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Now spring has nearly passed, our mid-term report card has seen some revisions, having looked very promising at the early stages with lambing and calving going very well and spring barley establishment looking very good. We now find ourselves wondering how things turned around and became difficult.

In somewhat strange times, it has been heartening to see communities pull together and people appreciating the key workers that, fundamentally, are the backbone to this country.

Shearing is in full swing and the second-hand race trailer I bought is proving ideal. Even the Dorsets and Texel rams run through it with only gentle encouragement and the load on the body shearing from it is massively reduced, compared to dragging from a pen trailer.

Herd size may have upped together with development of a thriving direct sales brand, but an early established ethos at Riverford Organic Dairy remains at its heart. Rachel Lovell reports.

Gemma Duguid, 27, from Caithness, is an office supervisor with Aberdeen and Northern Marts and enjoys helping out on the family farm when possible.

In conjunction with Bayer we will be keeping track of winter wheat crop development this season as emergence is likely to be variable following the challenging conditions.

Turbulence caused by Brexit and the coronavirus is not going away, but there are some positive lessons which can be learned from both, says Sue Pritchard, chief executive of the Food and Farming Countryside Commission.

The Government’s failure to protect our standards in the Agriculture Bill was very disappointing, but UK farmers shouldn’t be too demoralised because they have high quality products to sell, says Andrew Robinson, head of agriculture at Armstrong Watson.

The mask has fallen. UK farmers have been betrayed by this Government, which promised to protect our food production standards in trade deals, says Leicestershire arable and beef farmer Joe Stanley.

After listening carefully to the arguments on both sides, Conservative High Peak MP Robert Largan decided he couldn’t vote for or against the Agriculture Bill amendment to ban low standard imports. Here, he explains why.