PODCAST

Farming Today

BBC Radio 4

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside

science

All Episodes

14:00

04/03/25 - The cost of avian flu, apple supply chain...

Farming Today ·

2025/03/04

Bird flu continues to hit poultry farms across the country with 49 cases in England, 2 in Northern Ireland and 1 in Scotland. We hear from one farmer about the hidden cost of having an outbreak - from £10,000 worth of wasted eggs to the loss of the next 2 years of business.We visit a distribution centre for the AGPO growers’ co-operative based in Kent, where apples and pears are delivered daily from nearby nitrogen cold storage facilities before being sent on to supermarkets.And a trial at the

11:55

03/03/25 - Solar farms on tenant farms, the wisdom of...

Farming Today ·

2025/03/03

The Tenant Farmers Association says the Government's decision to allow a solar project on farmland in Yorkshire is 'crushing' for farmers who rent land. Harmony Energy can now build a solar farm with battery storage on land owned by the Fitzwilliam Trust near Malton. The tenant farmers who currently farm there have campaigned for the past four years to halt the project.Fishing is facing a shortage of workers – fewer people are coming from the European Union to work, and many older fishermen who

25:01

01/03/25 - Farming Today This Week: NFU Conference,...

Farming Today ·

2025/03/01

The re-introduction of inheritance tax on farm assets dominated this year's National Farmers Union Conference in London. The Union President told delegates farming is facing its biggest crisis of confidence in his lifetime. Facing a frosty reception, the DEFRA Secretary Steve Reed announced a new Farm Profitability Unit to be set up with the department, but told farmers he couldn't give them the answers they wanted on inheritance tax. Elsewhere, the conference focused on growth in agriculture -

14:05

28/02/25 - Trade rules, native bulbs and high beef...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/28

The DEFRA Secretary told Farming Today the Government will be looking into ways to prevent cheap imports of crops grown in countries which allow the use of chemicals that aren’t authorised for use in the UK. But how easy will that be? We ask a trade expert.There’s been a flying trade for beef and sheep this spring. The price for what’s called ‘dead weight’ cattle is at its highest ever according to the ADHD, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, and they say sheep prices are

14:04

27/02/25 Climate Change Committee report, daffodil...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/27

The Climate Change Committee has called for a transformation in agriculture in its latest report. The CCC advises the UK government on ways to reduce emissions in order to meet net zero by 2050. Its 7th report sets out a plan from 2038 to 2042, and recommends a 27% drop in the number of cattle and sheep, and that we all eat less meat. It wants to see more woodlands, more peatlands re-wetted and more energy crops like miscanthus. Scientists at Scotland's Rural College have been feeding cattle an

14:07

26/02/25 - NFU Conference 2025: Inheritance tax,...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/26

The re-introduction of inheritance tax on farm assets dominated this year's National Farmers Union Conference in London. The Union President told delegates farming is facing it's biggest crisis of confidence in his lifetime. Facing a frosty reception, the DEFRA Secretary Steve Reed announced a new Farm Profitability Unit to be set up with the department, but told farmers he couldn't give them the answers they wanted on inheritance tax.Elsewhere, the conference focused on growth in agriculture -

14:07

25/02/25 - Land classification, UK grown tulips and...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/25

As farmers know, not all fields are equal, and in England and Wales the Agricultural Land Classification system is used to define how productive farmland is. The best land has more protection from development in the planning system. But according to a report commissioned by the CPRE - the countryside charity - that classification system in England, is based on data from as long ago as the 1940s...so it's somewhat out of date.There’s only one farm left in the UK that still grows its tulip bulbs

12:02

24/02/25 Avian flu vaccines; bulb growing in Cornwall

Farming Today ·

2025/02/24

Bird flu is continuing its spread, with an ever growing list of English counties - and the whole of Northern Ireland – now under restrictions which mean all poultry has to be kept indoors. And stricter bio-security measures have been imposed across the whole of the UK.We hear from a farmer in Devon who has had to cull his birds because of a disease outbreak. And the chair of virology at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Institute, Professor Paul Digard, discusses the avian flu vaccine situation in the

24:45

22/02/25 - Farming Today This Week: Peat and climate...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/22

The majority of the UK's peatlands could be at risk of drying out in the next 40-50 years because of climate change - according to a new study from scientists at the Universities of Exeter, Manchester and Derby. Healthy, wet peatlands are seen as part of the solution to climate change because they soak up planet-heating carbon dioxide - UK peatlands currently store an estimated 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon. But where they dry out, they become a problem because they can then release that stored

14:01

21/02/25 Solar wildlife, Scottish land use strategy,...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/21

