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Microbes are increasingly central to visions of sustainable and healthy futures, including in farming movements such as regenerative agriculture. In social science and environmental humanities scholarship, (re)connecting with microbes is seen as a way to challenge, conceptually and practically, the very ontology of human-nature separation which underpins the destruction and violence in human relations with other living beings and with environments. The crux of this onto-ethical potential is a shift towards relational modes of knowing microbes, rooted in localised, proximate, and sensuous practice, and expressed in embodied expertise. This paper engages critically with this promise by calling attention to persistence of calculability to people's self-governance within current microbiopolitics. Through a case study of regenerative agriculture in the United Kingdom, I argue that while embodied expertise of soil microbes is seen as crucial to soil health-oriented farming, it is also dismissed as an insufficient in guiding farmers and shaping future practice, including by farmers themselves. Regenerative agriculture continues to function within "farming by numbers", an agri-biopolitical regime in which farmers' and advisors' subjectivity is that of calculating managers situated in calculable environments. As a result, calculability acts as a 'break' on the development of alternative microbial onto-ethics, and regenerative agriculture practitioners look for ways to bring soil microbes into the realm of calculability (e.g., through metagenomics). Consequently, the way microbes are being incorporated into future agri-environmental relations reinforces rather than threatens existing structures of biopolitical power. Overall, I argue that human-microbe research, potentially due to its empirical focus on alternative practices, has underplayed the importance of calculability to people's self-governance in relations with microbes. The struggle for a new microbiopolitics, especially in agriculture and environmental management, will require addressing the continued importance of calculability, and a creative and socially relevant experimentation with alternative forms of expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become one of the defining challenges of the twenty-first century. Food production and farming are a key if troubling component of that challenge. Livestock production accounts for well over half of annual global consumption of antimicrobials, though the contribution of the sector to drug resistance is less clear. As a result, there is an injunction to act in advance of incontrovertible evidence for change. In this paper we engage with the role of market actors in the precautionary regulation of farming practices and AMR threats. The paper takes the UK poultry sector as exemplary of an audit-led process that has, in recent years, achieved impressive reductions in antimicrobial use. Using qualitative interview data with farmers and veterinarians we chart the changing practices that have accompanied this reduction in treatments. We use this analysis to raise some cautions around audit-led systems of regulation. Audits can lock farms and animals into particular versions of farming and animal health; they can elevate harmful compensatory practices (including disinfectant uses); and they can reproduce an actuarial approach to an issue that does not fit the conventions of risk management. The paper presents the considerable successes that have been achieved over a short period of time in a livestock sector, while generating notes of caution concerning the audit-led management of livestock-related AMR threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loneliness is a 'silent epidemic', challenging people's emotional and ontological sense of being in the world. Whilst loneliness has been the focus of medical and psychological research, often being synonymous with discourses of mental ill health, trauma and relationship breakdowns, it has remained under-theorised from a geographical perspective. In offering a critical engagement of how and where loneliness exists geographically, this paper identifies three key spatial dimensions that Geographers can proceed from. First, that loneliness is experienced relationally 'in place' through everyday practice and behaviour. Second, that loneliness has the capacity to infiltrate felt socio-emotional relationships and interactions. Third, that loneliness is multi-scalar, affecting bodies, families, friendships, workplaces, neighbourhoods and communities in diverse and intersecting ways. Focusing on farming and farm workers (a group recently referred to in the popular press as potentially facing isolation and loneliness) we draw on interviews with young UK farmers to examine how loneliness can be expressed through labour and routine, how farming loneliness becomes entrenched in the spaces of farming practice and habitus and the relational (and contested) responsibilities of farming communities in identifying, supporting and mediating problem loneliness in increasingly solitary contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food markets were a vital element in the economic life of Britain over many centuries, and the arrival of railways into urban spaces during the nineteenth century provided unprecedented opportunities for them to expand the range and volume of good that they sold. This article examines the impact of railways on these markets during the decades following the arrival of trains into London through a case study of Borough Market. This important London fruit and vegetable market is examined through the prism of its financial records. Detailed analysis of the Market's income produces a timeline for growth, while the records for the goods ported through the Market help to explain the change. The case study also highlights developments in trading techniques at Borough Market that enabled it to prosper during the second half of the nineteenth century, despite limitations placed on