21/04/26 Sustainable pork production, biochar and chicken muck, rare breed cattle

Available for 29 days

The pig industry has published a new environmental roadmap to help the sector produce pork more sustainably. It's being led by the AHDB and will focus on things like reducing carbon, improving air quality, managing nutrients and waste and using on-farm energy. All this week we're looking at reducing emissions from farming - one poultry farmer in South Shropshire is trying out biochar, a type of charcoal, to help tackle the ammonia from chicken muck. White Park Cattle are an iconic native breed here in the UK, dating back to Roman Times. They're very distinctive, with white coats, black ears and noses. Their falling numbers back in the early 1970's was the start of the establishment of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust or RBST. Today the RBST has placed the breed on to the Most Urgent category of its Watch list, after a 36 percent fall in the number of calves registered since 2022. We visit one of the few remaining herds in Wales. Presenter = Anna Hill Producer = Rebecca Rooney