Neonicotinoids latest; Black Top Milk; Proposed Borders National Park in Scotland

Farming Today

• Episode: Neonicotinoids latest; Black Top Milk; Proposed Borders National Park in Scotland
• Website: Farming Today
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj8q/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:13:39
• Published: 2017-01-12 01:00

A new report, commissioned by pesticide manufacturers, claims that a European moratorium on 'neonicotinoid' seed treatments costs the EU oilseed industry E900 million a year. Before the ban they were used to deter pests that attack oil seed rape crops. The new report says the loss is calculated from lower yields, and the addition of extra fertiliser and other pest controls. Neonicotinoids were banned by the EU in 2013 amid concerns that they harm pollinators like bees. Many conservationists want the ban to be made permanent. We hear from the European Crop Protection Association and Matt Shardlow of conservation charity Buglife who strongly contests the findings. All this week we're looking at the UK's national parks. Today, calls for more areas in Scotland to be designated as parks. Nancy Nicolson visits one such proposed site in the Borders and asks what impact this would have on those farming in those areas? And we cover the launch of a new dairy product giving farmers a greater return on milk from 'free range' cows, which spend most of their lives outdoors. 'Black top' milk is the idea of the Free Range Milk Marketing Board. They want to offer shoppers milk with a distinctive black cap which costs twenty five percent more than a standard bottle... with the extra money going direct to farmers. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Mark Smalley.