Farming Today

Vets in the South West are testing breeding rams to see if the disease bluetongue has caused infertility. One vets practice in Devon said of the 500 rams they've tested, a quarter were a cause for concern. One farmer we spoke to has had to buy in extra rams to replace those found to be temporarily infertile. There's a warning the breeding season could be delayed, leading to fewer early lambs next year.
The second window of funding for environmental schemes on farms has opened - and closed within hours. The Sustainable Farming Incentive is the Government's fund to pay farmers for things like improving soil and creating wildlife habitat. The budget of £233m was all allocated within six hours.
And we speak to a Malawian student who's in the UK looking at what farmers here could learn about growing pulses - a staple crop there but not widespread here.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Sally Challoner.

UK potato growers could be facing losses of almost £170 million because of this summer’s heatwaves and drought. That’s according to new analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a not-for-profit organisation which looks at the impacts of climate change.
Add that to crop losses across Europe’s main potato growing countries - Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands - and we could be looking at 3.5 million tonnes fewer potatoes getting into the shops.
We're looking at pulses this week. They're the dried edible seeds of plants in the legume family, they grow in pods and we’re talking things like beans, peas, chickpeas and lentils. Here in the UK, they’ve generally been grown as what’s called a ‘break crop’ by arable farmers to put nitrogen back into the soil, and then used for making animal feed. But growing pulses for human consumption comes with the prospect of bigger rewards. Today, we're in Carmarthenshire where they're carrying out trials growing Carlin Peas on a county council owned farm.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Sally Challoner.

More beans please - should the UK be growing more pulses? The Food Foundation looked into the potential for these crops and concluded that the UK could and should be growing more of them.
Farmers may have to prepare for disappointment as England's biggest environmental scheme re-opens for applications this week. This is the Sustainable Farming Incentive, the SFI, which pays farmers for environmental work. New analysis suggests that while 40,000 farmers are expected to apply for the SFI there is only enough cash for about 15,000 agreements.
And how, with help from the Royal Countryside Fund, the West Lakeland Community Interest Company has put four young people through a series of training courses to become agricultural advisors.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

This week, we've been taking a closer look at agricultural co-ops, from very small-scale cooperative working up to huge dairy co-ops. Across Europe, it’s widely recognised that farmer collaboration can give agriculture a stronger voice in the food supply chain.   We look at how they are working in different parts of the UK and ask if there is scope for more co-operative working.
The BBC's Central Europe correspondent, Nick Thorpe, reports from Romania, where thousands of shepherds have taken to the streets to protest against a ban on live sheep exports.
Reporter Vernon Harwood is in the Cotswolds to bring us all the atmosphere of the three-day competition to find the best sheepdog handler in Britain and Ireland.
And we talk to the team behind a new play which follows a single day in the life of three generations of women on a working family farm.
Presenter:  Charlotte Smith
Producer:  Beatrice Fenton
Farming Today is a BBC Audio Bristol production

Party conference season is underway and so we'll be catching up with the rural and farming policies of the main parties around the UK over the next few weeks. The Liberal Democrats open their meeting in Brighton tomorrow. They're renewing their call for the government to protect food security by funding more on-farm reservoirs, so farmers can cope with increasingly frequent drought and deluge. The Lib Dem's Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs spokesperson, Tim Farron, tells us how the party would go about increasing DEFRA's budget.
Conservationists are working to save a tiny snail which has been driven to extinction across most of the UK and can now only be found in Wales' largest natural lake.  Several British zoos are setting up populations of the Glutinous Snail, one of Europe's rarest species, using creatures bred in a back garden in Ceredigion.  Ecologist Ian Hughes has made it his "life-defining" mission to protect the threatened mollusc, which was once widespread in UK waters. 
Today the finalists for the BBC Food & Farming Awards are announced. Charlotte Smith reveals the finalists for The Archers and Farming Today 'Farming for the Future Award'.
A new play inspired by the best-selling memoir The Farmer's Wife by Helen Rebanks will have its world premiere tonight in Cumbria. It follows a single day in the life of three generations of women on a working family farm. We take a peek behind the scenes.
Presenter: Charlotte Smith
Producer: Sarah Swadling