Farming Today This Week

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

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

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Farming Today

Magazines & Reviews

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside

BBC Radio 4 LW

Farming Today: Spring

Spring

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, Spring

Has spring really sprung - and if so, what does that mean for farmers?

Charlotte Smith visits Wykham Park Farm near Banbury on a gloriously sunny spring morning, to find out what farmers are focusing on as their busy season begins.

Charlotte Smith sets out on the perfect spring morning, to find out what farmers are up to as the busy season begins.

At Wykham Park Farm, a mixed farm just outside Banbury in Oxfordshire, she meets Lizzie Colegrave and her parents John and Julia, who run the farm in a partnership.
The arrival of spring is keeping them busy - Charlotte visits the Longhorn and Angus cross cattle herds, the sheep out with their lambs, the asparagus fields where planting is well underway, and the farm shop: where seasonal produce is steadily filling the shelves.

John, Julia and Lizzie also share their thoughts on the potential challenges ahead for sheep farmers and concerns over the growing lack of seasonal labour.

Meanwhile Anna Hill goes for a stroll with Professor Mark Butner from the John Innes Centre in Norfolk, to find out more about his research into the smell of spring; Beatrice Fenton visits Yeo Valley dairy farm in Somerset, to join farm manager Jon Wilson as the cows are let out to grass; and we hear from Lee Abbey, chief horticultural advisor at the National Farmers' Union, about the impact of the agricultural worker shortage on this year's spring flower crop.

Presented by Charlotte Smith; produced by Lucy Taylor.

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

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Farming Today

Spring

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4