Farming Today

It's been a frozen and wet start to 2025 with widespread snow and flooding. For many farmers it's all a bit too much like last winter - the wettest on record - which saw crops drowned and delayed much planting simply because the land was too wet to get onto it.

We hear from farmers along the cancelled northern leg of HS2, who say they still face uncertainty. The high speed railway line from Birmingham to Manchester was cancelled in October 2023 - but land remains set aside for major infrastructure.

And we hear from two innovative companies about what they think the future holds for food and farming.

Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced by Heather Simons

Bird counts reveal a drop in numbers around Lough Neagh - could the algal blooms be to blame?

Whisky distilleries and producers are becoming more alive to the fact that every stage of the whisky-making process is being affected by the climate Scotland is experiencing.

Robot dogs sound like they are the stuff of science fiction, but they are starting to be used in the countryside right now.

Presented by Helen Mark and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

20 ancient barns in the Lake District are being restored thanks to a fund of just over 3 million pounds. Caz Graham joins an architect and a farmer to find out how the work is being done. Solomon is a Shorthorn bull, and he’s a bull with a job title. He’s the Department Bull. Owned by the Scottish Government, Solomon is one of a number of bulls available to small-scale crofters in the Highlands and Islands who want to choose a mate for their beef herds. We visit the Isle of Lewis to find out more. And the Derby Tup is a traditional Derbyshire folk play, performed in the winter months. We hear from a family keeping the tradition alive.

Presented by Helen Mark and produced by Chris Ledgard at BBC Audio Bristol

How Hilda, a newborn dairy calf, has been bred to help tackle climate change.

Experts in animal behaviour and welfare are conducting experiments at Scotland's Rural College pig research unit aimed at finding practical solutions to some of the biggest challenges faced by the pig industry. And the efforts being made to turn the tide of salt marsh decline.

Presented by Helen Mark and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

Cleaning and disinfecting dairy milking equipment, whether robotic or manual, uses large amounts of energy and significant quantities of chemicals. It’s a necessary but expensive process. So farmers are watching with interest the team developing a system that claims to do away with both those things. Scientists at the UK Agri-Tech Centre are collaborating with a company called Oxitech on a method that uses electricity and oxygen instead.

Theft of machinery, fly tipping, cattle rustling, hare coursing; these are all crimes farmers might have to face. Even though budgets are tight, some police forces have been bolstering their rural teams to help combat crime in the countryside. One area which has seen an increase in resources is Warwickshire. Our reporter joins officers there out on patrol.

For the first time gene-edited tomato plants have been developed specifically for a vertical farm operation, where they have to produce a significant amount of fruit, from a very small plant, adapted for growing under artificial light. The miniaturised version of the gardener's favourite, Ailsa Craig, has been developed by Phytoform Labs at Rothamsted Research, but they are still at the development stage so not on supermarket shelves.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

The Calanais Standing Stones on the west side of the Isle of Lewis date back 5000 years, and predate Stonehenge. The Neolithic monument, which was used for rituals and astronomical observation, stands on raised land above a crofting township and attracts an ever-growing number of visitors.

A new £10 million visitor centre is in construction, but it won't be complete in time for the additional crowds who are expected to arrive in 2025 to view a lunar standstill over the stones, a phenomenon that occurs only every 18.6 years.

Nearby crofters raise animals and work the land as they have done over the millennia. Some have lived here all their lives and take the stones for granted, while others have travelled hundreds of miles to make their home beside them. We hear from both viewpoints and from prehistoric archaeologist Alison Sheridan Produced and presented by Nancy Nicolson

The Derby Tup is a traditional Derbyshire agricultural folk song, performed at Christmas. It tells the story of a farmer, his wife (Our Owd Lass), their son and a giant tup - the ram used for breeding. The sheep's reared, sheared and eventually butchered.

We hear from a group of performers who've kept this old "mumming play" tradition alive. Matthew Headley Stoppard is a Leeds-based folk poet who performs it every year with his wife and sons.

Its exact date of origin is unknown, but it was performed regularly throughout the 1800s in North East Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, an area that was, and still is, hugely reliant on sheep farming. Originally children would visit remote farmhouses and ask for pocket money. It later became a regular Christmas fixture at pubs and working men’s clubs

Local folklorist Richard Bradley explains the origins of the play and its link with the cultural significance and history of sheep farming. While sheep farmers Andrew Beresford and Siobhan Lucas, of Pinfold Farm on the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border, offer their insight as modern day sheep farmers in the area and memories of their own festive traditions.

Farming Today was produced and presented by Nina Pullman.

