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Farming Today: 29/05/2013

29/05/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 29/05/2013

Feeding flies to livestock - Sybil Ruscoe looks at putting insect protein in animal feed.

Food, farming and countryside news. Feeding flies to livestock - Sybil Ruscoe hears about new research looking at the possibility of putting insect protein in animal feed.

Would you eat meat that has been reared on flies and maggots? The EU is funding a project to look into whether flies fed on waste could be a cheaper way of satisfying the high demand for feed protein, and provide an alternative to imported soya. Sybil Ruscoe hears from a South African fly farmer who is about to produce 90 tonnes of larvae a day from his cages containing five billion flies. While he raves about the benefits, a sceptical Gloucestershire beef farmer explains his reservations about feeding insects to his cattle.
And wildlife research is the latest casualty of government cost-cutting. Two national projects - the Otter Project and the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme - have both lost their funding from the Environment Agency. Predators are seen as good 'indicator species', and testing contamination in dead birds and otters allows scientists to monitor pollutants in the wider environment. Without the funding, The Otter Project will end in June.

Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Anna Jones.

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