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Farming Today: Intensive beef farming, firearms checks and sheep primping

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31/05/2018

Intensive beef farming, firearms checks and sheep primping

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, Intensive beef farming, firearms checks and sheep primping

Steffan Messenger asks if US-style 'feedlot' beef farms have come to the UK.

The latest on food, farming and the countryside. Steffan Messenger asks if 'feedlot' beef farms have come to the UK. Plus a look at a series of police checks on gun owners.

Claims that U.S. style mega-beef farms are operating in England are being strongly denied by the National Farmers Union. Industrial scale fattening units which house herds of up to 3,000 cattle have been filmed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Guardian newspaper. But the NFU insists the farms are smaller and adhere to higher animal welfare standards than American 'feedlot' systems.

A series of spot checks on the homes of licenced gun-owners by Merseyside Police are being condemned by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC). The organisation has written to the Chief Constable of Merseyside, claiming that teams of officers have been turning up unannounced at the homes of some of its members. The Force has told the BBC that the visits are helping keep communities safe.

The Royal Bath & West Show is underway in Somerset bringing months of planning and preparation by livestock breeders to an end. Andy Coombs who farms near Radstock has been showing Farming Today how he gets his flock of Charollais sheep ready for judging. 

Presented by Steffan Messenger.
Produced by Vernon Harwood.

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