10/09/26 Sustainable dairy farming; Falkland salmon; tractor fuel from willow.

UK dairy cows produce around 15 billion litres of milk every year and each litre comes with an environmental cost: methane and greenhouse gas emissions; energy and water use; and potential pollution. Scotland’s Rural College, SRUC, has completed a study looking at what the dairy sector needs to do to improve sustainbility and reduce its impact on the environment, while staying resilient and profitable. The report was commissioned by The Dairy Roadmap, an industry-wide initiative to improve the environmental footprint of the whole dairy supply chain by 2030.

The farming of salmon divides opinion - supporters in Scotland say it’s worth more a billion pounds to the economy but others argue it’s responsible for environmental damage, pollution and disease that spreads into wild salmon. Those same arguments are now playing out on the other side of the Atlantic in the Falkland Islands. Salmon aren’t native to the waters around the islands, but plenty of other fish are, and concerned locals are demanding a referendum over plans to introduce the commercial farming of this non-native fish.

Lots of farmers are using renewable energy like solar, wind and biomass for powering some aspect of their farming practice, but one of the most stubborn challenges is how to power tractors. An electric tractor trying to do heavy work like ploughing would simply run out of battery after a few hours and take hours to charge but new advances in gasifying biomass means a low emission alternative to diesel has become an option. We visit a farm in Nottinghamshire which is trialling production.

Presenter = Caz Graham Producer = Rebecca Rooney