Northern Irish farmers will be the hardest hit by the Brexit fallout given the agriculture sector’s dependence on EU customers and the potential loss of billions of euro in grants, according to a leading economist.

Health and safety inspectors are investigating the death of a 10-year-old boy on a farm in the North.

A man in his 70s has died in an accident at a farm in Co Tyrone.

The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) has reiterated advice that farmers should not enter slurry tanks, following the deaths of Ulster rugby player Nevin Spence, aged 22, his brother Graham, aged 30, and 58-year-old father Noel, after being overcome by poisonous fumes from an underground slurry tank at the family farm in Co Down last Saturday.

A woman who survived a farming accident which killed a young rugby star, his father and brother has been released from hospital.

The rugby star killed in a farming tragedy alongside his brother and his father was hailed by teammates as a wonderful sportsman and person.

Nevin Spence’s management company have expressed their “deep regret” after the Ulster centre’s death in a farming accident.

Ulster rugby star Nevin Spence was killed alongside his brother and their father in a farming tragedy which also injured their sister in the North.

In recent weeks the meat factories have cut Irish cattle prices by up to 40c/kg, or €150/hd, opening up a major price gap with prices in our main export market in the UK. The IFA have reacted strongly, reflecting the farmer anger on the ground with the factories.

NORTHERN Ireland’s cattle farmers are reserving judgement on the beef industry’s plan to use imaging analysis (VIA) machines to classify cattle, and introduce a payment system similar to the south’s QPS, from January 17.

THERE’S enough room for everyone, humans and animals, in this country.

TIGHTER cattle supplies across Britain and in Ireland will drive on beef prices in 2010, it was claimed yesterday.

Up to 400 jobs could be under threat if pork producers are not compensated for the contaminated feed scare, one of the North’s largest companies claimed today.

A pork producer revealed today how he lost tens of thousands of pounds because of public confusion over the potential crisis in the North.

Importers bringing live cattle and sheep into the North were urged today to stop after a new strain of the Bluetongue virus spread from the European mainland to England.

Beef and pig farmers in the North are cutting back production or quitting altogether because of poor farm-gate prices, it was revealed today.

A CULL of cows and calves on the north Antrim farm where bluetongue was confirmed in a single imported animal was ordered yesterday by the North’s Agriculture Minister, Michelle Gildernew.

Bluetongue disease was confirmed in the North for the first time today.

FOOD inflation could rise by 20% in Britain this year, having risen 12% in 2007.

FARM leaders from north and south yesterday reiterated the importance of strict biosecurity measures as part of the all-island approach to keeping foot and mouth disease out of Ireland and avoiding an economic disaster.

Farmers in the North were delighted today when it was confirmed that they had escaped a meat export ban.

Catholic bishops today warned stringent new planning regulations for rural communities in the North could force people off the land.

The North is edging closer to having its own environmental protection agency, it was claimed today.

The British government must ensure the end of excessive bureaucracy if it wants the Northern Irish farming industry to survive the outcome of the World Trade Talks, ministers were warned today.

Northern Ireland’s politicians were tonight preparing for a nail-biting European Parliament election count with the Ulster Unionists and the nationalist SDLP expected to fight it out for the final seat.

Voters in Northern Ireland need to think what message it would send out to the rest of the European Union if the North elected Democratic Unionist and Sinn Féin MEPs, John Hume said today.

The European election campaign got into full swing in the North today.

A Northern Ireland farmers’ leader was tonight being tipped as a possible agreed candidate in June’s European Parliament election.

Northern Ireland is poised to become the first European region with 100% broadband Internet access for its citizens, the British government announced today.

The British government is to introduce a new system for European farm subsidy payments in Northern Ireland next year, it was annunced today.

Irish foreign minister Brian Cowen tonight backed plans for an all-Ireland approach to animal health issues.

Finance minister Charlie McCreevy tonight said the full effects of the foot-and-mouth crisis on Ireland’s agriculture and tourism-dependent economy had still to be assessed.