Organised crime has cost Ulster farmers more than £11 million in the last three years, it can be revealed. Tim Price from NFU Mutual, which insures more than 75 per cent of farmers in the province, said that based on their claims, “we estimate the total cost of theft to Northern Irish agriculture was: £3.9 million in 2011; £3.9 million in 2010; and £2.9 million in 2009”

The Co-operative Group is to take on 800 apprentices this year – double the number it recruited in 2011. They will be taken on through The Co-operative Apprenticeship Academy, set up last year to offer young people transferable skills, competitive salaries and qualifications. The apprentices will work across the society’s businesses, spanning food, pharmacy, motors, legal, financial services and farming.

Duplicate farm inspections, unhelpful staff, excessive fines and “enough paperwork to fill 12 novels” has bred a “culture of fear” among Welsh farmers, a new report has concluded. Business consultant Gareth Williams said much had to change if Welsh agriculture was to be freed from the shackles of over-regulation.

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