16/11/21 - Continued pig backlog, free range chickens and Scottish slurry spreading rules

Farming Today

• Episode: 16/11/21 - Continued pig backlog, free range chickens and Scottish slurry spreading rules
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:13:38
• Published: 2021-11-16 07:00

For months, a shortage of butchery workers has left pig farmers coping with a backlog of animals on farms. Now, some are considering aborting piglets to avoid culling at birth. Last month the Government announced measures to try and tackle the backlog - including 800 temporary visas for foreign butchers and funding to pay for excess pig meat to be frozen. But the National Pig Association has written to the DEFRA Secretary, George Eustice, to say it's not working. We find out about a new type of shed for free range chickens. Rather than the traditional pop-holes for letting the birds outside, this shed has open walls leading onto a 4 meter wide veranda area. It's hoped the veranda will encourage more birds to access the outside range, but it makes the shed 20% more expensive...so will it work? And new muck-spreading rules in Scotland are being introduced to try and reduce ammonia emissions. It includes a ban on the use of splash-plates to spread slurry across fields - precision equipment will have to be used instead. Presented by Anna Hill Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons