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Farming Today

BBC Radio 4

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside

science

All Episodes

14:13

26/06/24 - Labour's Manifesto, regen farming and high...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/26

A "New Deal for Farming" including better trade deals and more public procurement of home grown food - we hear what's in the Labour Party manifesto on farming, the environment and rural communities. It's part of a series of political interviews with the main parties that will run on the programme across the week.Groundswell is the biggest UK event for "regenerative farming" - and around eight thousand people are expected to attend this week's show. But some farmers worry that switching to growing

13:49

25/06/24 - Conservative manifesto, venison in school...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/25

An extra billion pounds across the next Parliament for farming and legally binding targets on food production - we hear what's in the Conservative Party manifesto on farming, the environment and rural communities. It's part of a series of political interviews with the main parties that will run on the programme across the week.Learning about food and its link to farming can be a challenge in the classroom - but what better way than to actually farm your school dinners? We visit Maple Hayes Dyslexia

25:05

22/06/24 - The Royal Highland Show, UK salads and...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/22

The 240th Royal Highland Show is taking place just outside Edinburgh, and more than 200,000 people expected to attend over the 4 days of the show. We hear from some of the breeders showing cattle at the show.In 2022, the UK grew 162,000 tonnes of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet peppers and celery - worth more than 200 million pounds. This time of year is normally peak salad season, but the months of rain and below average temperatures have been bad news for the country's salad growers. We find

13:54

21/06/24 The Royal Highland Show

Farming Today ·

2024/06/21

Charlotte Smith visits the Royal Highland Show for its 240th year to talk cattle, politics and farmers' health.Produced by Beatrice Fenton.

14:20

19/06/24 - Re-doing the Green Revolution, the...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/19

Could the plant breeding achievements of the Green Revolution be started again from scratch? That's the hope of scientists at the John Innes Centre, who say modern commercial varieties of wheat used by farmers could be replaced with better ones, using wheat lines collected a century ago. Back in the 1920s, an enterprising plant scientist named Arthur Earnest Watkins sent out letters to other Brits around the world, asking them to collect locally grown wheat, hoping the traits in those local

13:58

18/06/24 - Contaminated salad leaves, UK grown...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/18

A recent E-coli outbreak is thought to have been caused by contaminated salad leaves. There have been over 200 confirmed cases of food poisoning across the UK caused by e-coli bacteria found in manure, with nearly half those affected admitted to hospital. So how does the bacteria get into the salad, and what are farmers doing to prevent it?As part of our week looking at salads, we visit Evesham Vale Growers in Worcestershire, where they grow 500 acres of spring onions outside and some 70 acres of

11:48

17/06/24 Salad sales down, farming in the party...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/17

With the rain continuing and below average temperatures, the outlook isn't so sunny for UK salad growers.We look at some of the detail in the main parties' manifestos to see what they're promising on issues like the agriculture budget, food security and England's badger cull. Sometimes described as a farmer's best friend, dung beetles consume, bury and break up dung, improving soils as they go. Earlier this month vets and farmers met at a conference in Somerset devoted to the dung beetle.

25:08

15/06/24 - Reproductive ethics in livestock, dog DNA...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/15

Three UK vet practices are now offering IVF for cows. It's a common practise for dairy cows to be made pregnant using artificial insemination, but IVF is more specialist. It allows for multiple embryos to be produced from one particularly good cow, meaning the genetics of a herd can be improved more quickly and its health and productivity improved. But it means hormonal treatments and some invasive procedures for the cow - so is it ethical?In a world first, methane from slurry on a farm in Somerset

14:07

14/06/24 IVF in dairy cows, CLA election manifesto,...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/14

The vets using IVF to improve dairy herds, and could a new 2-stage planning system help kickstart the rural economy? We hear from the CLA on what it wants from the next government.In a special episode of On Your Farm recorded at the Hay Festival, Kate Humble explains how she accidentally ended up buying a council farm in the beautiful Wye Valley in Wales.Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

13:38

13/06/24 Farm vets and the strain of TB; Wildlife...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/13

We’re talking about vets all this week and one of the most difficult and unpleasant jobs they face is dealing with serious illness and disease in livestock, like the devastating foot and mouth outbreak in 2001. Breaking the painful news to a farmer that their whole livelihood is under threat is something no one wants on their job description. The threat of bovine TB can take a heavy toll on the mental wellbeing of both farmers and vets. We meet a dairy farmer in Derbyshire who's lived under the

