Farming Today Folgen

Changes have been made to the UK Government's Farming Recovery Fund after the NFU reported "major issues" with the scheme. The Fund was announced back in January, to provide up to £25,000 to farmers affected by Storm Henck to go towards repairs to their land. Four months later, this week the Government opened that fund to applications...and almost immediately some farmers reported problems... We are still in the midst of the worst Avian Flu outbreak we have ever seen - the highly infectious strain of the virus has reached every continent except Australia. Now, dairy cows on several farms in the USA have been infected with bird flu and a farm worker there has also tested positive. We hear from a virologist about what it could mean for farmers here.And who should decide whether an area of land is of such great environmental importance it should be given legal protection? Currently, it's the Government’s advisor for the natural environment "Natural England", which has the power to designate Sites of Special Scientific Interest. But a group of Conservative MPs wants that to change - with the final decision being made by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs instead.Presented by Caz Graham Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

A new report has put a price on how much the changing climate is affecting farmers. Commissioned by WWF Cymru, looking specifically at Wales, it estimates that extreme weather events are already costing farms tens of millions of pounds a year. Can hill farming and conservation work together? Since taking over the tenancy of a Lake District farm in 2011, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has drastically reduced the number of sheep grazing on the hills, focusing instead on nature and land restoration. It's been a controversial move, attracting some fierce criticism. Labelling on pork products is not particularly helpful for people wanting to make informed choices about what to buy; that's according to what's been described as the largest study of its kind by researchers at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Sao Paulo. They evaluated different methods of pig farming, assessing each systems' impact on biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, use of antibiotics and animal welfare, and found that none of the farm types performed consistently well across all four areas.Presented by Steffan Messenger and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

The UK Government's Farming Recovery Fund had opened to help farmers badly hit by Storm Henck back in January to pay for repairs to their land. The fund provides those who are eligible with up to £25,000 but some flood-hit farmers say they won't get as much as they'd hoped, because the pay outs only apply to fields within 150m of specific rivers.There are many different ways of rearing pigs. Piglets can either be born indoors or outdoors, then once they're weaned most are reared inside. There, they can either be housed in barns with a slatted floor, which allows the muck to drain through, or they can be raised in barns with straw bedding. We visit a farm where straw bedding is the chosen option.And a London-based agri-tech firm has been awarded one and half million pounds by the UK Space Agency to try and develop a prototype farm for low-Earth orbit. Vertical Future will use the money to adapt its existing vertical farming system - which involves growing plants in stacked layers in a controlled, indoor environment. It's hoped it can eventually be deployed on the first commercial space station, set to be fully operational by 2030.Presented by Steffan Messenger Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons