Farming Today
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. This BBC Radio 4 podcast covers agricultural policy, rural affairs, and food production in the UK.
Episodes
21/09/2026 Pulses, SFI 'haves and have-nots', agricultural advisor training
More beans please - should the UK be growing more pulses? The Food Foundation looked into the potential for these crops and concluded that the UK could and should be growing more of them.Farmers may have to prepare for disappointment as England's biggest environmental scheme re-opens for applications this week. This is the Sustainable Farming Incentive, the SFI, which pays farmers for environment
19/09/2026 The role of farming co-ops, Shepherd protests in Bucharest, International sheep dog trials
This week, we've been taking a closer look at agricultural co-ops, from very small-scale cooperative working up to huge dairy co-ops. Across Europe, it’s widely recognised that farmer collaboration can give agriculture a stronger voice in the food supply chain. We look at how they are working in different parts of the UK and ask if there is scope for more co-operative working.The BBC's Central E
18/09/2026: Lib Dem Party Conference, Glutinous Snails, BBC Awards finalists, The Farmers Wife on stage.
Party conference season is underway and so we'll be catching up with the rural and farming policies of the main parties around the UK over the next few weeks. The Liberal Democrats open their meeting in Brighton tomorrow. They're renewing their call for the government to protect food security by funding more on-farm reservoirs, so farmers can cope with increasingly frequent drought and deluge. The
17/09/26 Farmer protests in Romania, sheepdog trials, Scottish arable cooperative.
There have been violent clashes during big farmer protests in Romania. Thousands of shepherds have been demonstrating in the capital Bucharest about an extension to a ban on the export of live sheep. We speak to the BBC's Central Europe correspondent to find out why.The battle to find the best sheepdog handler in Britain and Ireland has been won by a Welsh hill farmer for the second year. After a
16/09/26 Young trees in drought, wildfires, agricultural cooperative.
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 th
15.09.26 Calls for a rural reset, how to harvest small scale arable, dairy co-operative.
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
14/09/26 Calls for more farm co-ops, Hereford cattle dispute, flax and hemp
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.
Farming Today This Week 12/09/26 Bluetongue disease, Kelso Ram Sales, sheep rustling, farming without fossil fuels, Wild Summit.
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 di
11/09/26 Bluetongue disease, sheep rustling, Kelso sheep sales
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 di
10/09/26 Sustainable dairy farming; Falkland salmon; tractor fuel from willow.
UK dairy cows produce around 15 billion litres of milk every year and each litre comes with an environmental cost: methane and greenhouse gas emissions; energy and water use; and potential pollution. Scotland’s Rural College, SRUC, has completed a study looking at what the dairy sector needs to do to improve sustainbility and reduce its impact on the environment, while staying resilient and profit
09/09/2026 UK's self-sufficiency in food; bio-gas production on farm; Shetland's food.
Britain is producing less food now than 30 years ago, with lower levels of self sufficiency in 10 out of 11 key food stuffs grown by UK farmers. That’s according to a new report from the National Farmers Union which argues that food production been overlooked as a national priority by successive governments. The UK's biomethane network says producing green energy could offer an "incredible opportu
08/09/2026: Spy in the tractor cab? Surrey hops, The Experimental Farmer
A Westminster think tank has warned that internet-connected technology has the potential to be used by China to spy on the UK food system. The Coalition on Secure Technology describes itself as a cross-party group of policymakers and experts. It says that components which allow devices like tractors and crop monitoring drones to connect to mobile networks could present a security risk, with the ma
07/09/26 Government call for evidence on gamebirds, farming without oil
Every year, huge numbers of pheasant and partridge are raised across the UK for shoots, with around 40 million released into the countryside. Now the Government is launching a call for evidence to understand the welfare and environmental impact of the birds, which are kept in enclosures before their release.As farmers decide how they're going to manage next year's crops, the cost of fertiliser and
Farming Today This Week 05/09/26 Bluetongue; food security; data centres; river DNA testing; corncrakes; dung beetle vet.
