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Farming Today: 19/06/2023 Soy in animal feed, Grading wool, Sheep

19/06/2023 Soy in animal feed, Grading wool, Sheep

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 19/06/2023 Soy in animal feed, Grading wool, Sheep

Calls for farmers to grow more protein crops and reduce amount of imported soy in feed.

Report calls for drastic reduction in using soy in animal feed. It wants farmers to use more home-grown pulses in feed, and says consumers should eat less pork and chicken.

A new report calls on UK farmers to grow more protein crops for livestock to reduce the amount of imported soya, and says that for that to happen, we all need to eat significantly less pork and chicken. The Landworkers' Alliance, Sustain, Pasture for Life and Hodmedods say there is an urgent need to reduce our reliance on soy, which they say is linked with deforestation and is expensive, putting pig and poultry farmers under pressure. They say to feed livestock on home-grown proteins would mean reducing our poultry intake by 86 per cent and pork by 82 per cent. 

Shearing season is underway. Wool prices have been depressed in recent times, most sheep farmers send their ‘clip’ to British Wool, a marketing organisation that’s owned by the farmers themselves. What they’re paid depends partly on the quality of the wool. We find out how it’s graded at British Wool’s busy West of England depot.

All week we're talking about sheep, and there is a lot to discuss, from wool prices to trade deals and the environmental impact sheep can have. There are about 30 million sheep in the national flock, and the National Sheep Association reckons sheep are worth 290 million pounds a year to the British economy, supporting 150,000 jobs. 

Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney

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