Blogs

"Really good website" "Nice stand, informative and friendly staff." "Excellent idea." Just some of the comments we've had on our stand at the Cereals event today. We're particularly pleased because these comments came from farmers looking at our brand new...

As we were busy last week making sure our new roller banners arrived in time for Cereals (do drop in to stand 4-C-435 on Wednesday or Thursday to hear our exciting news!!), our colleagues working on climate change spotted some provocative stuff written in The Wall Street Journal on arable farming. ...

Today we have a brilliant guest blog by Justine Hards from LEAF , getting to the heart of the importance of farm visits. “What people do not understand, they do not value; what they do not value, they will not protect, and what they do not protect, they will lose.” — Charles Jordan...

Guest blog from Ellie Crane, RSPB Agriculture Policy Officer Arable farming is arguably one of the economic sectors most sensitive to climate change. It is also a very versatile sector: farmers have always had to respond to change. Modern farming looks quite different from early agriculture, but one...

Did you hear today’s news about a new study by the British Nutrition Foundation? They surveyed over 27,500 children across the UK. And guess what? Children’s knowledge of where there food comes from is shockingly poor. Almost a third (29%) of primary school children think that cheese...

By Hayley Sherwin, Volunteer & Farmer Alliance Project Officer, Northern Ireland It is that time of year once more. It is time for the Nature of Farming Awards and here in Northern Ireland we have selected our winner. Nature is in trouble right across our countryside, but there are many farmers...

Guest blog by David Hirst, Natural England A farming duo is giving wildlife in Essex a vital helping hand by creating their own version of ‘Noah’s Ark’ on their farm. Thanks to their conservation work, lapwings, lizards, snakes, bumblebees, corn buntings and turtle doves are now...

Read the latest about our views on CAP reform on Martin's blog here

Hywel Maggs, Conservation Officer for North East Scotland, tells us about one of the fabulous farmers he has been working with to help corn buntings John Moir has recently been nominated for the Species Champion category in the Nature of Scotland Awards by Scottish Agricultural College Consulting...

I've just read that "FARMSCOPER is a decision support tool that can be used for assessing diffuse agricultural-pollutant loads on a farm and quantifying the impacts of farm mitigation methods on these pollutants". Has anyone tried this free ADAS tool and what is it like in practice?

Drinking water standards for all pesticides are set at 1ppm – in essence this is a surrogate for zero that dates back 20-30 years. This reflects an inherently precautionary approach to human health protection. Since then technology has moved on and we can detect pesticides at vanishingly small...

I read in BW that metaldyhyde pollution in watercourses is a growing problem for water companies, and that this comes from slug pellets used by farmers to protect oilseed rape. Since oilseed rape is a Hope Farm crop, how is this issue handled?

Having contributed when Hope Farm was set up, I've paid attention to progress over the years. I'm very pleased that Hope Farm has been profitable while supporting wildlife, (in some years it looks like it would even have been profitable without subsidies!). Given that it is so successful, are...

As with all hill farms, November is a month for preparation at Geltsdale reserve. The rams or tups as they are known here in the North Pennines have been put to the ewes and the timing now will determine the week lambing will begin in April. With luck, grass on the lower in-bye land will have begun to...

Hi all. I keep getting my regular RSPB email updates and even though I've moved back to New Zealand now I still really want to be able to sign the campaign letters online. However it seems that it's only for UK residents..Is there no option to apply international pressure to the British government...

Two years ago, with the help of Smith Gore, we undertook some economic case studies of farmers creating habitats through agri-environment schemes to demonstrate the profitability of wildlife-friendly farming. You can see these case studies here . We would like to know whether these have been useful to...