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Episode details

Radio 4,15 Sep 2026,14 mins

15.09.26 Calls for a rural reset, how to harvest small scale arable, dairy co-operative.

Farming Today

Available for 10 days

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 鈥渟et aside pro颅pos颅als to ban trail hunt颅ing鈥� and he warned that 鈥渇or our coun颅tryside to be sus颅tain颅able, it requires a listen颅ing gov颅ern颅ment.鈥� 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鈥檝e got a very small patch of cereal crops, how do you harvest it? Most contractors with combines won鈥檛 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

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