Farming Today

26/09/2024: Bluetongue; Welsh bog; rural planning

As the first doses of bluetongue vaccine arrive in the UK, affected farms are to be surveyed about the impact of this latest outbreak.

Unexploded Second World War bombs are one of the hazards for those aiming to restore a Welsh bog, Crymlyn bog sits alongside some major parts of Swansea's industrial heritage - an area targeted by the Luftwaffe.

Farmers have been asked to comment on proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework for England. The consultation closed this week - with the new Labour government promising a major overhaul in order to deliver more housing, infrastructure and green energy.

Presented by Steffan Messenger

Produced by Alun Beach

Broadcast on:: 26 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

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That's amazon.com/adfreepodcasts to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads. BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. You're listening to the Farming Today podcast with me, Stefan Messenger. As the first doses of blue tongue vaccine arrive in the UK, affected farms are to be surveyed about the impact of this latest outbreak. A survey that will be sent around anyone that has come into any farm that has come into contact with as far as so that they can report back and gather information on the severity of the case. And from that, hopefully, we'll learn a lot more about just the impact of this virus. But first, all this week we're looking at planning and the countryside farmers, like everyone else, have in recent months been asked to comment on proposed changes to the national planning policy framework for England. The consultation closed this week with the new Labour governments promising a major overhaul in order to deliver more housing, infrastructure and green energy schemes. But would it make much difference to agriculture? Rob Gray is a potato grower in Staffordshire with plenty of experience of the planning system. He's developed a number of diversification projects over the years. Bob Hockenhull has been to meet him. The electric hum is coming from inside a 500 kilowatt 87-metre high wind turbine. It's on Farmer Rob Gray's Landy Lichfield. All the power goes back on high voltage, 700 metres to our farm, where we get first use of it at the farm, and then subsequently the remainder is exported back to the grid. The wind turbine was given planning permission 10 years ago, despite local opposition. Soon after, the Conservatives banned onshore wind because of its impact on rural communities, but Labour has lifted that ban, one of a number of planning reforms proposed. We would like to have more wind turbines if that were possible. But the planning thing is one aspect of it. But the bigger thing actually is infrastructure for exporting the generated power back onto the grid. There's not the grid capacity available and the cost of introducing that capacity is too much to contemplate. Rob is something of an entrepreneur. He converted a ban into what is now a thriving nursery in 2020 and has his eye on other projects in the future. We always have lots of ideas. They don't necessarily all come to fruition. We do want planning policies which do allow us the flexibility to evolve and develop our rural business. Do you think that given we've got this new government and that they do seem to be reforming the planning policies? Do you think you've got more chance now than you would have had 10 years ago to diversify it? Well, the jury's out on that, of course. Chaimo Chiang. Rob's been helped in the past by consultant Chris Timothy, who runs CT Planning. He doesn't think the revision of the National Planning Policy Framework will affect farmers much. I think it's good news for the housing industry in terms of its given a clear pointer that the government wants to see. Housing is an affordable housing delivered. In terms of farming, I think it's business as usual. Those policies concerned with diversify in the rural economy are there. And if you are a farmer or somebody that runs a business in the rural area and wants to expand or wants to diversify, those policies are exactly the same and they give you the encouragement to do it. Do you think that it will be easier, if perhaps a farmer wants to build a few houses on his land when he would have been before? I don't think it changes the locational and sustainable approach to development. Generally speaking, farmers develop land in the countryside and that's not the most sustainable location to put housing anyway. We were talking just a few moments ago about good agricultural land. I mean, would you like to have seen more protection for that under these changes? In terms of maintaining resources, one of the considerations should be you should use your least important and versatile land before going on to the best and most versatile land. So Chris thinks farmers will feel little impact from planning reforms. Rob Gray would like to see one change though. We are always frustrated by the time it takes to get anything done. When it comes to things like planning, it's like on a different time scale to anything that we're familiar with in our everyday working lives. So anything that's speeded up the process would be an advantage. That would be the best change that we could expect or hope for. Bob Hockenhill with that report. Now, unexploded bombs are not the sort of hazard you'd expect to stumble across in the calm of a Welsh bog land. But Kremlin bog sits alongside some major parts of Swansea's industrial heritage, an area targeted by the Luftwaffe in World War II. More than 80 years on, the explosives are still there, but aren't stopping work to restore the bog back to its natural state. It's part of a five-year project called Lifequake. BBC Wales' Gary Owen put on his wellies to find out more. The main focus of the Lifequake project is this 300 hectare crumbling bog, the most extensive area of lowland fen in Wales, which is within a stone throw of Swansea City Centre. Over the years, its neighbours have included an oil refinery, a power station and rubbish tip and numerous coal mines and other industrial works. And yet the bog has remained largely intact. Gareth Thomas is senior project officer with Lifequake. It's been important to the development of Swansea for the last 250 plus years. You know, we see that through the glana-wooing canal that runs through the middle of the site, initially cut by hand through the peat that used to bring coal down to the docks in Swansea. Peetland makes up 4% of Wales and holds 30% of our land-based carbon. But 90% of Wales' peetland is in an unfavourable condition. And to tackle this, the Welsh Government aims to triple its peatland restoration targets. One of the more unusual features being protected here at Kremlin is what's known as the Quaking Bog, Gareth Thomas again. It's a really unusual feature of the site here is the Quaking Bog and transition by a habitat. The Quaking Bog literally means that it bounces and ripples as you move across the surface of it. This is partly due to the formation of it where the vegetation has grown together