A new monthly farming supplement has been launched by a family-owned weekly newspaper.

The Teesdale Mercury published the first 20-page edition of Farm Country Monthly inside this week’s issue.

The new supplement includes farming news and advice columns, along with in-focus features with farmers discussing everyday challenges faced today.

Sections on mart prices, nature, renewables, business, uplands, a 4×4 review and an equine page also feature.

The addition of the supplement brought the toal number of pages to 64, the biggest in the newspaper’s 161-year history.

As well as being available in shops, the Mercury is making Farm and Country Monthly available at a number of auction marts across the area.

Editor Trevor Brookes said: “We’re delighted with the new addition to the Teesdale Mercury family.

“Our staff have worked tremendously hard and we hope our rural readers enjoy it.

“As a country weekly paper, agricultural affairs have always been close to our hearts and we have carried farming news on a weekly basis.

“However, this publication goes further by being an essential in-depth monthly round up. We hope it will be a regular feature in the dale’s farming calendar.”

The newspaper, based in Barnard Castle, County Durham, is also taking on an extra reporter, bringing in-house staff to five employees.

In February it printed in full colour for the first time and switched to a compact format.