its expansion created by the impact of railways on the urban physical environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lameness is a significant health and welfare issue in farmed animals. This paper uses a governmentality approach, which focuses on how a problem is made governable, to examine an emerging 'ecology of devices' introduced to intervene in, and attempt to reduce, on-farm incidence of lameness. These devices are associated with advisers who work with farmers on-farm; they enact lameness as a governable entity, are tools to assess the existence of lameness against established norms, and prescribe actions to be taken in response to evidence of lameness. In doing this they subjectify farmers and advisers into seeing and responding to lameness in particular ways. Using concepts of governmentality alongside other perspectives on the power relations and the simplifications and complexities involved in interventions in animal health and farm practice, the paper draws on in-depth research with advisers including vets and other paraprofessionals who work with farmers, and their cows and sheep. It explores how this set of devices introduces particular techniques and practices in lameness management, and produces farmer and adviser subjectivities. It then explores some of the problematics of this mode of governing lameness, including analysis of the limitations and unintended consequences of attempts to simplify lameness management. The paper concludes by arguing that its approach is valuable in analysing ongoing intensification of interventions in farming practices and in understanding the limits of such interventions and the unanticipated divergences from expected conduct. • A governmentality approach to livestock lameness provides valuable insight into recent attempts to reduce its prevalence and severity on farms. • The government of lameness produces farmer and adviser subjectivities linked to new tools and devices aiming to reduce the incidence of lameness. • The government of lameness is limited by complexities linked with attempts to simplify interventions and deviation from expected practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years tree planting as a response to climate change has acquired a very high profile amongst policy-makers, scientists, the media, and the public. This 'afforestation', however, requires space: that is, land. Agriculture currently occupies very large areas of land globally meaning that it is commonly targeted as needing to make way for tree planting, and making farmers important gatekeepers to this climate change mitigation strategy. Given the importance of farming sector media outlets in reflecting, shaping and leading values and attitudes amongst the agricultural community, this paper investigates how tree planting is presented within the UK's two leading sectoral publications, Farmers Guardian and Farmers Weekly. We sample coverage at four points over a two-year period (2019–2021) which began with high-profile national media and scientific engagement with the topic. Our analysis reveals very low levels of coverage within these key publications with, on average, just 1 in 200 articles within our sample focussing on tree planting. Within this limited coverage we identify four themes which range from hostility towards the notion of trees on farms replacing agricultural practices, through to occasional recognition of the positive roles that trees on farms can play in climate change mitigation. Arguably, the lack of legitimisation within the coverage constitutes a significant barrier to woodland expansion on agricultural land. We conclude that farming media outlets could play a much stronger role in supporting the agricultural community to understand how it could contribute to climate change mitigation through bringing trees 'in' to farming systems, and to the normalisation of this within modern farming culture. • Farmers are gatekeepers to tree planting as a climate change mitigation strategy. • Investigates how tree planting is presented in the UK's farming sector press. • Our media analysis reveals on average, just 1 in 200 articles focus on tree planting. • Themes range from hostility to trees on farms to the positive impacts they can have. • Farming media could play a stronger role in bringing trees 'in' to farming systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) are linked to farming fatalities and injuries every year. However, despite evidence that wearing a helmet reduces the risk of serious injury, few farmers wear them. • This study assessed farmer attitudes to ATV helmets using the Michie COM-B model. • Participants reported a range of barriers to helmet wearing including the perception that helmets could interfere with work activities, social stigma and perceived exemption from harm. • Key interventions are suggested using the Michie behaviour change wheel, including modelling, raising awareness and training. All-Terrain Vehicles (ATV) are a popular piece of farming machinery but are linked to many fatalities and injuries every year. Despite evidence that ATV helmets reduce the risk of serious or fatal injury, research suggests that few farmers wear them. The aim of this study was to explore farmer attitudes toward ATV helmets, using the COM-B model as a framework to identify key barriers and enablers of helmet use and suggest potential interventions to increase helmet use in agriculture. Methods : A mixed-methods online survey featuring quantitative and qualitative questions was used to explore key attitudinal factors relevant to farmer helmet wearing. A total of 211 UK and Irish farmers were recruited, including farm owners, managers, workers, and contractors. Results : Personal exemption from risk, emotional benefits, cognitive barriers, and guideline prompts were all found to be significant predictors of farmer helmet wearing. Key categories within the qualitative data indicated that helmet properties, risk perception, farming culture, and the farming environment could all function as barriers to helmet wearing. Suggested enablers of helmet use included increasing helmet availability and enhancing awareness of the consequences of ATV accidents. Conclusions : The key barriers and enablers presented within this paper highlight the relevance of capability (helmet design, time pressure), opportunity (social norms), and motivation (perceived control of risk) when considering farmer helmet wearing behaviors. In order to encourage farmers to wear helmets it will be necessary to design specific interventions using the behavior change wheel. Practical applications : Key interventions to prompt helmet use include the inclusion of more cues to prompt helmet wearing (e.g., stickers on the ATV), enhanced training and education, and modelling (e.g., key farming figures shown to wear helmets in the media). