Whilst the regulations to improve the conditions in which battery chickens are kept were approved and voted on by MEPs over ten years ago, the directive is only coming into force in January 2012. From January onwards farmers who keep over 350 chickens will have to ensure these chickens are kept in 'improved' cages. The chickens must be given access to litter or gravel on the floor of the cage in order to be able to scrat around and peck as they would naturally. The cages will also need to have a minimum of around 800 sq cm of floor spare (nearly double what was the required space before this new directive) and

In the latest in an increase in sheep rustling and illegal slaughtering, a farmer found his flock had been gunned down in an horrific attack in Northamptonshire. At first Mr Phipps thought his sheep had been the victims of a dog attack, but on closer inspection he saw that animals had bullet wounds caused by a .24 calibre hunting rifle. The sheep appeared to have huddled together for protection at first and were then sprayed with bullets. The unknown gang then took 23 dead lambs, leaving other dead sheep scattered around the field. Its thought the raid was to supply the illegal meat trade which has increas

The production company behind 'Made in Chelsea' are planning on yet another reality TV series, but this time based on the challenges and experiences of the farming community. Monkey Kingdom, the company behind the reality TV series, aim to place farmers between the age of 20 and 30 into constructed reality scenarios (so not really reality at all!). It is to be based in Devon and meant to air later this year. However, the Devon Federation of Young Farmers is concerned that the show will simply stereotype farmers and look for farmers who speak a certain way and have certain opinions. Executive producer for

The Gofarmer website has recently gone through some changes. The payment system is no longer run through WorldPay (RBS) but has been changed to Moneybookers. It has taken a while to get the new payment system integrated but it is finally working as it should (fingers crossed). And I have had all urls (website addresses) for the search categories and sub-categories optimised for the search engines so instead of the web address just reading http://www.gofarmer.com/search?search.php it now reads http://www.gofarmer.com/search?livestock-for-sale for example. This should really help with the website's Google rankin

How would you like your chicken to be featured on the cover of 2012's British Free Range Egg Producers Association Calendar? As well as winning you five hundred pounds. And don't worry if your prize hen doesn't quite make it as 'Miss Chicken 2012' there are a further 12 places up for grabs for January through to December, along with £50 per place up for grabs. The calendar is sent out to all members of the association for free and is available to buy for none members on the official website. Anyone can enter, whether you own a chicken or not, simply send in an image of a free range hen or upload your image

The Non-Diet Cook Book by Krystle Nicole Russin is a cook book focusing on using fresh produce, locally sourced. Below is an interview with the author : Please give a little background on yourself and how you became involved in cooking? I enrolled in one year of cooking class during high school. Before then, I never cooked. I was afraid I would not be able to follow a recipe and am sure many others are the same and don’t cook for this reason. I became more interested in food after this class. My infatuation with food went from enjoying it to believing it made me feel better about my life in a s

The European Union currently imports around two billion pounds (sterling) of beef and thirty million pounds (sterling) of semen every year from America. Recent agricultural news reports state that animal cloning is widespread and unregulated in the United States and therefore imported meat and semen could be coming from first generation cloned animals. It has been stated in several farming news reports that European Members of Parliament want a complete ban on cattle meat and semen from American until it can be proven that the products have not come from cloned livestock. European farmers have to abide by toug

In May 2010 a Cumbrian judge handed out an unusually long prison sentence on Robert Mickle, who along with his accomplice, Christopher Steele, came especially from County Durham to a farm in Cumbria to steal a cattle truck. On passing the 16-month prison sentence on Mickle, Judge Paul Batty QC said he hoped to deter other such criminals by giving a long sentence and vowed to do what he could to stop Cumbria farms being targeted by criminals out to steal expensive farm machinery. On sentencing Mickle and Steele for the theft of a cattle lorry worth £6,000 the Judge said : "Farmers in Cumbria all too ofte

In early 2010 DEFRA launched the new Upland Support scheme for hill farmer's, which is to replace Hill Farm Allowance. The scheme will reward farmers for adopting and continuing to practice environmentally friendly farming. It is available to all farmers in Severely Disadvantaged Areas so long as they are not already in receipt of an ESA scheme or CSS Agreement. The Upland Support Scheme will pay farmers for conserving the habitats of wildlife, maintaining historic features and traditional characteristics like stone walls and meadows. Farmers will also be encouraged to breed traditional livestock and conserve

DEFRA recently published its annual figures of EU payments (direct aids, rural development payments and market schemes) and the number of UK farming businesses receiving over a million pounds in EU grants and subsidies has now increased to 29, from 16 last year. This has again led to renewed criticism of the system and how much tax-payers money goes to these 'rich' farmers and how the benefits are being given to few, large landowners and not to the smaller farmers, who are usually in more need of the funding. It is a vicious circle with the massive subsidies paid out to large landowners allowing them to expand