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17/01/2014

The mild winter we are having seems to be confusing our wildlife. The Woodland Trust reports cases of plant and animal behaviour you would normally not expect until spring.

Is winter the new spring? The mild weather we are having seems to be confusing plants and animals. With snowdrops already appearing, some shrubs coming into leaf, and even insects out and about in January, is there a danger that early wildlife may be knocked back by frosts over the coming weeks? Charlotte Smith talks to the Woodland Trust, whose nature records go back 300 years, about the changing patterns of spring.

Farming Today hears about the effect of the recent tidal surges on farmers in North Wales. Work is underway to rebuild a fifty metre stretch of the sea wall which was damaged in the storms, letting seawater engulf farmland at Llanbedr. Should agricultural land be given more priority when it comes to flood planning?

And in the last of our series about family farms, we visit a new enterprise in Dartmoor - a business only established a decade ago, and now employing two generations.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emma Campbell.

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13 minutes