Solar farms managed for nature can benefit birds more than intensively farmed arable land. Research by the RSPB and the University of Cambridge looked at two types of solar farms in the East Anglian Fens. Those with mixed habitats - with hedgerows, no grass cutting or grazing sheep had a greater number and diversity of flowering plants and birds than intensively farmed arable land, or solar farms which were intensively managed.As England consults on its new land use framework we find out how

14:02

20/02/25 Land Use and solar development, food prices

Farming Today ·

2025/02/20

England's Land Use Framework is out to consultation. We speak to the academic who brought groups of farmers together to speak to Defra officials as they developed the policy. We also consider what impact the framework might have on big renewable projects in future - like one in East Anglia. The proposed solar development in East Pye in South Norfolk covers 2,700 acres in ten different locations, Local residents who object to the scheme have set up their own group called Block East Pye. They say they

13:50

19/02/2025 - Inheritance tax row, bottom trawling in...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/19

Farming leaders have said they left a much-anticipated meeting with the Treasury with their blood "boiling", claiming the Government has "shut the door" on any rethink of planned changes to inheritance tax on farms. It follows months of protests over plans for inherited agricultural assets worth more than a million pounds to be taxed at 20% from April next year.MPs have been debating calls to ban bottom trawling in England's Marine Protected Areas. Bottom trawling is a method of fishing where

13:55

18/02/2025 - UK peatlands at risk, agroforestry tree...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/18

25:07

15/02/25 - Farming Today This Week: Inheritance Tax...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/15

After a week that saw hundreds of tractors block Whitehall and a prime ministerial visit disrupted by protesting farmers, we take an in-depth look at the proposed changes around inheritance tax on farms.From April 2026, inherited agricultural assets worth more than a million pounds will be liable to inheritance tax at 20% - half the usual rate. The Government says the tax is fair and will raise much-needed public funds. Farmers argue the move could see family farms put out of business. Charlotte

13:43

14/02/25 Prime Minster and a tractor protest, the...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/14

Pesticides are killing plants, insects and animals that they're not aiming to control, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the University of Sussex have joined international researchers to analyse 1,700 lab and field studies of 471 insecticides, herbicides and fungicides used in agriculture or commercially around the world. Their report identifies 'wide ranging negative effects' on a range of species and while the authors acknowledge that without pesticides global food production would

13:58

13/02/2025 - Farmers say the latest measures to...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/13

Free Range egg producers say the Government's latest measures to combat bird flu don't go far enough. The Chief Vet says that from Sunday, poultry in a further five English counties, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Cheshire, Merseyside and Lancashire, must be brought inside, joining restrictions already imposed in Hull, East and North Yorkshire, York, Norfolk, Suffolk and Shropshire. Gatherings of poultry have also been banned in England, and enhanced biosecurity measures are already in force across

13:39

12/02/25 Farm minister at Norfolk Show, rural...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/12

Farmers have vowed to continue protesting at the government's decision to implement inheritance tax on their businesses. The rate at which they are taxed is half that of other businesses, 20 percent, but farmers still say many of them will have to sell up, to pay it. We speak to the farm minister Daniel Zeichner who took questions at the Norfolk farming conference. He said the money raised from inheritance tax was necessary to support public funds. He said the government was trying to help farmers

13:57

11/02/25 - Inheritance tax protest and farming mental...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/11

As many as one and half thousand tractors have converged on Westminster as farmers continue their protest over the Government's plan to re-introduce inheritance tax on farm business assets from next year. The Government says imposing the tax on farms worth more than a million pounds is fair, and will raise much needed public funds. But some farmers argue the move could see family farms put out of business.And as part of a week long feature, we're hearing from rural community champions - the unsung

11:46

10/02/25 - Animal protein in livestock feed, hare...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/10

Should meat be allowed in some animal feed? Measures brought in to control BSE banned feeding animal protein to farmed animals, but the Government says those rules no longer reflect the scientific evidence and is consulting on various proposals to use processed animal protein in feeds.Gangs of hare coursers have caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to farm land and infrastructure after about 25 vehicles swept through fields in Cambridgeshire in a single weekend. We hear from one of the farmers

24:53

08/02/25 Farming Today This Week: illegal meat...

Farming Today ·

2025/02/08

MPs are told that animal products from Germany continued to enter the UK after an import ban was put in place because of the foot and mouth outbreak there.Egg producers want their chickens ordered inside to protect them from bird flu.A new report finds farming leaders in Scotland must do more to call out racist, misogynistic and homophobic language from union members.We visit a prize winner of the Westmorland Agricultural Society's annual hotly contested silage competition. And we speak to The Crown

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