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the adoption of DDT and other insecticides in British farming after 1945 to consider the notion that new synthetic insecticides were taken up rapidly. It shows that the uptake of chemical insecticides during the 1940s and 1950s was slower in many agricultural sectors than accounts have often suggested, and slower than the uptake of other agrochemicals, such as herbicides. Importantly, this paper shows that the extent of use before 1965 varied a great deal according to crop or farming sector and also according to the type of insecticide product. Historians have not sufficiently engaged with the fact that farmers did not purchase the raw chemicals, DDT or BHC, they bought insecticide products – a diverse range of formulations for spraying, dusting or the treatment of seeds. This paper shows how the adoption of insecticidal products on a large scale in the post-war period resulted from various types of work by business and government. The very close relationship between state and business gained its legitimacy from its location in a historical moment in which greater output and efficiency in farming had become a national goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enable a transition to a more sustainable food future, it is crucial policymakers consider and address livestock production and meat consumption holistically. The concept of 'less and better' meat and dairy offers an alternative approach to industrial livestock production. This study explores perspectives of UK stakeholders engaged in political advocacy and implementation on policy priorities and specific policy measures aimed at facilitating a transition to 'less and better' meat in the UK. 16 UK experts on food and farming from the research, civil society, business and farming sectors were interviewed. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify convergence and divergence on views related to policy priorities and the potential for impact, political feasibility and unintended consequences of specific policy measures aimed at increasing the sustainability of livestock production or reducing meat consumption. Experts agreed on policy priorities but held divergent views on the potential for impact of specific policy measures. Economic structures including incentives, disincentives and food prices were highlighted as having the greatest influence over meat production and consumption practices. • Expert interviews investigated views on policies for reducing meat consumption and improving sustainability of production. • Utilizing 'less and better' meat as a framework can support holistic policymaking on food and farming. • Ultra-processed meat tax seen as highest impact measure to reduce meat consumption. • Nitrogen targets and fiscal measures seen as needed to produce livestock more sustainably. • Addressing both production and consumption is crucial to avoid unintended consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural sector in developed countries has been experiencing a growth in the percentage of women, yet very little economic research documents the role and contribution of farm women across these countries. Through an interdisciplinary systematic literature review of 184 international peer-reviewed, English-language studies between 1970 and 2020 we investigate the economic contribution and visibility of women working in the agricultural sector in the United Kingdom (UK). Differences within farm women as a group are explored and used to develop a framework characterising the different economic classifications of farm women across a spectrum of economic contribution and visibility. A comparison of the economic contributions of farm men and women also reveals key differences between farming practices and outcomes. As such, the study reveals key barriers to women's economic participation and visibility in agriculture to be associated with access to land, education and organisations. These factors are evaluated in the context of wider policy. The outcomes of this study increase understanding of factors shaping women's economic contribution and visibility in UK agriculture and will inform further research investigating female participation in agricultural business management and decision making. As the UK formulates its own domestic agricultural acts, UK-wide research will be needed to inform policy and overcome barriers facing women in farming. • Systematic literature review of 184 international papers published 1970–2020. • Farm women's economic identities can be characterised by contribution and visibility. • Gendered differences can be characterised by economic contributions, farming practices and outcomes. • Key barriers to farm women are associated with access to land, education and organisations. • Further UK-specific research is needed as domestic Agriculture Acts are developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While fundamental research into key mechanisms and interactions is important, the practical investigations that scientists also undertake have additional considerations, since the results are applicable in the real world but need disseminating in a way that reaches the intended audience. Worldwide, rapid population growth produces multiple