29/05/20 - Drought, agricultural show cancellations, Solar park and goat meat

Farming Today

• Episode: 29/05/20 - Drought, agricultural show cancellations, Solar park and goat meat
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:13:33
• Published: 2020-05-29 07:00

Farmers, water companies and government will meet next week to discuss the weather. The National Drought Group is coming together after one of the driest Mays on record. But the weeks of hot, dry weather have come after an unusually wet winter and spring and farmers across the country are worried it's a double whammy for their crops. Agricultural Shows across the country have been cancelled or postponed because of the coronavirus, and for some it could take years to recover from the financial hit. The Royal Welsh Agricultural Show - the biggest in Europe - has lost around £1.2 million pound and there are fears some smaller shows will never recover. The UK’s largest solar park has been given the go ahead. As we discussed on Farming Today earlier this week Cleve Hill Solar Park on the North Kent coast will cover 450 acres with solar panels. It has the potential to produce enough electricity to power up to 91,000 homes. The plans had been criticised by conservation groups but have been approved by the secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy. And all week we’ve been looking at a small but growing part of British agriculture: goat farming. Today we hear from a Cheshire farmer who buys either retired milking goats or unwanted billy goat kids from other farms, and raises them for meat which is sold mainly to African, Indian and Caribbean communities. Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced by Heather Simons