Conservation buffer zones, farm education, prisoners picking fruit, walking alpacas

Farming Today

• Episode: Conservation buffer zones, farm education, prisoners picking fruit, walking alpacas
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:13:27
• Published: 2019-06-04 07:00

Are farmers getting paid to grow conservation buffer zones, which might not be helping nature? A new report by Rothamsted Research shows that conservation areas can end up with the wrong type of weeds which could smother beneficial plants. This week we're talking about education, how people can learn about farming and what farmers really do. As part of a ten year Countryside Stewardship Scheme, Patrick Twigger hosted about two thousand school children on his pig farm every year, but now the scheme has been pulled. A fruit farmer in Nottinghamshire says she's interested in employing local prisoners to pick apples in her orchard. And could walking with alpacas be the perfect antidote to the stress and strains of modern life? Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.