pressures on land, meaning agriculture must become more efficient and productive. Other pressures on farmers are also increasing: to meet environmental quality standards, to follow legislation about application of chemical products, to remain financially viable against uncertain markets, and more. Applied research addresses specific aspects, but often reports do not describe local contexts or are too restricted, lacking details that enable an understanding of their wider application. We illustrate from our experience within UK agriculture, with a particular focus on soil, the identification of current shortcomings in many research publications; provide examples of good practice; and make suggestions for how scientists can help agriculturalists use their work to address the global issues currently faced. Specifically, we recommend that communication between science and agricultural communities is nurtured, to improve mutual understanding and facilitate two-way flow of ideas. In scientific publications, provision of as much contextual information as possible, and consideration for climatic/temporal/location influences, will enable investigations and results to be used for maximum practical effect and should increase citations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2021 the UK government granted an application for authorisation to use thiamethoxam, a neonicotinoid pesticide, to protect commercial sugar beet crops from attack by viruses transmitted by aphids. This was the first time such an authorisation had been granted in the United Kingdom (UK) and there were concerns that it signalled a weakening of environmental standards now that the UK was no longer part of the European Union. In fact, similar authorisations had been granted by several European Member States in the last 2 years, despite the ban on the use of neonicotinoids introduced in 2018. Nevertheless, the reasons for granting the authorisation do suggest that the balance between adopting a precautionary approach to environmental protection and taking emergency action to protect economic interests may have shifted. It was acknowledged that the proposed mitigation to safeguard bees and other wildlife was not entirely satisfactory. In the end, due to unforeseen weather conditions it meant that the pesticide is not necessary, which in itself demonstrates that short-term emergency measures are unsuitable for dealing with the problem. If the sugar beet industry is to continue to prosper in the UK, it will need to be managed in a way that provides resistance to virus infection without the use of controversial chemicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a novel longitudinal qualitative approach of revisiting older men across an elongated period, this paper addresses the lack of geographical attention given to older age masculinities specifically, and the limited exploration of the temporal aspects of masculinity more generally. Situated within debates around intersectional and relational approaches to masculinity and the critical geographies of ageing, the paper utilises insights from Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis to examine how older men (re)produce, organise, and improvise rhythms in using and experiencing places as they age. The paper shows how the notion of masculinities as relational is given fresh insight when considered through the lens of rhythms, offering a less dualistic framing of men than those centred on bodily capacity and that automatically present older men as subordinate, redundant, or inferior. The paper draws on in‐depth, repeat, qualitative interviews across four phases in an 18‐year period with 32 older men (over 65) in the UK. The analysis points to how changing rhythms as men age may be accommodated through, and subsumed within, wider rhythms of continued work, periods of busyness, and eurhythmia (accordance of rhythms) with those around them. Conversely, aspects of arrhythmia (dissonance or conflict of rhythms) that have previously been pointed to as marginalising may also offer older men a level of distinction – allowing, for example, a distancing from age‐graded spaces and prevalent discourses of older age as well as enabling socially dominant masculine positions compared to others at the local level. The paper also points to how masculinities are not only relational to other people and places but also to natural and non‐human rhythms and daily and seasonal contingencies as well as across time. This paper takes a qualitative approach of revisiting older men across an elongated period to attend to the lack of geographical attention given to older age masculinities specifically, and the limited exploration of the temporal aspects of masculinity more generally. The analysis points to how changing rhythms as men age may be accommodated through, and subsumed within, wider rhythms of continued work, periods of busyness, and eurhythmia (accordance of rhythms) with those around them. Conversely, aspects of arrhythmia (dissonance or conflict of rhythms) that have previously been pointed to as marginalising may also offer older men a level of distinction – allowing, for example, a distancing from age‐graded spaces and prevalent discourses of older age as well as enabling socially dominant masculine positions compared to others at the local level. The paper also points to how masculinities are not only relational to other people and places but also to natural and non‐human rhythms and daily and seasonal contingencies as well as across time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-corporate crime research has been critiqued for fetishizing events and specific institutional arrangements. In recent years, this tendency has been changing as researchers are increasingly transcending the empiricist orthodoxy by giving more attention to relations and processes behind events and institutional arrangements. This is evidenced in the UK by the work of Steve Tombs, David Whyte and Kristian Lasslett. Their complementary concepts of "state-corporate crime symbiosis" and "regimes