11/12/21 Farming Today This Week: Trees felled by Storm Arwen, Defra Secretary on pig crisis, post-Brexit farm payments

Farming Today

• Episode: 11/12/21 Farming Today This Week: Trees felled by Storm Arwen, Defra Secretary on pig crisis, post-Brexit farm payments
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:24:52
• Published: 2021-12-11 08:00

A fortnight ago today we were waking up to many reports of fallen trees and extensive damage caused by storm Arwen. Now that it’s been possible to assess the extent of that damage, it’s clear just how serious it was. In Scotland a fifth of the annual timber harvest was been felled in one go. We hear about the challenge of processing it all at once. Unless the Government takes action there will be no British pig industry left - that’s the latest warning from the National Pig Association which says the crisis on farms is getting worse despite ministers’ attempts to alleviate it. It estimates more than 16,000 pigs have now been culled on farms, and says more will follow. But the Defra Secretary George Eustice tells us that he's done all that was asked of him. There are big changes facing UK farmers over the next few years, with the mammoth task of shifting from one longstanding agricultural policy, the EU’s CAP, to four new policies for farm payments across the UK. We look at new systems being planned for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.