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Farming Today: Pig virus, Black Grass, Alpacas

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04/06/2014

Pig virus, Black Grass, Alpacas

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, Pig virus, Black Grass, Alpacas

There's a shortfall of pigs going to market in the US, after a virus killed 7 million.

Presented by Anna Hill. There is a shortfall on the US pork market after the death of 7 million pigs. And British alpaca fleece is fetching high prices this year.

It's believed that around seven million pigs in America have now been killed by Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus and this is having an effect on the US pork market. The virus was first confirmed there more than a year ago and has been found in 30 states. It is particularly dangerous for piglets, with a near 100% mortality rate. Farming Today speaks to the National Pork Board in Iowa to find out how their farming industry is coping with the disease.

As black-grass continues to cause problems for cereal growers this year, more than 250 farmers meet at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany's site in Cambridgeshire, to find out how they can manage the weed better.

And British alpaca fleece is fetching high prices this year, after snow storms in South America last summer killed an estimated quarter of a million animals. With the alpaca shearing season underway, Anna Hill meets alpaca farmers in East Anglia who are milling fleece from alpacas around the world.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Lucy Bickerton.

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