of permission" direct the analysis of social harm at systemic relations and processes expressed through state and corporate practices constitutive of capitalism. Following from this, Kristian Lasslett's application of Marxist dialectic to the study of state crime provides a scientific vantage point for the analysis advocated by Tombs and Whyte. Drawing lessons from their works, the article attempts a Marxist dialectical analysis of the Bt cotton and its contribution to the agrarian crisis in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a new method of finding kinship families in a community and tracking their trajectories over historical time. The method is applied to different sectors of the population of two rural parishes near York in the nineteenth century, namely individuals enumerated in the decennial censuses, fathers listed in the baptismal registers, and burials identified by memorial inscriptions in the churchyards. Enclosure of the fields favoured the gentry and clergy in one of these parishes and the small landowners in the other. An attempt is made in the context of enclosure debates to relate the variable fortunes of kinship families to this difference. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• Digital technologies draw together knowledge, practice and self-care in novel and productive ways. • Digital curation provides young farmers with the agency to connect or disconnect from others. • Digital mediation encourages young farmers to critically reflect on their own practices of digital self-care. This paper explores the geographies of digital curation and self-care among young farmers in the UK, examining how virtual and digital spaces are having a significant impact on how young farmers negotiate their identities, (dis)connection and self-care within their everyday lives. Drawing on interviews with 28 young famers in the UK, we observe how farming identities are (re)produced and practiced online, via carefully curated social media, and how these might constitute practices of self-care in overcoming issues such as disconnection and rural isolation. Our analysis reveals how social media posts are more than simple connections, they are curations of the self that are complexly bound up in the emotional, spatial and temporal contexts of the author's identities. We examine how digital curation is not just an act of the self, but something drawn relationally to others. Attention is given not just to what is posted, but how others are (dis)engaged with, and how posts of others are reacted to, or endorsed, implicitly or explicitly. Through our examination of young farmers' social identities, we therefore argue that digital identities are produced, practiced, managed and understood in very specific ways 'online', in ways that carefully overlap with other geographical identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns about digital agriculture reinforcing industrialised models of agriculture and power inequalities have been widely articulated. This paper uses directionalities, which are characterised by dominant and durable directions or pathways, to conceptualise this envisaged entrenchment. It argues that we need to anticipate and collect the evidence on which to govern digital agriculture technologies before such directionalities set in. To support this anticipatory need, the paper draws on findings from a research prioritisation exercise with stakeholders in the UK. It identifies and critically analyses two interconnecting meta-themes, organisational capacity and human capacity, which emerged inductively in the analysis of selected themes and priority research questions. In doing this, the paper widens the scope of enquiry about digital agriculture, by introducing 'capacities' as a new theoretical lens to examine how institutional structures and processes shape the utilisation of digital data, technologies and their underlying directionalities. The paper concludes by outlining the implications of this new perspective on directionalities and capacities for digital agriculture research in the UK and internationally. • Concerns about digital agriculture reinforcing industrialised models of agriculture. • A stronger evidence base is needed before such durable directionalities set in. • A prioritisation exercise was conducted to identify priority research questions. • Two overarching meta-themes, organisational and human capacity, were identified. • Linking capacities and directionalities provides a new conceptual lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes how livestock farmers respond to moral enquiries about their means of livelihood, by referring to ethnographic data collected in the Scottish Borders. The focus is on three controversial aspects of livestock farming: welfare issues of intensive farming methods, guilt about depriving nonhuman animals of their lives for food, and the moral dilemma of breeding and rearing animals merely to be killed. There was a feeling of uneasiness among farmers about sending the animals they looked after to the slaughterhouse. This, however, was rationalized with the recognition that livestock were bred and reared to be eaten in the first place. By examining farmers' utterances, it is suggested that livestock farmers are conditioned to consider their vocation as a part of the social system, over which they have little control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenge of managing water resources in England is becoming increasingly complex and uncertain, a situation reflected in many countries around the world. Cooperative and participatory forms of governance are now seen as one way of addressing this challenge. We investigated this assertion by focusing on five farmer irrigator groups in the low-lying east of England. The groups' relationship with water resources management was interpreted through the lens of comanagement, which over the past decade has increasingly merged with the field of adaptive management and related concepts that derive from resilience thinking and complex adaptive systems