Farming Link

Sign up to receive monthly Farming Link news alerts which provide you with the latest farming information from Defra, including changes in legislation, upcoming events, information on consultations and other key dates. Further information: www.defra.gov.uk/farminglink.

Supporting and developing British farming, and encouraging sustainable food production, is one of the three departmental priorities laid down in Defra’s Business Plan. This includes helping to enhance the competitiveness and resilience of the whole food chain, including farms and the fish industry, to ensure a secure, environmentally sustainable and healthy supply of food with improved standards of animal welfare.

In support of this we work in a number of areas including:

• Food strategy, personal food imports, food labelling and public sector food procurement
• Farm animals: animal welfare, animal health and diseases, and livestock movement controls
• Crops – including organics, GM crops, plant health, bees
• Fishing industry – conservation of fish stocks and the EU Common Fisheries Policy
• Farm management, Single Payment Scheme, Environmental Stewardship
• The Review of Farm Regulation, CAP Reform

Recent publications

• Bovine TB Eradication Programme for England

• Controls on Animal By-Products

• Foot and Mouth Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain

• Exotic Animal Disease Risk Pathways and Countermeasures Report

• Guidance for keepers in England Rules for identifying sheep and goats

• Sheep and goat holding register

• Welfare of animals during transport – Sheep

• Guidance for keepers in England and Wales – Sheep and Goats – Movements to Show Grounds

• Sheep and Goat Keepers – England – Rules for movements within a business, changed on 31 December 2009

• Sheep EID – Reading and recording requirements for slaughterhouses in England and Wales

All food and farming publications