Ella Scott-Fleming

With Gore’s country music festival back next week and bigger than ever, some of its events such as yodelling and line dancing are feeling the ripple effect of a global boom in the genre.

While the government says farm-to-forestry conversions will not get away with continuing to plant despite restrictions, a southern farming leader says the horse may have already bolted.

A southern landowning business, believed to be selling up to convert pasture and arable land into forestry, is auctioning off all its machinery this week in the largest agricultural sale the area...