Two UK farm advisers say a lack of confidence, limited training and doubts about the benefits keep many farmers from using artificial intelligence, and suggest starting with one dull task.
CropsTesting by Rothamsted Research for AHDB found 36% of autumn aphids carrying BYDV so far in 2026 and 34% in 2025, against a 2020-24 average of 22.3%, and the levy body may raise the default in its BYDV risk tool.
LivestockVet Mel Julian of Cross Counties Farm Vets says drive-by routines cut contact between cattle and people, raising stress and injury risk at handling, and suggests daily interaction and familiarising animals with handling systems.
AgribusinessUK tofu maker Tofoo & Co has begun building a factory at Malton, North Yorkshire, that will double its production capacity and support £73m in annual sales, with completion due by autumn 2027.
CropsA Cambridgeshire manager melts his own urea and cuts N by about 20%, a Suffolk grower has gone from 200-220 to about 120 kg/ha, and a Pembrokeshire dairy farmer grew the same grass on 83 kg/ha.
AgrotechClive Bailye's AI farming agent, Giles, watched the government site, filled in his Sustainable Farming Incentive form when the window opened and had it ready to review by 10.30am; the pot closed at 3.48pm.
AgribusinessHMRC's illustrative rates suggest about £3.77 a tonne on ammonium nitrate in the first year, far below earlier estimates, but a farmer warns the charge rises steeply from 2030.
EnvironmentAfter the driest April-to-September in more than a century, the Environment Agency declared severe drought in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and East and West Sussex, and will step up checks on farm water abstraction.
LivestockWith 2,878 bluetongue cases this season against 348 in all of last season, a Devon practice finds around 50% of some 800 tested rams infertile and urges fertility tests before tupping, while a sheep association survey points to strong vaccine demand for 2027.
AgrotechAutoSpray Systems and the National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs have launched a Defra-backed scholarship giving five YFC members CAA-approved, Lantra-accredited spray-drone pilot training worth £17,500 in total.
LivestockThe East of England's Swaffham group has become the Outdoor Pig Environmental Risk Reduction Programme, chaired by AHDB, to gather evidence on reducing outdoor pig farming's impact on water and to work with regulators.
CropsUK crop science body Niab will lead a three-year BBSRC-funded project, the first under the second phase of the International Wheat Yield Partnership, to put novel traits into elite European winter wheat and test them with eight commercial breeders.
EnvironmentFreedom of Information replies gathered by the CLA show over half of responding fire services in England and Wales have no wildfire protective clothing, a third have no drones, and on-call engines were unavailable 32% of the year.