14:05

12/06/24 - Cereals 2024, the arable event

Farming Today ·

2024/06/12

Post-Brexit trade barriers are leaving the UK behind when it comes to introducing new varieties of crops - according to the British Society of Plant Breeders. Anna Hill reports from the arable event, Cereals 2024, where seed breeding is centre stage.After one of the wettest years on record left many farmers have been struggling to get out into the fields to plant or spray crops...but new drone technology could help - making it possible to spray on land that's still too soft to put heavy machinery

14:09

11/06/24 - Graphene from slurry, bluetongue and vet...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/11

In a world first, methane from slurry on a dairy farm in Somerset is being broken down and turned into hydrogen gas and graphene. The farm involved is Worthy Farm, which hosts the Glastonbury Festival. It already has an anaerobic digester which uses slurry from their dairy cows to make methane which is used to make electricity, and now also used to make graphene. We find out how it all works.Last year tens of thousands of sheep in the Netherlands died after contracting bluetongue - a virus

11:56

10/06/24 Calls for a bigger farming budget, closure...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/10

Farmers need more money - so says the National Farmers' Union which says the incoming Government should increase the agriculture budget. Over the next few weeks as well as hearing from politicians about what they propose for farming, the environment and rural communities, we're also going to hear from rural and wildlife groups about what they think incoming MPs should be focusing on. Starting with the NFU which launched its manifesto at the end of last year. Fishermen in Looe say the closure of the

25:05

08/06/24 - Farming Today This Week: UK pollinators,...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/08

Spruce trees may not be viable in the UK in the long term because of a pest which is now in the country. Restrictions on spruce trees have been extended after spruce bark beetles were found in East Anglia. The beetle was first found the the UK in 2018 and areas of the South East of England have been under restriction - that has now been extended to cover much of Norfolk and Suffolk. In the longer term, foresters may have to look for alternatives to Spruce.A chicken producer in Northern Ireland has

13:57

07/06/24 Beetle threatening forestry, Northern Irish...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/07

Spruce trees may not be viable in the UK in the long term because of a pest which is now in the country. Restrictions on spruce trees have been extended after spruce bark beetles were found in East Anglia. This week, we've been hearing from BBC correspondents in the nations about what farmers want from politicians. Today, we hear from Northern Ireland. A study by the University of Sussex found that moths are even more efficient pollinators than bees. So are these nighttime creatures being

14:05

06/06/24 - Illegal meat, fruit pollinators and Welsh...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/06

The UK is vulnerable to animal diseases because of the ongoing trade in illegal meat, according to the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. The CIEH says that a lack of proper inspections at UK borders makes it easy for criminals to bring meat in.We visit a couple of fruit farms in Herefordshire to find out how they encourage the insects that pollinate their crops.And although agriculture is devolved, so farm policy in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland won't be decided by the General

14:09

05/06/24 Lough Neagh pollution; Wild fires; Farming...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/05

The agri-food company Moy Park, which supplies chickens throughout the UK and Europe, has breached environmental laws on more than 500 occasions without facing prosecution. A BBC Spotlight investigation into water pollution uncovered the breaches at three different sites in Northern Ireland - including Lough Neagh.Holidaymakers and walkers in Scotland are being warned not to light camp fires. Last year, a wild-fire tore through forestry at Cannich, south of Inverness. It burned for two weeks on the

14:13

04/06/24 - Monitoring pollinators, Oatly factory and...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/04

The UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme has been running for over 6 years now, with thousands of people counting insects in gardens, parks and on farms. So how are our pollinators faring?We visit a network of connected land in Ayrshire, designed to encourage pollinators. The network is being expanded after receiving funding from the Scottish Government. It was set up over the last decade or so, and includes farmland, council land and some unexpected leisure areas.And according to a recent study from the

11:42

03/06/2024: Pollinators; Election; Service to Farming...

Farming Today ·

2024/06/03

A selection of farmers outline what they would want from the next government.Bees may be the best known of the UK’s pollinators, but there are many more insects involved in the process which is vital to our food production.And farmers celebrating decades of hard work are recognised with a long-service award.Presented by Charlotte SmithProduced by Alun Beach

14:05

31/05/2024: Beavers and flooding, Bees, Second Homes

Farming Today ·

2024/05/31

House prices in the Lake District are likely to fall because of plans to control the number of homes being turned into holiday lets, according to the most senior planning officer at the national park authority. This is already being done in Wales where it has been causing a lot of controversy. A ten year study of beavers in Devon shows that they are having a positive impact on flood and drought alleviation – according to researchers at Exeter University who have been following the beavers on the

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