Rural News

Plans for an intensive poultry farm on green belt land near York have been rejected by city councillors.

Are you proud of your contribution to the countryside? Does your business reach out and explain food production? Is it a valued presence on a market town high street?

It could be another month before the true financial implications of the summer heatwave on farming businesses are fully grasped, with livestock farmers likely to be those who face the biggest cashflow challenges, according to the new head of agriculture at Yorkshire Bank.

Oft-quoted conventional wisdom has it that trends have a habit of coming back around, so has the time come for a revival of farmhouse cheese?

Environment Secretary Michael Gove is being urged to take decisive action to halt the demise of the nation’s smaller abattoirs which the meat industry warn are shutting at an “alarming” rate.

A new online service to match nearby farmers and growers with urgently needed water supplies has been launched by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU).

One of the most defining features of the Yorkshire Dales landscape is succumbing to a disease which is sweeping through the National Park “phenomenally quickly”.

Fruit, veg and flower growers could be offered new sources of funding to fuel urgent investment in productivity-boosting technology under a new farming policy, the Farming Minister George Eustice said.

Farmers are urging the Government to make food security a top priority on the day the country’s cupboards would run bare if households relied only on British food.

Farmers will attempt to demonstrate to the public the passion and commitment they put into producing food and maintaining the countryside during a 24-hour social media event.

Keeping sweetness in peas is akin to a military operation in the East Riding from Langtoft to Market Weighton and Holderness and if transportation from viner to wagon to a freezing facility is not completed within an allotted time it can affect the quality of the crop and with it the profitability of the harvest.

We were just about to sit down for Sunday lunch when my phone rang. I was on duty for the weekend, ever alert to the various animals and their emergencies around the county. This is something that any vet who works on call gets used to. So, too, does their family. I’m not sure mine even notice the beeper going off anymore!

Our readers now have more time to help us celebrate the countless individuals who make our countryside what it is today.

When a Yorkshire village reputed to be the county’s lengthiest loses its one and only shop, and its school, the impact can hardly go unnoticed.

A trial scheme in the Yorkshire Dales, which could influence how farmers nationally are paid for delivering environmental results post-Brexit, is being extended for two years in a deal worth more than a quarter of a million pounds of taxpayers’ money.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has promised to support farmers in the future, as they warned of an “unprecedented” impact on food production due to drought.

Farming fortunes lay finely balanced with the industry’s intense uncertainty starkly apparent in the agricultural heartland of Ryedale where not one single commercial arable farm has been sold so far this year.

A real hunger exists within rural communities to conserve landscapes steeped in local heritage, and this sentiment must continue to be tapped into if the countryside is to be properly protected for future generations to enjoy.

A groundswell of grass roots action to inject fresh life and spirit into rural villages cannot sustain countryside communities long-term, policy-makers are being warned.