Category: News

Wednesday’s auctions on LSL. Register at www.lslauctions.com to take part. *Details correct at the time of publication. Auctions are subject to change without notification.

Blustery wintry showers early in the far northeast. Elsewhere, fine after a widespread frost. Rain, with hill snow in the north, Thursday, clearing to wintry showers later and into Friday.

A cold and frosty start on Wednesday, with frost in some places during the morning. It will be a dry and sunny day overall apart from isolated coastal showers. Highest afternoon temperatures of 4 to 6C, with light westerly winds. In the evening, cloud will thicken from the Atlantic with rain spreading eastwards across the country, alongside strengthening southerly winds. The rain will briefly fall as sleet on some higher…

Food prices will have to increase to keep in line with production costs otherwise farmers face a loss-making situation, say Ireland’s biggest farming body. Production costs and agricultural output for farmers over recent months have risen sharply backed by the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office. Irish Farmers’ Association president Tim Cullinan believes food prices will have to go up. “If production costs are going up, absolutely food costs…

Farmers will be given funding to restore habitats and re-wild Britain with two new Government schemes to be launched this week. Environment Secretary George Eustice will unveil the new Local Nature Recovery scheme as part of the Government’s drive to increase biodiversity in the UK. Funding will be provided to plant trees, build new habitats, restore peat and wetland areas.  There is also a Landscape Recovery scheme which is aimed…

Thursday’s auctions on LSL. Register at www.lslauctions.com to take part. *Details correct at the time of publication. Auctions are subject to change without notification.

Tuesday’s auctions on LSL. Register at www.lslauctions.com to take part. *Details correct at the time of publication. Auctions are subject to change without notification.

Friday’s auctions on LSL. Register at www.lslauctions.com to take part. *Details correct at the time of publication. Auctions are subject to change without notification.

Saturday’s auctions on LSL. Register at www.lslauctions.com to take part. *Details correct at the time of publication. Auctions are subject to change without notification.

A new apprenticeship programme announced by the Government will include agriculture in a bid to tackle labour shortages across the country.  There will be 17 new apprenticeship programmes developed in 2022 and the plan is to create 10,000 apprenticeships in agriculture, engineering, construction, equine, finance, hospitality and food, ICT and logistics. Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research Innovation and Science, Simon Harris said the new apprenticeships will help deliver…

Irish farmers are being offered the opportunity to swap work for a season on a dairy farm in New Zealand. Applications for the roles are being sought via Facebook by farmer Keith Manton, who is originally from Templemore, Co. Tipperary.  Mr Manton, a dairy farm manager in Balfour, New Zealand, is advertising on social media for two assistant farm managers and two farm assistants.  He is willing to take on…

Exceptionally mild at first. Unsettled with spells of rain and strong winds interspersed with drier and brighter interludes. Rain heaviest over southern Scotland. Becoming colder through Sunday.

On Friday morning (New Years Eve), rain will clear northwards and the rest of the day will be mild and mainly dry with highest temperatures of 12 to 15C, in light southerly breezes. In the evening another band of rain will spread northeastwards across the country. Lowest temperatures of 9 to 11C, with fresh southerly winds, strong in some coastal areas.

Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson is to shut his Oxfordshire farm shop for renovations until March. West Oxfordshire District Council has ordered the Diddly Squat farm shop to close for repair work to the roof. Featured in the Amazon Prime show Clarkson’s Farm, the TV presenter was filmed on his quest to run a 1,000 acre farm in Chadlington.  Following the programme, the shop has become a huge tourist…

Biblical rules of fair pay and fair trade should be applied to Irish farming, claims a Church of Ireland minister. The minister, who was raised on a dairy farm in Cashel, Co. Tipperary, has written about farming from a Christian perspective. Reverend Lester Scott said the Bible is clear that people should be paid fairly for their work and applying this principle means farmers should receive the minimum wage, at…

Heavy showers clearing from Scotland, then many northern areas dry with sunny intervals. Cloudier further south with outbreaks of rain and drizzle, mainly in western areas. Very mild again.

