The agricultural land market in NI has been unseasonably busy in recent weeks, records kept by the Irish Farmers Journal indicate.

The summertime is traditionally quiet with relatively few new properties offered up for sale but, with the land market effectively stopped during the lockdown, more lots than usual were offered up for sale once coronavirus restrictions eased.

Our records show that 7,102 acres of land has been publicly advertised for sale in NI this year to date, which is 12% lower than the same period last year.

Two months ago, only 4,503ac of land had been publicly offered up, which was down 19% on 2019 levels.

There have been several large properties launched on the market in recent weeks, including a 200-acre farm in Co Fermanagh and a property with 140 acres of land in Co Down.

The herd incidence rate for bovine tuberculosis (TB) in NI has edged upwards, the latest figures from DAERA indicate.

In June 2020, annual herd incidence rate stood at 8.06%. It means that of the 22,022 herds test over the previous 12 months, 1,775 went down with TB.

The latest incidence rate is up from 7.79% seen in May 2020. The figure for June 2020 is similar to levels recorded during the first quarter of the year and is lower than the same month last year when annual herd incidence rate was 8.38%.

Across the ten 10 divisional veterinary office areas in NI, Newtownards continues to have the highest incidence rate of 11.26%. In the first six months of 2020, there were 5,847 reactor animals removed from NI farms, down 6% on the same period last year and 23% lower than 2018 levels.