· The UK Government's day to day spending on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has been cut by 1.9% between 2023/24 and 2025/26. The overall budget has been held at £2.4 billion, with no allowance for the effects of inflation.
· Economist Dan Corry has been appointed to conduct an internal review into the regulations and regulators at Defra, examining whether the inherited regulatory landscape is fit for purpose and to develop recommendations to ensure Defra is driving economic growth while protecting the environment.
· Defra has announced that all recipients will see 76% of their base amount removed in 2025.This compares with the 50% cut in former Basic Payment Scheme payments that applied in 2024.Those receiving up to £30,000 will have 76% removed, anything above that will be cut entirely. Any farmer who originally received more that £100,000 will receive no more than £8000 in 2025.
· Rural Payments Wales has reported that 96% of claimants received a Basic Payment on 14 Oct representing about 70% of claim value.
· A new report from the Environment Agency reveals that 19% of water supplies are lost before reaching consumers with the worst performers being Thames Water and United Utilities. National average demand for water per person per day was 232.8 litres, down 3.6% compared to the 2019/20 baseline.
· The Scottish Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund has awarded grants of over £300,000 to projects including a skills development programme for staff working with livestock in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park and promoting the benefits of calving intervals on the Isle of Bute.
· The Welsh Government has confirmed that breaches to the Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) regulations would be downgraded where farmers could demonstrate evidence of taking reasonable steps to achieve compliance.
· Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief will only apply at the rate of 100% to the first £1 million of qualifying assets with effect from 6 April 2026. Thereafter the rate of relief will be limited to 50%. Early next year a technical consultation will be published focusing on the application of the allowance to lifetime transfers into trust and charges on trust property.
· According to Savills, Budget fears have resulted in 169,000 acres of land being marketed in the first 9 months of the year on 864 holdings, up 23% on last year and 15% on the average for 2012-2016.
· Data has been published on Total Income From Farming (TIFF) by English region for 2023. Overall the average decrease in TIFF was 21% with no region showing an increase.
· The Government has confirmed that Inheritance Tax Agricultural Property Relief will be extended to land managed under an environmental agreement with, or on behalf of, the UK government, devolved governments, public bodies, local authorities or relevant approved responsible bodies.
· The NFU Mutual's Voice of the Farmer survey has revealed that farmer's income from diversification accounted to 13% of farm turnover on average in 2023/24,unchanged from the previous year.
· In 2022/23 in the UK £43.33 was spent per person per week by the average household on all food and drink. Adjusting for inflation, this is 3.1% down on 2022 and 20.6% down on 2020.
· Booking platform Pitchup.com has reported a 266% increase in searches for camping, glamping and caravanning in July compared to a year earlier.
· During the month sterling weakened against both the Euro and significantly against the US dollar whilst the gold price continued to improve this month, setting an all-time high most days. Crude oil prices also remained highly volatile this month.
· The UK milk price continued to improve, the UK average all milk price for August, reported in October, was 41.58 pence per litre: 1.51 p/l up on the previous month and 5.32 p/l above the price a year earlier. Draft figures for Sept point towards a further increase in the region of more than 1 p/l. The EU average farmgate milk price for August was, for the first time in many years, fractionally below the UK average at 41.54 p/l,1.20 p/l above the July average and 3.03 p/l above the average a year earlier.
· At the end of August, outbreaks of bluetongue virus serotype 3 were confirmed along the Herts/Bucks border meaning that most of the East and South of England is now in a restricted zone. A case of bluetongue has been confirmed in North Wales following movement of 3 sheep from the East of England. Defra has approved a general licence for bluetongue serotype 3 covering the whole of England.
· APHA has advised that an amended general licence, TB24c, will be available for bovine TB restricted buildings and valid for use for the duration of a bovine TB breakdown. The licence will allow the movement of bovine animals to a licensed slaughterhouse.
· In the three months to June, there was a fall of 2% in new bovine TB incidents, compared to a year earlier, with falls of 2% in the High Risk area and 15% in the Low Risk area but an increase of 3% in the Edge area.
· SRUC Veterinary Services has reported that Babesiosis is on the increase in cattle in the UK. It is caused by the infection of red blood cells by the parasite babesia. It has been prevalent in the Southwest but cases are now being reported in both Scotland and Wales.
· Arla has increased its manufacturing price for conventional milk by 1.78 p/l to 47.65 p/l with a similar increase taking the organic price to 57.64 p/l whilst Muller has increased its milk price by 1 p/l to 42.25 p/l for Advantage producers.
· First Milk has increased its price by 1.5 p/l to 45.35 p/l and both Wyke Farms and Barbers have increased their prices to 42.93 and 43.03 p/l respectively.
· Muller's acquisition of Yew Tree Dairy has been approved by the Competition and Markets Authority.
· During Sept, UK dairies processed 1,092 million litres of milk, down 4.8% on August. Average BF and Protein levels in Sept were 4.32% and 3.44% respectively.
· A dairy cow in Powys has given birth to 4 live calves, considered to be a 1 in 11 million chance. All, including the mother, are reported to be well.
· Aldi is to invest £30 million over the next three years by enhancing its partnership with Arla and providing greater focus on sustainability and animal welfare through Arla's Farm Ahead Customer Partnership.
· A report by the FSA entitled Our Food has thrown into doubt the resilience of the UK's food system as a result of recruitment issues. Shortages exist in official veterinarians, butchers and meat hygiene inspectors. In 2023 there were 4000 fewer people employed in food manufacturing than in 2022.
· According to Nielsen, in the year to 5 October, spend on cow's milk fell by 6.6% and 1.9% by volume. While semi-skimmed accounts for 59.6% of sales, this category accounted for most of the decline as sales of whole milk grew by2.3%. Volume sales of cow's cheese grew by 3.7% with value sales up 3.6% manly driven by cheddar.
· The latest AHDB consumer survey conducted in association with Blue Marble shows increased public confidence in British agriculture. Responses ranged from very positive (25%), the highest for over 5 years, to somewhat positive (42%),to very negative (20%),the lowest for over 5 years.
· In 2022/23,farms in England spent £1.68 billion on new machinery, up 42% on 2021/22; £590 million on used machinery, down 4.5% whilst sales of machinery totalled £560 million, up 22%.
· Nuffield Farming Scholarships and the Royal Agricultural Society of England has published a new guide to help families plan succession for their farming businesses.
· A survey conducted by the Institute of Agricultural Management has revealed that 83% of agricultural professionals consider that more must be done to support the increased use of on-farm automation while 90% believed that automation and artificial intelligence offered significant opportunities.