Rural News

It has been a hard winter for beekeepers. There are few tougher things for honeybees than being hit with a late cold spell just when they are at their weakest. After coping with the Beast from the East that the last thing any of us wanted was the discovery of the Asian Hornet as far north as Bury.

“Thank you so much. I’m sorry for bothering you. He has pants on his head now and that is much better.”

To say that I was taken aback is a bit of an under-statement, as it’s not what you’d expect to be witnessing, late on a Sunday afternoon on the streets of such a beautiful, North Yorkshire, picture postcard village.

At the start of every spring for centuries, a parade of pregnant ewes have hoofed it downhill through the Yorkshire Dales village of Askrigg to lower pastures, where they benefit from gentler climes when they are at their most delicate.

Getting your hands dirty is not so much a statement of intent more a fact of life for farmers. Boiler suits and wellington boots are the customary attire for those born to a world of ensuring livestock is cleaned out and tended to the best animal husbandry levels and that crops grow as well as they can when the weather is as it seems to have been for the past six months and more.

Do you like butter? The phrase many of us know from holding the commonly found buttercup under our chins to catch the light and one of the many simple ways we can enjoy our local wildlife.

Bridging payments worth more than £117m have been paid out to more than 3,200 farms in England but for many farmers they come too late to avoid the financial strain caused by prolonged wet weather that has only just abated.

Minette Batters, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, will today urge chief constables to ensure farms and rural communities do not become a “soft target” for criminals.

Police forces are still grappling to tackle the organised crime that is increasingly befalling rural communities, the chairwoman of the National Rural Crime Network said.

The head of a national police crime network has accused forces of being too responsive to rural crime, as she urged the public to help demonstrate the need for more proactive policing in the countryside.

Bridging payments worth more than £117m have been paid out to more than 3,200 farms in England, the Rural Payments Agency has announced.

A new two-year project aims to tell the story of how dairy farming has been an intrinsic part of the Wensleydale economy for generations.

Sugar beet growers are set for a share of more than £6m after a landmark ruling.

Slip back to the days when the UK’s number one hits included Tragedy, I Will Survive and YMCA and you begin to understand what is meant by the phrase “they don’t make ’em like that anymore”.

Every farmer should engage with the Government’s consultation on the future of agriculture, the newly-elected vice president of the National Farmers’ Union, Stuart Roberts, said, as he revealed his own concerns about the proposed direction of post-Brexit policy.

Only by taking concerted action now on England’s rivers can salmon be protected for generations to come, the Environment Agency said in response to criticism about its proposed new catch and release policy for the species.

I started drawing wildlife when I was 13-years-old but it wasn’t until I was 15 before I considered myself any good.

A chorus of shrill notes played out from feathered chests tell us that winter is giving way to spring. Natural melodies from winged wildlife perched in the outside world beyond our bedroom windows tell us warmer weather is on its way, and of course, that a new day is dawning.

It was a bright spring day, almost no clouds in the sky and the pollen count was up, because I can still remember my eyes streaming at the time. There I was, just minding my own business, unusually I was behaving myself too, walking with friends across the main grassed area in the middle of the school.