across the surface of a water body. So beneath it is still very, very saturated and the peat is growing downward at the rate of a millimetre per year. The bog itself is around 7,000 years old and the challenge here is to get conditions on site back to the way they were before man intervened. Naturalist Yolo William says restoration and management are vital at the site but he said it also needs to be seen as a venue for visitors and nature lovers. Within a couple of miles you've got hundreds of thousands of people and I wouldn't mind putting money on the fact that just a handful of those people have ever been here. Management is so important of course but next we need to attract people here to see what they've got. The site is home to a wealth of wildlife including the rare Fenraft spider. Here's Nick Thomas, Strategic Project Manager, Natural Resources Wales. There's a huge amount of work to do here. If we don't do it what's gradually happening you can see here a lot of the reeds are beginning to take over. That's because of slightly more high nutrient water basically. So we need to reduce the water levels, reduce the nutrients coming in, get rid of the reeds which is part of the thing we're doing here which is cutting areas. The main problem with many peatlands across Wales and the UK is that they're drying out. But in Swansea it's a different story. There's too much water here. The restoration team is currently trying to get water off the site and it's a complex operation made even more difficult because of the history of the area. The water is slightly polluted because of old coal mines. But the bog is also potentially a high risk area for unexploded Luftwaffe bombs from the Second World War which targeted the old Tandasi oil refinery nearby. Gary Thomas explains. This area saw something in the region of 40,000 bombs and entendries during a two-week period in the Blitz. A major target, the Luftwaffe hit the hillside opposite us which has resulted in leaking hydrocarbons into the bog that are currently locked away in the peat. We have to be really careful through our work that we don't risk mobilising any of that. We have contingency to deal with it. Should we come across any in the bog but best endeavours are to avoid it where we can. Unexploded ordnance that still remains within the site is an issue for us and trying to locate it or avoid it. Is this the real key bet? Gary Thomas of Lifequake, ending that report by Gary Owen. Its hope the research will help guide efforts to control the latest outbreak, which was spread by infected midges blown over from northern Europe. It comes as farmers in England now have the option of vaccinating their animals against the newest strain. But while the Jabs granted emergency use authorisation by Defra in specific areas can help lessen Blue Tongue's impact, they don't fully prevent its spread. As Phil Stocker, Chief Executive of the National Sheep Association explains. Quite rightfully, there are some very strict controls over the use of this vaccine because it is being used under an emergency authorisation. There's three vaccines coming through, three different makes of vaccines coming through. And it comes at a cost too. It's not subsidised in any way farmers are having to pay for them. As I say, there are three different vaccines. Two of those vaccines are single-shot vaccines and one is a double-shot vaccine with a period of a couple of weeks in between the two doses. But they likely come at somewhere between £3 and £5.50 a dose. I would imagine. We don't know at the moment. And they don't actually prevent the spread of the virus, do they? It's about lessening the symptoms. So what are the considerations there if you're a farmer? With this vaccine, which is a BTV3 vaccine, if animals are vaccinated, they can still contract the virus and they can become infectious and they can still pass it on. And that's why it can't really be used as a ring vaccination. It's why the government has stepped back and said, well, you know, we're not going to fund it because it's not going to protect the whole country. It's down to individual farmers to make a decision about whether they want to invest or pay for the vaccine to protect their health and welfare and productivity of their own animals. Phil, this can be a horrible disease, particularly for sheep, but this current outbreak doesn't seem to have been as severe in the UK. Is that right? There are animals that have died here in England. It's England that has contracted most of these cases, that eastern and southern coast area. So we have heard of animals dying and we've heard of some fairly serious symptoms as well and some suffering from animals, but animals are recovering as well. Whether the level of severity proves to be different here in Britain compared to the way it's been on the continent is yet to be learned, I suppose. What is happening now is that the industry coming together, and when I talk about the industry, I'm talking about industry bodies such as the National Sheep Association and unions, the Veterinary Associations, and Defra as well are coming together to produce a survey, which we're hoping is going to be launched at the end of this week. A survey that will be sent around anyone that has come into contact with this virus so that they can report back and gather information on the severity of the case. And from that, hopefully, we'll learn a lot more about just the impact of this virus. Can you update us on how farmers are coping within the restricted zones, which now cover a sway the eastern England? What effect is it having on farm businesses? There's a lot of inconvenience around any farmers that are selling even livestock to go to slaughter, but animals can move from the restricted zone out to slaughter as long as the slaughterhouses are designated plants and plant and go through all the proper controls that is required. It can move outside of the zone for slaughter. There is a convenience, but at least that trade can continue. The ones that have been hit hardest will, I think, undoubtedly be those people that are trying to move animals away from the zone to live. And that's either to sell as breeding animals or farms that wouldn't normally, at this time of the year, move stool arms out to keep some other part of the country to areas where there's vegetable waste or arable farmers that have got catch crops that are going to be grazed off. They may not have enough keep on their own farms to hold those animals and not be able to move them, so they would have been hit. And those farmers that are selling high quality, high value pedigree animals into other parts of the country, they've been hit quite bad. I've heard a couple of cases now where farmers with pedigree animals, especially since selling rams, have a sell since some of those rams to slaughter because they simply can't move them out to sell as breeding stock. Phil Stocker of the National Sheep Association. That's all from us this morning. I'm Stefan Messinger. The producer is Alan Beach, and farming today is a BBC audio Bristol production. Discover Hydro, the best kept secret in fitness. 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