The vets using IVF to improve dairy herds, and could a new 2-stage planning system help kickstart the rural economy? We hear from the CLA on what it wants from the next government.In a special episode of On Your Farm recorded at the Hay Festival, Kate Humble explains how she accidentally ended up buying a council farm in the beautiful Wye Valley in…

We’re talking about vets all this week and one of the most difficult and unpleasant jobs they face is dealing with serious illness and disease in livestock, like the devastating foot and mouth outbreak in 2001. Breaking the painful news to a farmer that their whole livelihood is under threat is something no one wants on their job description. The t…

Post-Brexit trade barriers are leaving the UK behind when it comes to introducing new varieties of crops - according to the British Society of Plant Breeders. Anna Hill reports from the arable event, Cereals 2024, where seed breeding is centre stage. After one of the wettest years on record left many farmers have been struggling to get out into the…

In a world first, methane from slurry on a dairy farm in Somerset is being broken down and turned into hydrogen gas and graphene. The farm involved is Worthy Farm, which hosts the Glastonbury Festival. It already has an anaerobic digester which uses slurry from their dairy cows to make methane which is used to make electricity, and now also used to…

Farmers need more money - so says the National Farmers' Union which says the incoming Government should increase the agriculture budget. Over the next few weeks as well as hearing from politicians about what they propose for farming, the environment and rural communities, we're also going to hear from rural and wildlife groups about what they think…

Spruce trees may not be viable in the UK in the long term because of a pest which is now in the country. Restrictions on spruce trees have been extended after spruce bark beetles were found in East Anglia. The beetle was first found the the UK in 2018 and areas of the South East of England have been under restriction - that has now been extended to…

Spruce trees may not be viable in the UK in the long term because of a pest which is now in the country. Restrictions on spruce trees have been extended after spruce bark beetles were found in East Anglia. This week, we've been hearing from BBC correspondents in the nations about what farmers want from politicians. Today, we hear from Northern Irel…

The UK is vulnerable to animal diseases because of the ongoing trade in illegal meat, according to the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. The CIEH says that a lack of proper inspections at UK borders makes it easy for criminals to bring meat in. We visit a couple of fruit farms in Herefordshire to find out how they encourage the insects t…

The agri-food company Moy Park, which supplies chickens throughout the UK and Europe, has breached environmental laws on more than 500 occasions without facing prosecution. A BBC Spotlight investigation into water pollution uncovered the breaches at three different sites in Northern Ireland - including Lough Neagh. Holidaymakers and walkers in Scot…

The UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme has been running for over 6 years now, with thousands of people counting insects in gardens, parks and on farms. So how are our pollinators faring? We visit a network of connected land in Ayrshire, designed to encourage pollinators. The network is being expanded after receiving funding from the Scottish Governmen…

A selection of farmers outline what they would want from the next government. Bees may be the best known of the UK’s pollinators, but there are many more insects involved in the process which is vital to our food production. And farmers celebrating decades of hard work are recognised with a long-service award. Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced …

House prices in the Lake District are likely to fall because of plans to control the number of homes being turned into holiday lets, according to the most senior planning officer at the national park authority. This is already being done in Wales where it has been causing a lot of controversy. A ten year study of beavers in Devon shows that they ar…

A Welsh cheesemaker which described itself as innovative and with the highest sustainability standards has announced it cannot continue in its current form. The 321 farmers who supply milk to Mona dairy on Anglesey have been reassured that an interim buyer for their milk has been found, while the dairy's owners search for new investment. The Campai…

Scotland is to get at least one new national park - due to be designated in 2026. Groups in Tay Forest, Loch Awe, Lochaber, Galloway, and the Borders have now submitted formal bids for the Scottish Government to consider...but not everyone’s keen on the idea. Farming traditional native breed cattle with horns, like Gloucester’s and Longhorns, is be…

Environmentalist Ben Goldsmith blames sheep grazing for turning the UKs National Parks into ‘dead zones’. Neil Heseltine the chair of National Parks England responds, and explains what role he sees for these institutions. One of the two scientists who was instrumental in creating a back-up vault of the world’s crop seeds to protect global food secu…

To mark the 80th anniversary of Vernon Harwood tells the story of Britain's D-Day farms. As dawn broke on the morning of the 6th June 1944 thousands of Allied ships and landing craft carrying more than 150,000 troops approached the beaches of Normandy in Northern France as the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare got underway. Mean…

This week as the Prime Minister sets the date for the General Election, we ask what farmers will be looking for.And as antidote to all the politics, we bring you flowers. All week we've been taking time to enjoy the blooms, inspired by the Chelsea Flower Show. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.…

