Farming Today

Jan 03 2025 26 ep. 15 mins 21.8k

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The latest news about food, farming and the countryside

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04/01/2025 Farming Today This Week: Restoring ancient barns, The Department Bull, The Derby Tup

Jan 03 2025 25 mins

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

03/01/25 Breeding dairy cows for methane reduction, Pig social skills, Salt marsh restoration

Jan 02 2025 13 mins

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

02/01/25 - Gene edited indoor tomatoes, rural crime, chemical free dairy cleaning

Jan 01 2025 13 mins

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 Ox

01/01/25 Crofters and the ancient Calanais Standing Stones

Dec 31 2024 13 mins

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

31/12/24 - The Derby Tup

Dec 30 2024 13 mins

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-base

30/12/24 - The Otter Estuary

Dec 29 2024 11 mins

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

28/12/24 The bogs of the Flow Country - a peatland that is now a World Heritage Site.

Dec 27 2024 24 mins

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

27/12/24 Lake District Barn Rescue

Dec 26 2024 14 mins

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 discove

26/12/24 - Solomon the government bull

Dec 25 2024 13 mins

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

25/12/24 - Farming and star gazing in an International Dark Skies Reserve

Dec 24 2024 13 mins

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