As the UK experiences its worst ever outbreak of the livestock disease bluetongue, we find out how government vets and scientists are coping as they deal with thousands of cases. The trade union which represents them says morale is low and the workload is mountainous. They say more long term strategic planning is needed and better pay to address staff shortages.How well prepared are we for a major
04/09/26 National Audit Office report on food security resilience, corncrakes, late strawberries
How well prepared are we for a major threat to our food security? Not quite well enough, according to the National Audit Office, which is publishing a report later today on resilience in England’s food supply chain. Why strawberry growers have found their plants are still producing healthy, even bumper crops much later than usual. There are only around eleven hundred calling male corncrakes in the
02/09/2926 Data centres on farmland, harvest in Uist, River Tweed.
The many pressures on land use are coming into sharper focus in Scotland where opposition is growing to a series of large AI data centres planned across the central belt, between Glasgow and Edinburgh. The ruling Scottish National Party’s national council is calling for a moratorium on building them. Most of the centres are to be built on open countryside, and farmers are among the people who have
03/09/2026 Scientists dealing with bluetongue, Lough Neagh sampling, Normandy food producers.
As the UK experiences its worst ever outbreak of the livestock disease bluetongue, we find out how government vets and scientists are coping as they deal with thousands of cases. The trade union which represents them says morale is low and the workload is mountainous. They say more long term strategic planning is needed and better pay to address staff shortages.Scientists in Northern Ireland are u
01/09/26 Crisis loans, pasture for drought resilience, river DNA testing
Farming groups from around the country are pressing for what they are calling 'a government-backed, interest-free Keep Britain Growing Loan' which they say will help farmers maintain cashflow and fund next season’s crop production.How using pasture sown with a diverse mix of grasses, legumes, and deep-rooted herbs and rotational grazing can help in times of drought.Finding out exactly what species
31/08/2026: Wildlife corridors
Anna Hill travels on a safari with a difference, across North Norfolk, to discover how dozens of farmers have joined together to create connected corridors for wildlife and farming. She explores four projects funded by FiPL (Farming in Protected Landscapes), follows a 26-mile mega-hedgerow across 14 farms; a 10 mile corridor of wildflower margins along a river bed; follows a new shepherdess moving
29/08/2026: bluetongue, future crops, lavender farm
With the livestock disease bluetongue still spreading across the UK, we speak to a Dutch vet about how they coped with a massive outbreak there in 2023, and what we can learn.
This week we've been looking at what crops farmers might grow in the future to cope with a changing climate - whether precision-bred crops, or turning to traditional varieties.
And we're at a lavender farm in the Lake Distr
28/08/26 Licensing firearms and shotguns, lavender in the Lakes, gene-edited salad crops
The system for licensing firearms and shotguns in England and Wales is not fit for purpose and should be replaced to ensure public safety. That’s the conclusion of a report published today by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services.When Sandi Thornton started growing lavender on her 30-acre farm in the south of the Lake District, some neighbours did raise a quizzi
27/08/2026: Beef imports, Miscanthus
Farmers in the UK are urging the government to ban imports of beef from Brazil amid fears that it's not produced to the same high standard. The EU and Norway have already imposed bans because of Brazil's use of antibiotics, which they fear could lead to resistance.
In the US cattle farmers are angry about President Trump's plan to allow beef in tariff-free to bring consumer prices down. They say
26/08/2026: gene editing, Bernard Matthews factory closure
UK scientists working on gene-editing of crops will get access to European markets after the European Parliament voted to relax rules around the practice. We speak to a scientist from Rothamstead Research. We also meet scientists working on gene editing of wheat to make it more resilient to climate shocks.
And what does the closure of Bernard Matthews' Derby factory mean for the wider turkey p
25/08/2026: Milk prices, bluetongue, future crops
The drought, and the livestock disease bluetongue, are having an effect on milk production, with yield down by 1.5 milllion litres every day, according to the industry body the AHDB. The shortage is pushing up prices for farmers.
We speak to a Dutch vet about how bluetongue developed there three years ago. They had a huge outbreak which led to the loss of tens of thousands of cattle and sheep. Sin
24/08/2026: bluetongue, future foods, farm app
More cases of the livestock disease Bluetongue have prompted the Scottish Government to impose tighter movement restrictions. It's the first year the midge-borne disease has reached Scotland. There are fears it could disrupt the up-coming ram sales season which involves the movement of thousands of sheep. With the weather so unpredictable and extreme this year, we're taking a look this week at how
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