Farming Today

The Tenant Farmers Association say they have evidence landlords are trying to raise rents significantly this year, to cushion the blow caused by cuts to their old payments under the Basic Payment Scheme. Anna Hill speaks to George Dunn. For harvest week Anna's been to the Elveden Estate in Norfolk for the malting barley harvest and to see a new piece of farming equipment in action, which has been nicknamed 'The Beast'. Oil Seed Rape has been more difficult to grow in recent years partly because farmers are no longer allowed to use seeds coated with neonicotinoids chemicals, they protect the young plants from the flea beetle. Anna speaks to Dr Rachel Wells about experiments to breed new varieties of Oil Seed Rape which the Flea Beetle won't want to eat. Presenter: Anna Hill Producer in Bristol: Toby Field

The Government has published its response to the Glover review of protected landscapes: National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The government plans to strengthen AONBs - by renaming them National Landscapes - encourage more collaboration between national parks and says protected landscapes must do more to drive the recovery of nature. A report published this week found rivers in England are "in a mess", with not a single one given a clean bill of health. The Environmental Audit Committee found 36% of water bodies were impacted by sewage or wastewater and 40% were affected agricultural pollution, with intensive livestock and poultry farms causing particular issues. And, we look at the various challenges being faced by the UK shellfish industry; from increase paperwork to climate change. Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

Around 60,000 newborn male dairy calves are killed each year on farms in Great Britain - according to the AHDB. That’s about 4% of all the calves born to dairy cows - the rest are raised for meat. The industry has made a commitment to stop killing male calves by the end of this year…and the industry group, Ruminant Health and Welfare, says the use of sexed semen will be key. It means, some cows can be inseminated with sexed semen from a specialist dairy bull - to produce only female calves which will then join the dairy herd. Other cows can be inseminated with semen from a beef type bull - and the resulting cross breed calves are worth more on the beef market than a pure dairy bull calf. Manure or slurry is a significant pollutant, especially if it gets into waterways. Wessex Water is working with farmers to reduce the amount of phosphates in the Brinkworth Brook - a tributary of the Bristol Avon. We visit one of the 60 farms taking part. And, retailers won’t accept potatoes with scab - a disease that makes them look blistered, although they're still fine to eat. No chemicals will prevent scab, but scientists at the John Innes Centre in Norwich have been testing hundreds of strains of Pseudomonas bacteria, found naturally in the soil, that protect potatoes against this disease. They are now working on developing a soil bio-addition full of the best protective bacteria, to prevent scab from happening. Presented by Anna Hill Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

UK pork production is up: new government figures for last year show a 4% increase on production in 2020, to just over a million tonnes. Regular listeners who have heard pig farmers on this programme talk about how shortages of staff in abattoirs have forced them to kill pigs on farm, pigs which then can’t go into the food chain, may wonder how an industry in crisis can have a record year - it's the highest production level since 1999. We ask how a how a year of backlogs on farms fits with record production levels. All this week we're looking at pollution from farming, both causes and solutions. Today we hear from Professor Penny Johnes from Bristol University who studies the impact of food production on rivers and the sea. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

We look at a future of food production where livestock takes a back seat. We visit a two-million-pound project called 'Pasture to Plate' which is setting out to prove that the nutritional goodness in grass can be extracted and fed directly to humans. And hear about a company hoping to be the first in the UK to produce 100 percent lab-grown meat. Presented by Anna Hill Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons