Farming Today

Farmers are being 'strongly urged' to vaccinate sheep and cattle to protect them from the rapid spread of bluetongue. The UK's chief vet says vaccination is the only way to deal with the disease. There are now more than 200 farms with cases in the UK, more than double the number this time last week. The vast majority are in England, with most in the South West. In Wales there've been five. There are none in Scotland or Northern Ir...

In the light of this summer’s dismal harvest, we hear of work to make the UK’s arable crops more resilient in a changing climate.

With the hot dry weather continuing in much of the country, not to mention the situation in the Strait of Hormuz making diesel and fertiliser prices volatile, some farmers are already scratching their heads about what best to grow for next year’s harvest.

And a beautiful native breed cow...

Farmers are being 'strongly urged' to vaccinate sheep and cattle to protect them from the rapid spread of bluetongue. The UK's chief vet says vaccination is the only way to deal with the disease. There are now 130 cases, more than double the number this time last week. The vast majority are in England, with most in the South West. Wales has four cases, there are none in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and here cases means farms affec...

Scotland's first minister John Swinney has been speaking about the future for Scottish farmers and crofters while touring the country visiting summer agricultural shows. This hot dry summer hasn't hit farmers in Scotland quite as hard as southern England, but some areas are now considered to be in what Scotland terms 'water scarcity'. We speak to him about support for farmers and the government's future plans to tackle wildfires.

A ...

Official figures show the harvest this summer is the earliest in England for 20 years. All week we're following farmers around the country as they bring in their crops. We visit a farmer in Northamptonshire who thinks this year's harvest will put him in the red.

When cheese is made, it produces curds and whey. There are two types of whey, sweet and salty. The sweet is often used for protein ingredients but the salty whey is difficul...

The whole of Wales and half of England are now officially in drought. For farmers the impacts are huge. There are concerns about a shortage of feed for livestock and cereal yields are down. The Environment Agency in England says it will step up controls on how much water can be taken from rivers and groundwater. The National Farmers Union has called for a more modern abstraction system, saying we're still using regulations which ar...

The fourth heatwave of the year in the UK is still making the daily farming jobs a struggle for many. But this year the dry weather and heat have also created the conditions for significant wildfires across the country. In Scotland a wildfire started 2 weeks ago in the Cairngorms National Park. It's thought to have damaged around 25 square kilometres of natural forest and hillsides, although the exact extent isn't yet known. The s...

As drought spreads across the UK we hear calls for our water and food systems to change. The lack of water, the miserable harvest and an unpredictable geo-political situation add up to expose the fragility of the UK's food system according to a cross section of supermarkets, food producers and campaigners who've written to the new Prime Minister. They want Andy Burnham to introduce a Good Food Bill for England.

The environmental ch...

Half of England is now officially in drought. The Environment Agency says it will enhance its monitoring of water levels and crucially for many farmers, step up controls on how much water can be taken from rivers and groundwater.

The BBC's local radio stations have been devoting the day to agriculture and as part of this Farmwatch the BBC has been looking at the price of food and how much of what we pay goes to farmers. According ...

New research shows campylobacter - which causes gastro-intestinal illness in humans - is becoming more resistant to antibiotics as the number of intensive chicken farms increases. The research, led by scientists at Oxford University, found the number of strains of the bacterium was growing globally, with evolution advancing the most effective of them.

This week we’re celebrating Farmwatch, where our BBC Local Radio stations in...

The UK's fresh produce trade body has written to Prime Minister Andy Burnham asking him to scrap proposed border checks on fruit, veg and flowers, which it claims could cost the industry £300 million. The controls are included in the reset of our trading relationship with the European Union, currently under negotiation. The checks for pests and diseases would affect imports to the UK from outside Europe. The chief executive of the ...

Charlotte Smith presents a panel discussion programme at the Royal Welsh Show, asking 'what's the best use of land in Wales?' With the Cabinet Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability in the Welsh Government, Llyr Gruffydd; hill farmer and social media influencer, Gareth Wyn Jones; Dominic Hampson Smith, Vice Chair of Wales Young Farmers Clubs; and Rachel Sharp, Director at Wildlife Trusts Wales.

Produced by Beatrice Fenton.

July is on course to be the driest in Wales for almost 190 years. It means that North Wales and the Upper Severn catchment are the first areas in the UK to be declared officially in drought, this year. So far this month they've seen less than two per cent of the usual rainfall. Natural Resources Wales says river levels are approaching all time lows after a series of back-to-back heatwaves, with impacts on wildlife and soil.

In Sou...

Charlotte Smith is at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show in Builth Wells. She meets the Welsh Government's Cabinet Member for Rural Resilience and Sustainability, Llyr Gruffydd, who explains how he's aiming to make Wales' new farming support scheme better for farmers - but is there enough funding? We also hear about why professional shearers are so important, and check out the Sheep Village, which is new this year. Produced by Sally...

British Sugar's factory at Cantley in the Norfolk Broads is to close, in February next year. Hundreds of farmers will now have to transport their crop much further afield for processing. The Cantley factory has been operating for more than a century, and currently processes about 120,000 tonnes of sugar every year, from beet grown by local farmers. It employs just over 100 staff.

As prime minister Andy Burnham's new cabinet members ...

Farming has one of the worst fatality rates of any industry sector in the UK and new research suggests the true number of health and safety incidents on farm is even higher than reported. The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) says 30% of farmers wouldn't log an incident because they fear inspections or legal consequences, and 34% think near misses aren't serious enough to report.

The National Drought Group, which ...

Heatwave conditions are particularly testing for dairy cows, and dairy farmers. Figures from the industry body, the AHDB, showed a 34 million litre reduction in milk arriving at British processors in June this year, compared to the same time last year, with the record temperatures the main cause. The UK is not alone, drops in milk production in Germany and France are bringing one small glimmer of hope. There are signs that the long...

Tinderbox conditions see wildfires across the country and farmers harvesting at night to avoid the heat.

We visit the Great Yorkshire Show, the latest stop on the Farming Today summer roadtrip. We've been at the Balmoral in Northern Ireland and the Highland in Scotland, next week we'll be in Builth Wells for the Royal Welsh. We've using the shows as an opportunity to look at agricultural policy; its devolved so each of the four nat...