Career options for new entrants to UK farming, Contraception for squirrels

Farming Today

• Episode: Career options for new entrants to UK farming, Contraception for squirrels
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:11:36
• Published: 2017-02-27 01:00

Charlotte Smith hears about the career opportunities for new entrants to the farming industry. Harper Adams University's Placement officer, Terry Pickthall explains that with increasing automation the role of machine operators is being upskilled to become a career that's drawing in graduates. A squirrel contraceptive is being developed, to control the numbers of grey squirrels in the hope of boosting the native reds. Although Landowners get grants to keep squirrel numbers down they still manage to cause around £17 million of damage to woodlands every year. However, as Keeley Donovan of BBC Yorkshire reports, scientists are trialling a contraceptive that's fed to the squirrels in a peanut paste. While agriculture might not seem an obvious interest for inner city kids, St Werburgh's City Farm in Bristol has an 'Urban Farmers' project that's really taking off. It has just won funding for another three years. We hear that it's aimed at people who aren't thriving in mainstream education, and has already produced some future farmers. Beccy Barr has been along to find out more. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Mark Smalley.