Farming Today

The Welsh Government's Sustainable Farming Scheme has come into force. It replaces the Basic Payment Scheme which has been phased out since the UK left the EU. What will it mean for Welsh farmers? We speak to a farmer near Brecon to find out.Environmental groups in Scotland are leaving the advisory boards on the country's new agriculture schemes in protest at what they say is a failure to address climate change and nature depletion. RSPB Scotland, Scottish Environment Link and other groups say they no longer have confidence in what they say was supposed to be to co-design of the post-Brexit schemes but in fact has ignored their views and failed to deliver meaningful reform. The Scottish Government says it is creating new policies that will deliver for both nature and the climate.Thousands of farmers, environmentalists and policy makers converge on Oxford this week for the annual Oxford Farming Conference and Oxford Real Farming Conference. This year, the Oxford Farming Conference theme is growing resilience, concentrating on how farmers can create the conditions on their land, and in their businesses, to weather future challenges. Climate change is just one of those. We visit a farmer in Herefordshire whose land has been repeatedly flooded. He's working with other farmers to make their businesses more resilient on a landscape scale.Presenter = Anna Hill Producer = Rebecca Rooney

Growing resilience and transforming our food and farming system, the two themes of the two farming conferences happening in Oxford this week. We will be at both - so what can we all expect? And we revisit a farm that installed a milk vending machine with the hope of improving the farm’s fortunes.Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

A round up of seasonal offerings from Farming Today.The charity Farms for City Children turns 50 this year. Set up by writer Michael Morpurgo and his wife in 1976, the charity works to connect children with farming and the countryside. Fiona Clampin dons her wellies and joins the Morpurgos at their farm in Devon.Farming life is full of traditions, and we hear from Rathfriland Livestock Market in County Down about one of these: the luck penny. Farmers selling their animals hand money back to the buyer, to seal the deal. It's a way of wishing the customer success with the stock and building up a trustworthy business relationship. Kathleen Carragher visits Rathfriland to find out whether it's still practised today.Tradition also abounds at one brewery in Oxfordshire, which still uses heavy horses to deliver barrels of beer to local pubs. Vernon Harwood meets three of the shire horses delivering horse-powered pints.Work is being carried out in orchards to DNA fingerprint cider apple trees to identify varieties whose names died with the people who created them, or were never named. The aim: to secure the future of forgotten cider apple varieties. Sarah Swadling speaks to Keith Edwards, Professor of Crop Genetics at Bristol University and Devon cider-maker Barny Butterfield who have been working on the project.Historians in Cumbria are publishing extracts from the diary of an 18th century yeoman farmer. The writings of Isaac Fletcher, who farmed at Mosser near Cockermouth, are providing a window into rural life 250 years ago. Helen Millican has been for a tour of what would have been Isaac's farm. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Jo Peacey. A BBC Audio Bristol production.

Controlling wild goats is proving tricky in Scotland's border country. While herds can damage trees and outgrow their food supply, these fierce yet endearing creatures have a place in people’s hearts, and they are believed to be a link to our Stone-Age ancestors. As different landowners carry out their own culls, there are fears of a devastating impact on the population. Richard Baynes finds out how it's hoped herds can be controlled, but kept healthy.Produced and presented by Richard Baynes.

Historians in Cumbria are publishing extracts from the diary of an 18th century yeoman farmer. The writings of Isaac Fletcher, who farmed at Mosser near Cockermouth, will be featured by the Cumbria County History Trust on their website every month. His diary provides a window onto life in rural Cumbria 250 years ago, and an insight for farmers who work the land there still. Helen Millican meets two of Isaac's biggest fans, historian Angus Winchester and local farmer Mark Clark, who give her a tour of what would have been Isaac's farm.You can read the diary in more detail by visiting The Farming Year Diary on the trust's website - https://www.cumbriacountyhistory.org.ukProgramme produced and presented by Helen Millican.