theory. Working within a critical realist paradigm, our analysis was guided by the politicized institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework. Two previous studies concerned with the broader context surrounding farming and water governance in lowland England revealed low levels of trust between farmers, and between farmers and water managers, as well as a power dynamic that stands in the way of farmer cooperation and participation. Within this context, our findings pointed to a number of mechanisms and structural conditions that appear to generate or facilitate comanagement. Of these, institution building through the specific group strategy of adopting a company structure and the "stationarity" of the resource group members extract from were seen to be the most crucial. These and other key findings were used to inform a discussion of farming and water resources management in England going forward. In doing so, we also reflected on the relationship between comanagement and market-based approaches to managing water resources. Beyond this, the research serves as a practical demonstration of how the politicized IAD framework can be used to analyze potential (adaptive) comanagement situations and the related benefits. The analysis complements a previous submission to this journal, in which we discussed the relationship between the framework and (adaptive) comanagement from a theoretical and methodological perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal wetlands such as saltmarshes support local communities and industries through ecosystem services and benefit the well-being of local communities in many regions of the world. Along sheltered temperate and sub-tropical coastlines, saltmarshes provide coastal protection, provision of recreational space and wildlife habitat. Those in northwest Europe provide a valuable resource for local agricultural communities through livestock grazing. Following the departure of the UK from the EU and the related potential changes to agricultural policies and markets, it is timely to evaluate the status of saltmarsh livestock grazing. In particular, knowledge of grazing patterns, policy futures and stakeholder perceptions are required to support traditional cultural practice and the ecological status of saltmarshes. This study focuses on the devolved UK nation of Wales, as it has a strong traditional agricultural and pastoral economy, and a landscape of significant conservation value. Yet there are substantial evidence and knowledge gaps regarding livestock grazing and its saltmarsh impact. We present the first map showing the spatial distribution of saltmarsh grazing practice in the UK. Drawing on insights gathered through an expert workshop and interviews with saltmarsh landowners and managers across Wales (N = 35), the paper discusses the challenges and benefits of coastal grazing on saltmarshes, highlighting the diverse values, personal connection and sense of identity associated with marshes. Interviews reveal deep rooted social and cultural values attributed to saltmarshes by the rural coastal community. The study illustrates the need for an integrated approach to management of saltmarshes, accounting for the social, cultural, economic, and environmental values within decision-making. • Stakeholder interviews explore complexity of saltmarsh agriculture in Wales. • Current grazing intensity and patterns are mapped and discussed. • Emphasis is on the personal connection and sense of identity associated with saltmarshes. • Need for integration of diverse values within saltmarsh management is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we seek to expand the sense of what a device is. We draw from ethnography about contemporary farming practices, and in particular beef cattle farming, as we explore the craft of farming. Our concern with practices on the farm considers, in particular, the Cattle Tracing System (CTS) of the British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS). The CTS is important – nay financially crucial – to everyone who farms cattle in Britain, and it looks and feels like a metaphorical device. The CTS is systematic and it rests on an elaborate IT database, so it is mechanical or electronic in parts and hence it is machine-like. But are devices necessarily machine-like? We suggest that devices don't have to look or be that way. The Cattle Tracing System is a farming device that divides, separates, and classifies; it's a contrivance that is purposeful. But we also suggest that the work of the farmer in caring for cattle can also be imagined as a device or as a set of devices. In this expanded sense we treat devices as practices of purposive crafting, and our core question is: how is this achieved? One answer is that it depends on mechanisms of repetition. That is, we argue that realities are generated in patterned and repeated practices of purposive crafting. Finally and crucially we argue that while some reality-enacting practices seek to colonise and displace alternative realities, others such as lyricism and refrains work to evade capture and enact alternative realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses three versions of context. First, UK Government legislation, the British Cattle Tracing System (CTS), as a context that frames and guides good farming practices to promote accountability for cattle movements and to control disease. It describes how the legislative context creates particular constructions of farmers, cows, and good and bad farming practices. Second, the article creates context as the local farm-based practices of cattle movement and monitoring. Differences and similarities between the legislative requirements and the farm-based practices are discussed. The farming practices are primarily practices of responsibility and care that are embodied, relational, collective, and responsive. The article draws upon feminist insights into responsibility and accountability  that accountability is mundane practices of touch, regard, looking back, and becoming with. Thereby, the article