Parish re-elected EFRA committee chair

Conservative MP Neil Parish has been re-elected as chair of the House of Commons’ Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) committee, the committee tasked with scrutinising the work of Defra.

Parish comfortably defeated Tory backbench MPs Zac Goldsmith and Bill Wiggin in last week’s secret ballot among MPs. Parish is a former dairy farmer, and was chair of the EFRA committee in the previous Parliament. Earlier this year the Ulster Farmers’ Union, along with former south Down MP Margaret Ritchie, hosted Parish on a visit to farms in NI.

Barclays doubles agriculture funding

Barclays is making available an additional £100m to fund agricultural loans in the UK.

This brings the funding available for agricultural loans at Barclays to £200m with loans from the fund available in terms up to 15 years.

Funding will be available for farmers to modernise infrastructure, streamline farming processes and limit exposure to market volatility through diversification into new agricultural or non-agricultural activities.

Entries sought for Beltex competition

The annual Beltex cross-bred sheep carcase competition will be held at Dunbia, Dungannon on Friday 28 July.

Organised by the Irish Beltex Sheep Breeders Club and supported by the Beltex Sheep Society, the event is sponsored by Dunbia, Provita and the Beltex club. The prize fund for this year totals £550.

All lambs entered should be 16 to 21kg dead weight. For further information or to enter contact Colin Barnes (email: colin_a_barnes@hotmail.co.uk or phone 07811 556673).