapping the planned increase to national insurance, extending the annual investment allowance and removing the top rate of income tax, as well as paving the way for more wind turbines on land.

Britain’s Fittest Farmer final

The results from the final of Britain’s Fittest Farmers were revealed this week after 24 finalists who made it through the qualifying round sweated their way through a gruelling all-day workout.

Farmers Weekly’s annual competition aims to promote physical and mental wellbeing in agriculture, and this year saw the inclusion of an over-40s’ category for the first time.

You can watch a video of all the action and hear from the winners.

Pig woes

The price paid to many pig producers has remained stubbornly below the cost of production for two years now, and an increasing number of business owners are choosing to end production.

The female breeding herd dropped to below 261,000, compared with 313,000 in June 2021, and total industry losses now stand at an estimated £600m.

Analysts say the industry may go from having had to welfare-kill pigs in August to being short of pork just four months later, in this report from FW‘s senior reporter Michael Priestley.

Late fertiliser deliveries

Fertiliser prices remain stubbornly high amid the ongoing energy crisis, with the falling value of sterling adding to traders’ woes.

Midweek there was a limited offering of imported ammonium nitrate, both Lithan and Pulan, at anywhere between £850/t and £900/t, while CF Fertiliser is reported to be well behind with its scheduled deliveries.

High prices will likely mean greater interest in alternative technologies that can help reduce artificial fertiliser use, including a new piece of a kit that can increase the nitrogen content of liquid manure.

The machine is being trialled in the UK, including on Buckinghamshire dairy farmer Neil Dyson’s Holly Green Farm, which is home to the Arla Innovation Centre.

Trial results reveal an average yield improvement of 36% and nitrogen uptake improvement of 31%, compared with untreated slurry.

New Valtra lowdown

Will there be a queue to bag a Q? Oli Mark poses this question as he runs through the latest offering from Valtra, the Q305.

The sister brand to Massey Ferguson and Fendt may be a little overlooked in comparison, but farmers may value the retention of the tried-and-trusted 7.4 litre engine in this new model – it’s been in use for a decade now in other machines.

One farm it is unlikely to make an appearance on is that of North Yorkshire farmers Tom and Richard Sanderson.

The busy mixed farmers have a fleet of six Fendts with a combined 97,000 hours on their clocks, and they say the service and repair costs have been minimal compared to the finance and depreciation on newer models.