The latest US Livestock and Poultry Outlook report shows the extent that Avian Influenza related restrictions are impacting on US poultry exports. Total broiler shipments in February were 17% down on February 2015. Export bans by China and South Korea went into effect in January, on top of an existing ban by Russia. The continued […]
DEFRA have published the latest data on the use of fertiliser in UK agriculture. Long term data shows that the use of Nitrogen fertiliser on crops and grass on UK farms peaked in the mid 1980s at 1,674 thousand tonnes, when concerns over the impact on the environment, policy changes, and economic pressures lead to […]
The USDA has released its latest data on milk production costs. The average costs of producing a cwt of milk in the US in January 2015, was 6% down on December 2014, and 8% down on January 2014. The biggest drop was in the cost of purchased feed which was 16% down on December, and […]
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Small not always beautiful
A chapter in the latest IFPRI Food Policy Report 2014-2105, highlights the importance of family farms. There are a 570 million farms in the world, but the majority of them are small – 80% operate on less than 2 hectares and occupy just 12% of the worlds farmland. Three-quarters of farms are in Asia, and 60% are in […]
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RIP Milk Quotas
April 2015 will mark the end of an era within EU milk production, after more than 30 years milk quotas will be abolished. The UK dairy sector has changed dramatically since the introduction of quotas, in 1984 there were 3.28 million dairy cows in the UK, with 50,625 dairy herds. In 2013 the herd has […]
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US and Russia Livestock Outlook
A relatively strong US dollar is impacting on the meat trade with beef imports into the US reported to be 63.7% up in January 2015, compared with January 2014. The increased imports are mainly coming from Australia, New Zealand, and Nicaragua. The USDA is predicting that US beef imports for Q1 2015 will be 31.7% […]
In his budget, the UK Chancellor George Osborne has announced a change in the way farmers are taxed. In the future taxable income will be based on an average of five years rather than two. The move is seen as a pre-election move to boost flagging support for the Tory party in rural areas; however […]
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Farm UAVs slowly taking off
The use of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) or drones has been talked about a lot in farming circles recently; however it is clear the use of agricultural drones is been held back in many countries. This is due to legislation, and in some case’s the lack of clear benefits to the farmers bottom line. In […]
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USDA Livestock Outlook
The latest USDA livestock outlook report suggest that the US cattle herd is continuing to recover with cattle numbers up on this time last year, however the report suggests that this is likely to put pressure on cattle prices during the rest of 2015. Beef cow numbers are up by 2%, whilst heifers for beef […]
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Oilseeds Update
Recent USDA reports on the oilseed market show the impact of falling oil prices and tariff rate changes in the EU – with falling prices for bio-diesel driving down demand for palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia. These developments clearly show the inter-dependency of food and energy markets.