16/09/26 Young trees in drought, wildfires, agricultural cooperative.

Farmers have been assessing the damage done by the summer's severe drought, but it's not just low crop yields they've had to face. Woodlands have also suffered, especially younger trees which haven't had time to get fully established, which can take up to five years. In 2024-25 just over 10 million individual trees were planted in England. How many of those have died? And what can farmers do if they've planted trees using grant money but now have thousands of dead saplings on their land? We speak to The Woodland Trust.The government's holding a wildfire summit next month - and MPs have been questioning ministers about how they handled wildfires over the summer and whether England was fully prepared to tackle them. On the day that the first Scottish Licences for burning moorland were open for applications, the Environment Food and Rural Affairs committee also discussed reducing fuel load on hillsides in England.We all like to get a bargain, and it’s often the case that the bigger you are as a buyer, the more likely you are to find one. It’s the same for farmers, and many have joined buying groups to source everything from seed, fertiliser, fuel and chemicals right down to mobile phones and stationery. All week we're looking at agricultural cooperatives, today it's a big one in Lincolnshire.Presenter = Anna Hill Producer = Rebecca Rooney

The former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett has told the government to 'reset' it's rural policy, and 'learn from its mistakes' with inheritance tax. Speaking at an event launching the Countryside Alliance's 'Campaign for The Countryside', he said the government should also “set aside pro­pos­als to ban trail hunt­ing” and he warned that “for our coun­tryside to be sus­tain­able, it requires a listen­ing gov­ern­ment.” We speak to the former NFU President Minette Batters who was also at the launch.Over the summer you've probably seen the massive combine harvesters crawling across the fields to cut grain, but what if you’ve got a very small patch of cereal crops, how do you harvest it? Most contractors with combines won’t even look at a couple of acres, so what do you do? A community farm near Edinburgh has been struggling to find answers.All week we're taking a closer look at farming co-ops. They're usually formed of a group of farmers so they have more clout when selling their products, they also share information with each other about benchmarking and new innovations. Arla Foods is the biggest producer of dairy products in the UK and Europe's largest dairy co-operative. Its 9,000 multi-national farmer-owners not only share in the profits, but play an active role in deciding how the business is run. We visit farmers who're part of it on a Cumbrian dairy farm in the Eden valley.Presenter = Anna Hill Producer = Rebecca Rooney

We hear calls for more ‘cooperative working’, to give farmers a louder voice in the food supply chain.When is a Hereford cow not a Hereford cow? How a dispute about breed purity has ended up in the High Court.And cultivating hemp and flax for building materials is now the focus of a trial project on a number of farms in Dorset.Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

The number of bluetongue cases since the first of July in the UK has now topped a thousand. That’s nearly three times the number of positive cases for the whole of the previous year to that date. How are farmers feeling about the UK’s largest ever outbreak of this livestock disease?There have been fears that livestock movement restrictions imposed to try to halt the spread of the outbreak could disrupt this autumn’s big sheep sales, which play a critical role in the shepherding year. One of UK’s biggest is Kelso Ram Sales took place this week in the Scottish Borders.The National Sheep Association estimates that every year around 200 farmers are affected by sheep rustling. We hear from a couple in Cumbria who realised they’d become victims of sheep rustlers with both rams and ewes missing from one of the fields they rent next to the busy A66.As farmers decide how they're going to manage next year's crops, the cost of fertiliser and fuel will be in the mix, but what if you could farm without fertiliser or diesel? We speak to a Cornish farmer who's putting this into practice on his farm and we visit a farmer who's set up a biomethane plant and is growing maize to produce energy.Farming without fossil fuels was on the agenda at a gathering of environmentalists this week. The Wild Summit in Bristol brought together more than 1000 people - campaigners, policy makers, scientists and farmers.Presenter = Caz Graham Producer = Rebecca Rooney

The number of bluetongue cases since the first of July in the UK has now topped a thousand. That’s nearly three times the number of positive cases for the whole of the previous year to that date. How are farmers feeling about the UK’s largest-ever outbreak of this livestock disease?There have been fears that livestock movement restrictions imposed to try to halt the spread of the outbreak could disrupt this autumn’s big sheep sales, which play a critical role in the shepherding year. One of UK’s biggest is Kelso Ram Sales, taking place later today in the Scottish Borders. The National Sheep Association estimates that every year around 200 farmers are affected by sheep rustling. We hear from Laura and Sean Robinson in Cumbria, who realised they’d become victims of sheep rustlers with both rams and ewes missing from one of the fields they rent next to the busy A66. Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

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

Britain is producing less food now than 30 years ago, with lower levels of self sufficiency in 10 out of 11 key food stuffs grown by UK farmers. That’s according to a new report from the National Farmers Union which argues that food production been overlooked as a national priority by successive governments. The UK's biomethane network says producing green energy could offer an "incredible opportunity" for farmers. The National Energy System Operator - or NESO - is responsible for planning and operating the country's energy network. It says biomethane could form a crucial part of the UK's energy mix, strengthening energy security and reducing greenhouse gasses. Could you survive a month without going to the supermarket to buy food? That's the challenge being taken up by one islander on Shetland. He's living off nothing but local produce for a month.Presenter = Caz Graham Producer = Rebecca Rooney

A Westminster think tank has warned that internet-connected technology has the potential to be used by China to spy on the UK food system. The Coalition on Secure Technology describes itself as a cross-party group of policymakers and experts. It says that components which allow devices like tractors and crop monitoring drones to connect to mobile networks could present a security risk, with the majority of these 'Internet of Things' modules being made in China.Think of English hop growing and you might think of Kent or Herefordshire, but Surrey was once famous for its hops, too. Now the only remaining commercial hop garden in Surrey has finished its final harvest. Climate change and economic pressures have made it unviable for Hampton Estate, at Puttenham, to carry on producing the traditional Fuggles hops that add bitterness to real ales. All week we're exploring whether agriculture could become fossil-free, and asking how much progress farmers are making to reduce their fossil fuel use. Paul Baker icalls himself The Experimental Farmer on social media. He's been looking at soil microbes and how they can be made to work harder, so their nutrients are more available to crops, cutting the need for artificial fertilisers. Presenter: Anna Hill Producer: Sarah Swadling

Every year, huge numbers of pheasant and partridge are raised across the UK for shoots, with around 40 million released into the countryside. Now the Government is launching a call for evidence to understand the welfare and environmental impact of the birds, which are kept in enclosures before their release.As farmers decide how they're going to manage next year's crops, the cost of fertiliser and fuel will be in the mix. But what if you could farm without fertiliser or diesel? This week we'll be finding out how far the UK is moving towards fossil-free farming.Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

As the UK experiences its worst ever outbreak of the livestock disease bluetongue, we find out how government vets and scientists are coping as they deal with thousands of cases. The trade union which represents them says morale is low and the workload is mountainous. They say more long term strategic planning is needed and better pay to address staff shortages.How well prepared are we for a major threat to our food security? Not quite well enough, according to the National Audit Office report on resilience in England’s food supply chain.Plans for data centres on farmland in Scotland.Finding out exactly what species are in a river can be challenging, but environmental DNA sampling is a relatively new tool which can help. It can detect the presence of rare or invasive species by analysing genetic material in water.The farm vet with a passion for dung beetles. She's teaching livestock farmers how to use fewer medicines to help protect the ecosystems and insects on their land. There are only around eleven hundred calling male corncrakes in the UK, but that number may be about to grow.Presenter = Anna Hill Producer = Rebecca Rooney