Farming Today

Farmers have been assessing the damage done by the summer's severe drought, but it's not just low crop yields they've had to face. Woodlands have also suffered, especially younger trees which haven't had time to get fully established, which can take up to five years. In 2024-25 just over 10 million individual trees were planted in England. How many of those have died? And what can farmers do if they've planted trees using grant money but now have thousands of dead saplings on their land? We speak to The Woodland Trust.
The government's holding a wildfire summit next month - and MPs have been questioning ministers about how they handled wildfires over the summer and whether England was fully prepared to tackle them. On the day that the first Scottish Licences for burning moorland were open for applications, the Environment Food and Rural Affairs committee also discussed reducing fuel load on hillsides in England.
We all like to get a bargain, and it’s often the case that the bigger you are as a buyer, the more likely you are to find one. It’s the same for farmers, and many have joined buying groups to source everything from seed, fertiliser, fuel and chemicals right down to mobile phones and stationery. All week we're looking at agricultural cooperatives, today it's a big one in Lincolnshire.
Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney

The former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett has told the government to 'reset' it's rural policy, and 'learn from its mistakes' with inheritance tax. Speaking at an event launching the Countryside Alliance's 'Campaign for The Countryside', he said the government should also “set aside pro­pos­als to ban trail hunt­ing” and he warned that “for our coun­tryside to be sus­tain­able, it requires a listen­ing gov­ern­ment.” We speak to the former NFU President Minette Batters who was also at the launch.
Over the summer you've probably seen the massive combine harvesters crawling across the fields to cut grain, but what if you’ve got a very small patch of cereal crops, how do you harvest it? Most contractors with combines won’t even look at a couple of acres, so what do you do? A community farm near Edinburgh has been struggling to find answers.
All week we're taking a closer look at farming co-ops. They're usually formed of a group of farmers so they have more clout when selling their products, they also share information with each other about benchmarking and new innovations. Arla Foods is the biggest producer of dairy products in the UK and Europe's largest dairy co-operative. Its 9,000 multi-national farmer-owners not only share in the profits, but play an active role in deciding how the business is run. We visit farmers who're part of it on a Cumbrian dairy farm in the Eden valley.
Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney

We hear calls for more ‘cooperative working’, to give farmers a louder voice in the food supply chain.
When is a Hereford cow not a Hereford cow? How a dispute about breed purity has ended up in the High Court.
And cultivating hemp and flax for building materials is now the focus of a trial project on a number of farms in Dorset.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

The number of bluetongue cases since the first of July in the UK has now topped a thousand. That’s nearly three times the number of positive cases for the whole of the previous year to that date. How are farmers feeling about the UK’s largest ever outbreak of this livestock disease?
There have been fears that livestock movement restrictions imposed to try to halt the spread of the outbreak could disrupt this autumn’s big sheep sales, which play a critical role in the shepherding year. One of UK’s biggest is Kelso Ram Sales took place this week in the Scottish Borders.
The National Sheep Association estimates that every year around 200 farmers are affected by sheep rustling. We hear from a couple in Cumbria who realised they’d become victims of sheep rustlers with both rams and ewes missing from one of the fields they rent next to the busy A66.
As farmers decide how they're going to manage next year's crops, the cost of fertiliser and fuel will be in the mix, but what if you could farm without fertiliser or diesel? We speak to a Cornish farmer who's putting this into practice on his farm and we visit a farmer who's set up a biomethane plant and is growing maize to produce energy.
Farming without fossil fuels was on the agenda at a gathering of environmentalists this week. The Wild Summit in Bristol brought together more than 1000 people - campaigners, policy makers, scientists and farmers.
Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney

The number of bluetongue cases since the first of July in the UK has now topped a thousand. That’s nearly three times the number of positive cases for the whole of the previous year to that date. How are farmers feeling about the UK’s largest-ever outbreak of this livestock disease?
There have been fears that livestock movement restrictions imposed to try to halt the spread of the outbreak could disrupt this autumn’s big sheep sales, which play a critical role in the shepherding year. One of UK’s biggest is Kelso Ram Sales, taking place later today in the Scottish Borders.
The National Sheep Association estimates that every year around 200 farmers are affected by sheep rustling. We hear from Laura and Sean Robinson in Cumbria, who realised they’d become victims of sheep rustlers with both rams and ewes missing from one of the fields they rent next to the busy A66.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.