5G and rural connectivity, Cattle interactions, Lambing time

Farming Today

• Episode: 5G and rural connectivity, Cattle interactions, Lambing time
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:13:40
• Published: 2019-03-29 07:02

Remotely monitoring the movement of your livestock...or catching an intruder opening a gate...all in real time. Some say the possibilities of 5G could transform farming. But could it also help connect rural communities that are beyond the reach of broadband? A project called 5G Rural First is testing that. We visit one of the test sites and find out what it means. New research has found farm businesses can be linked to more than a thousand other farms simply by trading cattle. Scientists at the University of Exeter analysed 75 million cattle movements from 2001 to 14, and by looking at 12 month periods of trading found that about half of British farms are connected to more than a thousand other farms every year though buying and selling cattle...something which has obvious implications for the spread of disease. And, it's spring! Any excuse to visit a lambing shed and witness a new life entering the world. We meet students at Wiltshire College as they help around 800 ewes give birth. Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced by Heather Simons