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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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On Your Farm

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Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Getting to the heart of country life with a look at individual farming endeavours

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On Your Farm: Starting Again at 67

15/03/2015

Starting Again at 67

BBC Radio 4 - On Your Farm, Starting Again at 67

Anna Hill meets a pig farmer whose whole herd was wiped out by swine dysentery.

Anna Hill joins the Mortimers, a long-standing Suffolk pig-farming family, whose whole herd was wiped out by swine dysentery.

For Peter and Jill Mortimer, and their son and daughter, it's been a tough few months. Their whole Suffolk pig farming business was put into jeopardy after disease broke out. Pig dysentery isn't uncommon, but some farmers decide to keep quiet about it. The Mortimers, who've been in pigs for fifty years, went public, and decided to cull out the herd so that it wouldn't spread to neighbouring farms. In this edition of On your Farm, Anna Hill hears why the distressing process took nine months, and joins the family for the arrival of the new herd and a brand new start. Peter explains why, at the age of 67, he decided to keep on farming despite the set-back, at a time when he should be retiring.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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On Your Farm

Starting Again at 67

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