Sarah Swadling is on the Otter estuary in Devon where the clock has been turned back 200 years to tackle climate change challenges of the present, and of the future. The sea has been allowed back onto farmland that had been reclaimed during the Napoleonic war era. The result is a new salt marsh and mudflat nature reserve. It's hoped letting the estuary return to its natural course will reduce the risk of flooding for homes and businesses. As Sarah hears, the ambitious project also meant raising a road, moving the local cricket club, and making an historic landfill safe. She asks the landowner, Clinton Devon Estates, how they weighed up climate change mitigation against food security, in deciding to flood the farmland.

Produced and presented by Sarah Swadling.

The biggest peat bog in Europe, in Caithness and Sutherland, has become a UNESCO World Heritage site, putting it on a par with Tanzania's Serengeti and the Eiffel Tower. It's the first such designation for a peatland site, and is expected to have an impact on the local economy, boosting tourism and peatland restoration work. What is so interesting and important about this vast wet desert of undulating brown hills in the UK's far north? Is the new tag helping the region, or as some fear, hindering development? Richard Baynes has been talking to those who live and work in the wild natural world of the Flow Country.

Produced and presented by Richard Baynes.

Twenty historic barns across the Lake District are enjoying some long overdue tender loving care, thanks to £3.2 million pounds worth of funding from DEFRA and other sources. The oldest of these barns dates back to the 15th century. Some are traditional cruck barns with ancient timber frames and others are remote stone shelters for sheep from the 18th century.

As Caz Graham discovers, they’re part of the UK’s rural cultural heritage and tell the story of farming over the centuries. For modern-day farmers however, these buildings can be a real headache: they are often unfit for modern farming practices and hugely expensive to restore or maintain because of building protections like listings, or because they’re in a National Park.

Caz joins farmers, builders, architect Mike Darwell and Rose Lord, the historic buildings officer at the Lake District National Park Authority to hear how these traditional buildings are getting a new lease of life.

Produced and presented by Caz Graham.

Solomon is just one of the bulls owned by the Scottish Government and welcomed by crofters as part of a unique livestock improvement scheme. Small scale crofters in the Highlands and Islands can choose a mate for their beef herds from a select stud of bulls owned by the Scottish Government. Groups of crofters band together to order an animal which spends a few weeks with each herd of cows before being returned to base near Inverness. The visiting animal is known across the Crofting Counties as The Department Bull, a reference to the original Department of Agriculture, and the scheme is highly valued by crofters. However, catching then removing a bull from his cows and transporting him to his next harem can be a tricky operation, especially if it is done out on a moor with no fixed handling facilities. We follow Solomon the Shorthorn on his journey. Produced and presented by Nancy Nicolson.

Cranborne Chase National Landscape is an area of outstanding national beauty, which spans the chalk hills of Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire and Somerset. It's also an International Dark Sky Reserve, the first UK landscape to get this status back in 2019.

We visit Marshwood Farm in Dinton which attracts visitors who want a bit of "astro tourism": campers come to stay there because it's a place perfect for star gazing. It's not just astronomers who benefit from darker skies, artificial lighting can be bad for insects and birds too. We speak to the farmers who live and work here, visitors out on a night of star gazing and the landscape's dark skies advisor who helps farms and businesses avoid light pollution.

Produced and presented by Rebecca Rooney.

For 50 years the people living in the Upper Coquet Valley in Northumberland have campaigned to get mains electricity.

Living off-grid in one of the most remote areas of England means relying on expensive, dirty diesel generators which often break down and are easily overloaded. But now, a stroke of good fortune means it is finally happening.

A cable is being laid up the valley to connect three emergency phone masts to the national grid which means 16 properties, most of them farms, can be connected at the same time in a project jointly funded by the Home Office and the landowner, the MOD.

We hear from the farming families about how their lives are about to be transformed, about why the Northumberland National Park Authority allowed the scheme to go ahead even though not all the cable could be buried, and from the engineers who are tasked with doing the job with as little impact on a precious landscape as possible.

Produced and presented by Jo Lonsdale.

The Northern Ireland Executive has published its draft budget for 2025-26 and it’s now open for public consultation. Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs is set to receive just over £715 million pounds, an increase of 3%. But no specific funding has been allocated to address serious pollution in Lough Neagh and Andrew Muir, the environment minister, says his department has only been awarded around a third of what he’d requested for day to day spending. He describes it as ‘a difficult budget’.

Historic farm diaries provide a fascinating glimpse into agricultural, social and cultural life in years gone by. So curators at the Three Rivers Museum in Hertfordshire were excited to unearth a diary written in Victorian times by a farmer from Rickmansworth called John White. Masters students at the University of Hertfordshire have been scrutinising the diary entries to see if there’s anything that John’s observations from 150 years ago might teach farmers today.

