The U.K. government is starting an investigation into just how badly labor shortages, Brexit and surging commodity prices are hurting the country’s food industry.

A lack of key workers such as truck drivers is pushing businesses toward losses and causing knock-on issues for consumers, said Neil Parish, chair of the Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. In a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, he highlighted livestock stuck on farms due to meat-processing bottlenecks and lower chicken production closing some food outlets.

The committee set an initial Oct. 8 deadline for its inquiry and is seeking insight into issues including:

The outlook for labor shortages in the coming months and years.

What impact a timetable for physical checks at the border on food and live animal imports from the EU will have on current supply-chain problems.

Whether the government needs to take more action to support the food supply chain.

A text alert system to warn farmers about livestock in danger has been developed.

Farmer Tim Rogers set up the Livestock Lookout system on the Isle of Wight after cattle escaped on his land.

The technology, being offered to farms across the UK, lets passers-by warn farmers if livestock is the loose or distressed.

Mr Rogers said it was an “effective early warning system” for the rural community.

He came up with the idea after cows escaped from a field on his land, knocked someone over and damaged a car.

He said he only found out when concerned passers-by posted about it on social media but had no way of informing him.

Putting up a sign with his mobile number only encouraged nuisance calls, he added.

Instead, he used intelligent technology to allow farmers to be contacted quickly but anonymously.

Farmers display a sign with a central text number and a unique location number.

The farmer then receives an text, via a central exchange directory, to alert them to any incidents, while the system gathers more information from the informant

A rural auctioneer is holding the UK’s first dedicated virtual pedigree livestock sale as the coronavirus crisis continues to cause restrictions.

The initiative will allow Harrison & Hetherington’s (H&H) Annual Dairy Pedigree Sale of dairy bulls, from across the North of England and Scotland, to still go ahead.

The rural firm’s decision to launch an online catalogue comes as Covid-19 restrictions have made the conduct of livestock sales impossible.

But the virtual sale will allow “normal” trading to continue, albeit without the face-to-face sales that the traditional mart embodies.

The catalogue is already published, and bidding will commence on Friday 10 April at 9am, with final bids to be made by Tuesday 14 April at 5pm.

Professor Sir Ian Boyd said climate policies after Brexit will alter the landscape more than most people expect.

There will be many more trees and hedges but far fewer grazing animals as people eat less red meat, he said.

The farmers’ union, the NFU, rejected his analysis and forecast that there may be more grazing animals, not fewer.

It said the UK’s well-watered pastures are ideal for producing low-carbon livestock and exporting it to places where growing conditions are less favourable.

This is the first public eruption of a long-running conflict between Professor Boyd, the former adviser to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the body that represents Britain’s farmers.

Sir Ian thinks the NFU has wielded far too much influence over departmental policy. The NFU believes he is out of touch with the reality of farming. 

The antipathy reflects deeper technical, ethical and political debates over the future of the production and consumption of animals for food.

Hundreds of cows in the New Forest will have their horns removed following a series of attacks on dog walkers.

A rise in serious injuries to walkers in the last year, including the reported goring of an 86-year-old woman, has led to the move.

The New Forest Commoners Defence Association (CDA) has been forced to write a letter to the 200 people who are registered to turn cattle out to graze the forest to dehorn their stock.

Tony Hockley, chair of the CDA, said it was because people have “lost any respect” for the dangers of livestock.

Mr Hockey said: “People seem to have lost all connection with the countryside and any healthy respect for large livestock.