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Farming Today: Mastitis, Strawberries, Bats

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02/04/2014

Mastitis, Strawberries, Bats

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, Mastitis, Strawberries, Bats

New research into mastitis could save the UK dairy industry millions of pounds.

New research into mastitis could save the UK dairy industry millions of pounds. And why you could be eating English-grown strawberries this Christmas. Presented by Anna Hill.

Bovine mastitis, a painful infection of the cow's udder, is estimated to cost the UK dairy industry around £200 million a year. As part of the government's new £70 million Agritech Strategy, researchers from the University of Nottingham, along with a team of vets from Quality Milk Management Services in Somerset, will look at ways to reduce the number of cases in our dairy herds.

Anna Hill visits a fruit grower who hopes to be growing strawberries for the Christmas table. Christopher Andrew-Batchelor in Essex has 3 hectares of glasshouses providing 200 tonnes of strawberries. He's planning to extend their growing season by growing the fruit under LED lights.

And as Farming Today continues to look at the chicken industry, Sarah Swadling visits a chicken farmer in Somerset. According to the British Poultry Council, around 875 million chickens are farmed for meat in the UK every year.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Lucy Bickerton.

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