Rural News

Food and farming businesses across North and East Yorkshire constitute the nation’s “rural powerhouse” but they must collaborate better to prosper from a period of impending change, the leader of the area’s local enterprise partnership said.

Michael Gove’s future position as Environment Secretary is currently in some degree of doubt following reports that he has been offered the job of Brexit Secretary following the resignation today of MP Dominic Raab.

A key Government department has been accused of complacency by MPs over its Brexit readiness, findings which it flatly rejects.

Agriculture’s true value to the nation’s economy has been overlooked for far too long and must not be under-estimated in future government policy decisions, farming leaders have warned.

Badger culls are having only a “modest” effect in the battle to beat bovine tuberculosis and it is farming decisions, not wildlife, that are contributing most the risk of the disease spreading, a leading academic has claimed.

Chasing margin not income by taking a different approach to running livestock can make upland farms more resilient, according to Dales farmer Neil Heseltine.

Traditional farming models will come under real pressure as the Government implements a new farming policy, industry experts have warned.

The first appointment of evening surgery had been given a double time slot. It was a simple job – the clipping of a bulldog’s nails.

TV vets Peter Wright and Julian Norton will star in the UK’s first animal telethon in the run-up to Christmas.

Descending through the heather and long abandoned quarries on moorland above Keighley, the path suddenly wound into a sloping patch of woodland and I found myself ducking to pass beneath an old oak tree which had spread out its abundant limbs at all heights and angles.

Almost a fifth of UK farmers are planning to diversify as they face up to the “greatest challenge to their future for generations”, new research published today reveals.

TV presenter Anita Rani is being filmed at a Yorkshire agricultural college this week as part of a special episode of Countryfile about inspiring women.

Britain’s wildlife and natural environment is at risk of being damaged by a “deeply” worrying hole in protective laws when the nation leaves the European Union, a cross-party committee of MPs has warned today.

Thursday was the mid-point of a run of five nights on call. That doesn’t sound so bad. Plenty of people work five nights on the trot. As a veterinary surgeon though, it’s not just the nights that we cover, but also the days in between. And it’s not as if the days are quiet either. What you don’t really need, at the end of evening surgery, is a cow with a twisted intestine.

Today it is the seals who put on a show for tourists, but had Victorian entrepreneurs had their way, it might have been the location for an altogether more organised form of entertainment.

It is a village that is defined by the past, and one in which a warm welcome could not always be taken for granted.

Our Q&A series with agricultural personalities from across Yorkshire continues this week with Richard Boldan.

Elsewhere in Harrogate at the weekend another event with a rather more political tone was under way, but organisers of Countryside Live said the show offered a welcome haven from the uncertainty plaguing the industry ahead of a new era.