creates a third context in which local farming practices, legislation, and feminism meet and interact with one another. Within this “meta-context” of interferences between contexts, accountability is revisioned as the very condition of farm-based practices of care and responsibility. At the same time, the article revisions context as emergent in interferences and enacts alternative versions of farmers, cows, and good and bad practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peter Walken (1684-1769) was a small farmer resident near Chipping in Lancashire. Somewhat unusually, he was also minister of a small Nonconformist congregation, and even more unusually, he was a compulsive diarist. Most of his diaries have been lost, but one of two surviving volumes, for fourteen months in 1733-34, was published in 2000. The extant volume offers a detailed account of Walkden's farming activities, his income and expenditure, role as an employer and describes his struggle to secure credit. It also sheds light on the economic activity of his wife and the female sphere within his household. All of these aspects of his life are explored in this paper which offers a fine-grained account of farming life in Lancashire in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the contribution of script theory to understandings of animal health risks. Script theory has long played an important role in studies of health and risk, yet the application of script theories is often vague and confused. Theories from different ontological perspectives are conflated resulting in an overly cognitive and asocial understanding of health behaviour with the potential to misinform health promotion strategies. The paper addresses these problems by applying the concept of script formulations to an analysis of farmers' understandings of bovine tuberculosis in farmed cattle. Drawing on interviews with 61 farmers in England and Wales, the paper argues that farmers reveal animal disease to be a scripted event, but that these scripts also order identity and provide a form of moral accountability for farmers' behaviour. This has implications for attempts to communicate animal disease risks and suggests that a more productive approach is to reorganise governance structures and relationships between farmers and government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about the relations between scientific and social aspects of farming in Great Britain. Descriptions are given of the ways in which farm animals are both treated as individual persons and as less-than-human. Further comments are given regarding the impact of science and animal-related health crises, such as foot-and-mouth disease, on human beings' relationship with animals.

Insects provide vital ecosystem services to agricultural systems in the form of pollination and natural pest control. However, there are currently widespread declines in the beneficial insects which deliver these services (i.e. pollinators and 'natural enemies' such as predators and parasitoids). Two key drivers of these declines have been the expansion of agricultural land and intensification of agricultural production. With an increasing human population requiring additional sources of food, further changes in agricultural land use appear inevitable. Identifying likely trajectories of change and predicting their impacts on beneficial insects provides a scientific basis for making informed decisions on the policies and practices of sustainable agriculture. We created spatially explicit, exploratory scenarios of potential changes in the extent and intensity of agricultural land use across Great Britain (GB). Scenarios covered 52 possible combinations of change in agricultural land cover (i.e. agricultural expansion or grassland restoration) and intensity (i.e. crop type and diversity). We then used these scenarios to predict impacts on beneficial insect species richness and several metrics of functional diversity at a 10km (hectad) resolution. Predictions were based on species distribution models derived from biological records, comprising data on 116 bee species (pollinators) and 81 predatory beetle species (natural enemies). We identified a wide range of possible consequences for beneficial insect species richness and functional diversity as result of future changes in agricultural extent and intensity. Current policies aimed at restoring semi-natural grassland should result in increases in the richness and functional diversity of both pollinators and natural enemies, even if agricultural practices remain intensive on cropped land (i.e. land-sparing). In contrast, any expansion of arable land is likely to be accompanied by widespread declines in richness of beneficial insects, even if cropping practices become less intensive (i.e. land-sharing), although effects of functional diversity are more mixed. Image 1 • We created scenarios of change agricultural land cover extent and intensity for GB. • We modelled responses of beneficial insect groups to scenarios. • Restoring grasslands increased insect richness even if cropping remained intensive. • Expanding agriculture decreased richness even if cropping became less intensive. • Functional diversity can respond differently to species richness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with arable land, there is a paucity of field-based measurements of erosion rates and controls for lowland temperate grassland supporting ruminant agriculture. Despite this evidence gap, reducing diffuse fine sediment pollution from intensively farmed grassland has been recognised as essential for improving compliance with water quality targets. Improved information on erosion rates and controls within intensively managed lowland grazing livestock systems are prerequisites for informing best management practices for soil and water resource conservation. Accordingly, this study assembled such information using the North Wyke farm platform in south west England where flow, suspended sediment concentration, rainfall and soil moisture are monitored