24/08/21 - Beaver reintroduction in England, Transforming a dairy business with direct selling

Farming Today

• Episode: 24/08/21 - Beaver reintroduction in England, Transforming a dairy business with direct selling
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:13:34
• Published: 2021-08-24 07:00

Plans to release beavers into the wild in England are to be announced later this week by the UK government. Beavers are also to be given legal protection as a native species. These aquatic rodents are often called 'ecosystem engineers' - they build dams on rivers and streams creating wetland habitats that support a wide range of other species. However, the potential impact on the landscape is a concern for some landowners and farmers, especially the loss of productive farmland through flooding. We talk to Natural England, The Beaver Trust and the National Farmers Union about what management strategies would need to be in place to ensure beavers and agriculture can co-exist. And we visit a dairy farm in Wales which faced significant problems when demand for milk for coffee shops fell during the pandemic, and managed to quickly switch to direct selling. Ifan Beynon-Thomas took the opportunity to expand the family farm and installed a milk vending machine to sell milkshakes - it's been so successful he's installed another two machines and now his product is attracting worldwide attention. Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Sophie Anton.