AGRICULTURE BILL UPDATE

The Agriculture Bill had its second reading in the House of Commons on 10^th October and is continuing its progress through Parliament.  The Farmer Network attended a national meeting of Countryside Stewardship facilitators in Birmingham this Thursday when we found out more about the development of the new Environment Land Management Scheme that will eventually replace Stewardship.  Defra is wanting to use some of the facilitation groups to test and trial parts of the new scheme and Newton Rigg and Askham Bryan College are also involved in testing.  A big thank you to the two farmers from the Swaledale facilitation group who came with us – it was reassuring that there was a good representation from farmers at the event.