June

The new Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Stephen Morgan, is to be welcomed into his important new role during one of the most consequential months in the department’s history – the rollout of what must, surely, be the final iteration of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) after a decade of arrested development and false starts under his six predecessors.

On a surprisingly sunny afternoon during an otherwise extremely wet week in early June, a group of South Yorkshire farmers dedicated to grey partridge recovery gathered for a farm walk to celebrate their farmer cluster’s successes so far.

England’s flagship farming scheme returns, but funding gaps and policy missteps threaten both nature and food production.

Recently we have been involved in an alternative auditing scheme called Trusted Game, an audit-based scheme aimed to ensure the health and welfare of gamebirds on shoots and game farms. It draws on proven systems from other industries and offers a practical route to achieving high standards, providing reassurance to the shoots, tenants, landowners and consumers.

Climate change continues to create challenges for British farms but sometimes the weather turns just in time and you have lots of happy farmers!