Rearing and selling turkeys for Christmas has become a major source of income for some family farms, including Cuckoo Mill Farm at Pelcomb Bridge, in Pembrokeshire. And at this time of year, it’s a real family affair, with all hands on deck.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

Carrot and sprout discount wars are in full swing as the supermarkets vie to be the best value for Christmas. While growers acknowledge what's becoming an annual pricing competition can be helpful for hard-up shoppers, they're worried that this sends the wrong messages to consumers.

As many as 7.5 million poinsettias are sold in the UK every year, and 4.5 million of them are grown here. But UK poinsettia growers say next year's crop could be under threat from what they call "disproportionate" plant hygiene rules, which mean crops are being destroyed unnecessarily. They want Government action.

And carols - in the pub. It's a tradition that sprang up in Yorkshire in the nineteenth century, where people would go to the village pub and sing carols to the old tunes.

All week we've been looking at the fortunes of rural pubs. And to celebrate Christmas, locals in the small market town of Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire are reviving village carols from Somerset, Wiltshire and Cornwall.

Presented by Caz Graham Produced by Heather Simons

Rural councils are warning that council tax will have to rise and there will be cuts in services, because they say the Government has prioritised urban communities in the recent funding agreement. The County Councils' Network which represents 23 county councils and 13 county unitary authorities says ministers are 'cherry picking' by using a formula based on deprivation, which is targeted towards city and town councils. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told us the overall funding agreement is a real terms increase which will support places with a significant rural population.

This year a charity that collects surplus food and distributes it to charities says that between November and the end of January, it's expecting to rescue enough food to create around 50 million meals. It says this is in part down to the ways it’s now working with growers to reduce waste.

And carols, in the pub; a tradition that sprung up in Yorkshire in the nineteenth century, where people would go to the village pub and sing carols to the old tunes. All week we've been looking at the fortunes of rural pubs and to celebrate Christmas, locals in the the small market town of Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire, are reviving village carols from Somerset, Wiltshire and Cornwall.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

Carrot and sprout discount wars are in full swing as the supermarkets vie to be the best value for Christmas. While growers acknowledge what's becoming an annual pricing competition can be helpful for hard-up shoppers, they're worried that this sends the wrong messages to consumers.

At this time of year knitters and crocheters are making gifts and natural wool from local sheep is in demand.

All this week we are looking at the challenges facing rural pubs and their importance to local communities. Two entrepreneurs from Oxfordshire think more pubs could grow at least some of their own produce.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

The figures being used by the Treasury to estimate how many farmers will be impacted by changes to inheritance tax could be inaccurate, because of historical advice given by HMRC. That's according to the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers. The Government has introduced 20% inheritance tax on farm assets worth more than a million pounds. Farmers say the change will affect as many as three quarters of them, but the Treasury says data from previous claims for inheritance tax relief suggest just 500 estates a year across the UK will be impacted.

We visit a pub in Perthshire which has an intimate relationship with the fortunes of the river it sits alongside.

New Government legislation's being proposed to widen the public's access to National Parks in England, and to restore more protected landscapes. The Government says the changes will cut through bureaucracy to achieve more for people and nature.

And if you've bought your festive holly and it's got a lot of berries - you may be one of the lucky ones. We hear from one farmer who say berries are few and far between this year.

Presented by Anna Hill Produced by Heather Simons

As many as 7.5 million poinsettias are sold in the UK every year, and 4.5 million of them are grown here. But UK poinsettia growers say next year's crop could be under threat from what they call "disproportionate" plant hygiene rules, which mean crops are being destroyed unnecessarily. They want Government action.

We visit a pop-up-pub based on a hop farm, which sells beer made from the hops grown there.

And a new Government white paper proposes fundamental changes, with every region of England to get a mayor, and many rural areas which currently have a two tier system of County and District Councils, could see these merged to streamline services.

Presented by Anna Hill Produced by Heather Simons

Scientists at Cardiff and Aberystwyth Universities have won more than a million pounds worth of funding for a trial which they hope will create a real-time test for bovine TB. The project will use hand-held microwave technology to remove DNA from cattle and badger pooh samples, which will then be tested for bovine TB on the spot. If it works, it'll be a massive boost for farmers across the country, where the disease costs the government alone £150m a year.

All week we're looking at rural pubs, it's not been an easy few years for the sector. CAMRA, The Campaign for Real Ale, estimates that 2024 will have seen the closure of around 1,200 continuing a longstanding trend within the hospitality sector. We discuss the challenges facing them, and hear from a community in mid Wales which has clubbed together to buy the village pub and keep it alive.

Presenter = Charlotte Smith Producer = Rebecca Rooney