quasi-continuously in 15 hydrologically-isolated (1.54–11.12 ha) catchments. This region of the UK is representative of temperate lowland ruminant grazing landscapes with semi permeable soil drainage. Catchment area was the major control on both water and sediment flux. When normalised to catchment area, sediment yields were controlled by the erodibility of the catchment's soils. Ploughing for re-seeding of grass swards was the major factor that affected this. Whilst total rainfall had a small effect on sediment yields, slope and the damage of soils by livestock had no significant effects. This finding may be due to the overriding effects of ploughing and re-seeding of some fields during the study period. Detachment by impacting raindrops mobilised sediment particles across the entire field with diffuse saturation-excess overland flow responsible for their transport. The majority of erosion occurred during the rising limbs of storm events when there is an abundance of easily detached soil particles. Given that erosion and sediment transport are driven mechanistically by processes affecting the entire field areas, a reduction in sediment yield through the implementation of highly spatially-targeted in-field management such as that for feeder ring use, troughs, poached tracks or gateways would likely be very challenging. Instead, stocking density and grazing regime management, as well as carefully planned ploughing and re-seeding will be more beneficial for erosion control. • Water and sediment fluxes were strongly correlated with catchment area. • Sediment yields significantly increased after ploughing. • Rainsplash detached particles whilst saturation-excess overland flow transported them. • No significant effect of slope or soil poached by livestock on sediment generation was found. • The entire areas of each catchment are likely to be contributing sediment to the flumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British livestock sector is constantly changing due to environmental and economic pressures, consequentially causing a shift in demand on farm veterinary services. The aim of this study was to explore the future of cattle veterinary practice, using a qualitative approach. Telephone interviews were organised with key opinion leaders within the cattle farm and veterinary sectors to discuss their opinions on the future of the profession. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and thematic analysis was used to interpret the data. The analysis of these interviews resulted in the development of six key themes that emerged as being important in the future of cattle veterinary practice; veterinary business structure, veterinary practice income, collaboration, the changing role of the cattle vet, the vet-farmer relationship and the new generation of cattle vets. The study identified that the role of the cattle veterinary practitioner in the UK is changing with an increasing focus on data handling, people management and training and advisory skills. It is important that these findings are accounted for in the development of undergraduate and postgraduate veterinary training., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© British Veterinary Association 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Objectives: Farming is a high-risk sector with up to 170,000 worldwide fatalities reported per year; it is therefore vital to identify methods of mitigating the dangers of this industry. Research within high-risk industries, such as aviation, shipping, and agriculture, has identified the importance of non-technical skills (NTS) in maintaining effective, safe performance and reducing error and injury. However, there is a lack of research evaluating factors that may contribute to NTS attitudes and behaviors. As a first step to address this literature gap, the current study evaluated a range of individual and environmental factors as potential predictors of attitudes toward NTS in agriculture., Method: A sample of 170 farmers from within the United Kingdom and Ireland were surveyed using an online questionnaire. The questionnaire included measures of personality, stress, attitudes toward safety (safety climate, motivation, and risk), environmental stressors (workload, work-life imbalance), and non-technical skills (team and lone worker)., Results: Attitudes toward safety climate, compliance, and motivation showed a significant association with both team-based and lone worker NTS. Conscientiousness correlated positively with the majority of the NTS elements. Multiple regression analysis indicated neuroticism and conscientiousness demonstrated capacity to predict NTS attitudes. Concerns about costs and equipment, attitudes toward safety climate, and safety motivation were also found to be significant predictors of NTS attitudes., Conclusion: The results indicate the utility of individual characteristics and environmental factors when predicting farming NTS attitudes. As a result, these elements could be important when evaluating engagement with NTS and developing NTS training initiatives in agriculture.

The Yellow Pages business directory has often been used as a sampling frame to select respondents for farm surveys. Studies in the UK have suggested that the directory both provides a sufficiently accurate estimate of population parameters for most purposes and offers the best alternative when the comprehensive MAFF lists are not available. However, two recent studies of farmers in the Marston Value Community Forest and the Cambrian Mountains ESA scheme demonstrate that drawingsamples from. the Yellow Pages may exclude less-commercial or 'life-style' farmers. These farmers, although still deriving much of their income from farming (unlike 'hobby' farmers), are generally more conservation-oriented in their environmental management approach and farmon a lower profit margin. Consequently, it is strongly recommended that caution be exercised when using the Yellow Pages as a sampling frame for environmental management research. (c) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]