09/11/20 - Wasted wool, peatland restoration and a Rural Re-Think

Farming Today

• Episode: 09/11/20 - Wasted wool, peatland restoration and a Rural Re-Think
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:11:25
• Published: 2020-11-09 07:00

The impact of COVID 19 on the world wool market has led to some farmers burning or composting fleeces because it’s not worth packing them for sale. Most British wool is used in things like carpets for hospitality, for example hotels, cruise ships and airports, and a fall in demand has hit wool prices. Charlotte Smith speaks to one Welsh farmer whose been giving his fleeces away for free. In Northern Ireland, we hear why a helicopter is dropping big rolls of coconut husks on Cuilcagh Mountain. It's part of a £100,000 project to restore peatlands in an effort to hit the UK's net zero targets. Where they're damaged by wildfires, drainage or overgrazing, peatlands release large amounts of carbon. And as part of a week where we hear from young rural voices about how they see the future of the countryside, we meet Teleri Fielden. She's 30 and rents a 100 acre hill farm in Snowdonia. She isn’t from a farming family and started out thanks in part to a scheme run by the National Trust and Wales Young Farmers which gave her a year running a hill farm. Though its changing, farming is still a male dominated industry and the average age of a farmer is about 58 - but Teleri says we shouldn't see that as a problem, but instead see older farmers as a resource. Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol is Heather Simons