26/11/25 Planning bill and environmental protections, livestock genetics, robotic dairy.
Conservationists have accused the government of turning its back on nature in the new planning bill which is making its way through parliament. The RSPB says the legislation is creating a new tried and untested process which will put nature and nature markets at risk.We often talk about exports of produce like beef and dairy but exporting farm animal genetics is also big business. The industry estimates that around 70 per cent of the world's farmed poultry orginates from UK breeding stock, while UK cattle genetics are now exported to 100 countries around the world. A new agreement with Kenya will see sheep and goat genetics exported there. The UK Export Certification Partnership is a public-private grouping which promotes the export of livestock products, breeding stock and genetics. All this week, we’re checking in with the dairy industry. Over the last 30 years, the size of the UK dairy herd has been gradually falling, while average milk yields, that's the number of litres a cow produces, has been steadily increasing. That increase is partly down to using new technology like on-demand robotic milking machines. We visit a herd of indoor cows in Wiltshire.Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
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25/11/25 University agriculture courses, bird flu in Wales, dairy farm succession.
Despite a rise in the number of students taking up agriculture degrees over the last couple of years, not all courses are growing. The University of Nottingham is deciding whether to close its agriculture and business course at its Sutton Bonington campus. The University says applications for its farming courses have dropped, making them “less financially viable”. Students have started a petition to save the degree course.Cases of bird flu are still on the rise across the country, with outbreaks in all four nations of the UK and housing orders for England, Wales and Northern Ireland are in place, meaning all poultry has to now be housed if the flock totals more than fifty birds. We hear from farmers at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair in Builth Wells.All week we're looking at dairy farming. One family farm which has invested heavily in technology for the future is run by Rob Davies and his son Harry. Instead of selling the livestock, the farm in Herefordshire has built an aerobic digester to reduce energy costs, bought robots to milk the cows and grows all its own feed.Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
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24/11/25: Dairy rollercoaster, English farm business incomes, Isle of Man vets
The latest Farm Business Income Survey from DEFRA shows average dairy farm incomes for 2024/25 had doubled year on year. The reality at this moment may feel very different on farms as the milk price rollercoaster is starting to rattle downwards, with some global dairy commodities tumbling. The Chairman of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers, Robert Craig, tells Charlotte Smith that the industry is becoming used to a cycle of rise and fall in milk prices but that ultimately there will be fewer people left in the industry at the end of this downturn.We also dig deeper into what that Farm Business Income survey shows for other types of farming in England. Below the encouraging signs on the surface, for most sectors, incomes were buoyed up by diversification and agri-environment schemes in the last financial year.And farmers on the Isle of Man are anxious about the future of veterinary care, as a major provider prepares to withdraw from farm animal practice on the Island. Presenter: Charlotte Smith
Producer: Sarah Swadling
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21/11/25 Defra secretary at CLA conference, farm business income, COP and agriculture, prison farm.
Details on the relaunch of England's biggest agri-environment scheme will come in the first half of next year - so says the Secretary of State for the Environment, Emma Reynolds, who was speaking at the Country Land and Business Association's annual conference. The sustainable farming incentive or SFI, pays farmers for things like planting hedges and improving soils. It was suddenly closed to new applicants in March as it had run out of money. Details on what happens next were supposed to be announced in the summer. Some farmers say they've lost confidence in the system but Emma Reynolds told the conference that it is complicated and they want to get it rightEngland's farm business income figures for the last financial year have been released. All types of farms, with the exception of horticulture and pig farming, saw a year on year increase, though in 2023/4 farm incomes dropped considerably. Government payments to farmers in agri-environment schemes now make up an average of 30% of farm income, and many farms continue to lose money on the farming sides of their business.
All week we've been talking about farming around the world because of the climate talks - COP 30 - in Brazil. They dedicated two days to agriculture, which is seen as offering both problems and solutions as we try to mitigate the changing climate. So what's been decided? The inmates who look after pigs at a prison farm in Kent.Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
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20/11/25 Food & Farming Award winner, maltings closures, farming in Brazil, oysters.
A decline in demand for whiskey is being blamed for the closure and suspension of Scottish malting plants - something which farmers fear will also mean a decline in demand for barley. Maltsters process barley so it can be used in distilleries or brewing. Several plants have announced closures and redundancies, but the Maltsters Association of Great Britain says that although it has a been a challenging year, they are positive about the future.The BBC Food and Farming Awards ceremony has taken place, with three strong finalists in the Farming Today and The Archers Farming for the Future category: Grazing Management who manage conservation grazing in Herefordshire; The Free Company, a farm and restaurant on a former dairy farm near Edinburgh; and Hugh Wragham who grows hemp in Northumberland. The winners were brothers Charlie and Angus Buchanan-Smith from The Free Company.All this week we're considering farming across the world, as COP 30 continues. We speak to a first generation farmer who produces organic mushrooms as part of an agroforestry farm business in south Brazil. He says its important for farmers to be at COP to push for financing for agriculture which can combat climate change. New rules on the size of oysters that can be landed on the River Fal in Cornwall have been introduced - part of a bid to protect future stocks of the shellfish. It's the first change in regulation on the size of native oysters dredged from the Fal in a hundred years.Presenter = Charlotte Smith at
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
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