Thursday morning will be mostly cloudy and mainly dry. Rain will develop in the south towards noon and will spread northwards through the afternoon and evening, heavy at times with localised flooding possible. Highest temperatures of 11 to 13 degrees with light to moderate southerly breezes, which will strengthen in the south later.

Irish liquid milk farmers are making a massive exodus from the sector because rising costs during the winter are no longer covered by the premium, reported the Irish Farmers Association (IFA). Keith O’Boyle, IFA liquid milk chair, said: “Last year 20 per cent of liquid milk producers exited the sector. Escalating costs have eroded the profitability and sustainability of liquid milk producers.” “Since last winter, feed energy and fuel costs…

A €2.7million investment has been announced to expand the National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory (NASCO). Charlie McConalogue, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, confirmed the new funding to step up the carbon farming framework. The investment will be used to purchase additional greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring equipment to increase the range and types of soil and land uses being monitored by observatory. Minister McConalogue said the new NASCO funding is…

Wednesday’s auctions on LSL. Register at www.lslauctions.com to take part. *Details correct at the time of publication. Auctions are subject to change without notification.

On 12/22 we launched our new App with a much more modern layout and as a complete tool so that you don’t miss out on your favorite Auctions and Marts. Designed to cover the needs of our users, it is much more intuitive and easier to navigate. In the new LSL Auctions App, you can find the main functions on the home screen and can navigate through the Online Auctions…

More than 8,000 farmers are facing clawbacks when the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) reference period finishes at the end of the year, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA). Brendan Golden, IFA’s livestock committee chair, criticised the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s (DAFM’s) handing of BEAM. “It has been an administrative disaster from the outset by the Department of Agriculture,” he commented. “The situation reached new lows…

A tractor has been retrofitted with fuel-saving technology originally designed for buses. In a bid to reduce carbon emissions, a Welsh college is trialling the use of a hydrogen electrolyser, which has been plumed into the tractor’s airtake. The project by UK start-up Water Fuel Systems, claims the device can cut exhaust emissions by up to 80 per cent and fuel consumption by 20 per cent. Engineering lecturer Gareth Williams…

Cold with a few wintry showers in the north. Milder with rain at times in the south. In between, some rain, sleet or, mainly hill, snow. Breezy in places.

A cloudy Christmas morning with outbreaks of rain moving in from the south and becoming more widespread by the afternoon. Breezy with moderate to fresh southeast winds, windiest in Ulster. Highest temperatures of 8 to 11C, with light to moderate southeast winds. 

A new programme to tackle carbon emissions in the dairy industry has been launched by the Northern Ireland Government. Led by the Dairy Council Northern Ireland and CAFRE, the initiative will start in 2022. NI dairy farmers can join in the voluntary programme of carbon benchmarks that has been established with the dairy companies.  Agriculture minister Edwin Poots said the carbon audits align with the Green Growth Strategy which DAERA…

The BBC’s support service received more than 1.2 million phone calls and online visits this year after featuring depression and alcoholism among farmers. There were two thousand visitors to the BBC’s support page following an episode of Countryfile, shown in February which interviewed farmers experiencing economic uncertainty due to the pandemic.  A broadcast interview with a farmer, who had considered suicide due to lockdown, also prompted calls to the action…

Unsettled; bands of rain affecting most areas, these turning to snow in parts of the north. Windy, with a risk of gales Friday and Saturday. Mild start, colder later.

Patchy rain will clear Ulster and parts of Leinster through Thursday morning. Elsewhere will see brighter and drier conditions with sunny spells and scattered showers, this will extend to all parts during the afternoon. Relatively mild with highest temperatures of 10 to 13C, in moderate southwesterly winds.

New data has revealed that the price of Irish agricultural land is the fourth highest in the EU.  Only the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy have higher prices for farming land.  One hectare of arable land in Ireland cost an average of €25,724 last year, according to figures published by the European Commission. The European Commission said land prices depended on a number of factors including climate, proximity to networks, soil…