Farmers from different parts of the industry say what they want from the next government. A woman who swapped a life in the luxury hospitality business in Jamaica for mushroom farming on Scotland’s west coast. And an arable farm which specialises in growing flowers for the British market. Presented by Caz Graham Produced by Alun Beach…

The date's been set for a general election. Some would argue all the main political parties have been wooing the farming and rural vote for months now, Rishi Sunak was the first PM in 16 years to appear at the NFU conference this spring, Labour’s promising a rural crime strategy and the Lib Dems say they’d put an extra billion pounds into farming b…

New figures from the Office for National Statistics show a record number of people are not employed due to long term sickness. The Government's launching a new task force with the aim of getting people who are off work and on benefits, back on the payroll. The Prime Minister has suggested they could they be persuaded to get out into the fields to p…

Changes to planning law will allow more freedom for farmers and landowners in England to convert unused buildings into new homes, or new businesses like farm shops. The relaxed rules make it possible to alter buildings to create up to 10 homes, without planning permission. In addition, the amount of floorspace that can be changed from agricultural …

There's an update on the saga of illegal waste dumping at a protected woodland in Kent. The BBC has learnt that the Government is planning an emergency intervention to clear thousands of tonnes of rubbish. Locals say that as many as 30 lorries a day were illegally dumping rubbish at Hoads Wood near Ashford at the height of the problem last year. Th…

Anna Hill reports from the second Farm to Fork Summit held this week in Downing Street. To coincide with the event, the Government released it's Food Security Index - which looks at how much of the food we eat is produced here, but also takes into account other things, like fertiliser prices, global trade and biosecurity risks. The Prime Minister s…

Helen Mark visits the Balmoral Show in Northern Ireland. In the week when the Northern Ireland Assembly has declared the country to be in an ecological and biodiversity crisis, Helen asks the new Minister for Agriculture, Andrew Muir, how he sees farming and the environment working together. Produced by Beatrice Fenton.…

Farmers are being asked to support South East Water with its new 25 year environment plan - launched this week - which includes creating a new super nature reserve. More than 80% of the area covered by the company across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire, is agricultural. The company is under investigation by OFWAT after it was revealed…

Rewilding provides hope that nature can recover if only we can give it the space and time it needs. But how far can we go? Can we bring bears back to Ireland? And what about the people who live in these places? Can they be the leaders of the rewilding movement?By Irish Wildlife Trust

The idea for a 'Shannon Wilderness Park' was born nearly 20 years, after it was clear that mining peat could not go on forever. While there are those who are still convinced that the bogs can be put to a commercial 'use' it is increasingly apparent that re-wetting and rewilding all of the bogs across Midlands provides the best solution for nature, …

Farming is deeply embedded in Ireland's culture, society and economy. Yet it is under pressure from many directions, just like the critically endangered freshwater pearl mussel. Can we restore populations of the mussel while at the same time building greater resilience in farming communities?By Irish Wildlife Trust

The oceans around Ireland are vast and, not so long ago, they were bursting with fish and other sea life. Could a plan to create Ireland's first marine park, a conservation areas for sharks off the north coast of Donegal and Derry, also revive the coastal and island fishing communities that have suffered as a result of dwindling sea life?…

Can cities like Dublin be part of the solution to the ecological crisis? Can we throw the doors open to nature so that we have urban forests, wetlands and marine protected areas? Most of us live in cities and creating new connections with nature is central to healthier living and greater resilience in the face of climate breakdown.…

Ireland was once 80% temperate rainforest but today that figure stands at less than 2% and that is made up of tiny fragments which are widely scattered. Yet, the trees could come back. All we need to do is let them.By Irish Wildlife Trust

We have all the science we need in order to act on the climate and biodiversity emergency. We have signed up to enough laws and treaties that, if we were to act on them, we would be well on our way to restoring nature and decarbonising our economy. But one thing that has lagged far behind is our values. If we are to make the changes needed we will …

How is that we have seen the destruction of nature as not only an unfortunate side effect of development but even a necessary prerequisite for maintain our economy? How can it be that we are seemingly oblivious to the fact that we are surrounded by collapsed ecosystems?By Irish Wildlife Trust

Episode 1 of Shaping New Mountains asks why, if all the birds were to vanish from Ireland tomorrow, would we not be more materially impacted? If all our ecosystems have collapsed why is nature all around us?By Irish Wildlife Trust

Shaping New Mountains gets to the heart of our biodiversity emergency in Ireland by examining our values and the myth of our separation from nature. It looks at six big ideas for bringing nature back to our towns, countryside, seas and lives. It urges us to see the connections that bind everything together, and argues for a new understanding of our…