09/10/21 - Farming Today This Week: The future of the pig industry and UK wine production

Farming Today

• Episode: 09/10/21 - Farming Today This Week: The future of the pig industry and UK wine production
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:25:01
• Published: 2021-10-09 08:00

The culling of pigs on farms has started and farmers say it will be extended. Charlotte Smith asks what this means for the future of the UK pig sector. A shortage of butchers at abattoirs means that, for a few months now, they’ve reduced the number of animals they take by about a quarter. That's created a backlog of more than 100,000 pigs stuck on farms. Already, hundreds of healthy piglets have been killed to prevent too many animals building up, and the industry is warning that, if nothing changes, thousands of pigs will have to be culled on farm, simply because there isn’t enough space for them. Those animals can’t go into the food chain so they’ll be incinerated. And wine is a growing part of UK agriculture and a real success story. What was once dismissed as a bit of a joke is now producing award winning English and Welsh wine. We visit a new wine innovation centre and learn how wine makers are future-proofing their businesses. Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons