Farming Today

11/10/24 - Employment rights, beavers, Welsh slurry spreading rules

The government has published its Employment Rights Bill - so what will it mean for farmers and the staff who work for them? Its key proposals include protection against unfair dismissal from day one, flexible working, improved rights for sick pay, bereavement and parental leave, and a move to regulate zero hours contracts. Most of the planned changes won’t take effect until 2026 and there’ll be a period of consultation between now and then.

Conservationists have long argued that the reintroduction of beavers can help reduce the risk of flooding - the dams they build slow the flow of water in rivers, holding it back from built-up areas further downstream. Well, beavers have been living wild on the River Otter in East Devon for at least 16 years, but last year, there was significant flooding in the area.

And some Welsh farmers have claimed they are having to choose between the risk of polluting rivers or breaking the law, ahead of a controversial muck-spreading ban. New rules forbid slurry spreading across Wales from mid October to January, in an effort to protect water quality. NFU Cymru says there is "enormous concern" after wet conditions have hampered efforts to empty slurry stores ahead of the deadline. But the organisation representing Welsh rivers' trusts say farmers have had years to prepare for the changes.

Presented by Caz Graham Produced by Heather Simons

Broadcast on:: 11 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

This is the BBC. This podcast is supported by advertising outside the UK. Selling a little? Or a lot? Shopify helps you do your thing, however you chit-ching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage to the first real-life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage, Shopify is there to help you grow. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the Internet's best converting checkout. 36% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms because businesses that grow grow with Shopify. Get a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com/work. Shopify.com/work. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous to your contracts, they said, "What the f*ck are you talking about? You insane Hollywood f*ck." So to recap, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at Mint Mobile.com/Switch. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. It's lower above 40 gigabytes of details. BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. Hello, and thank you for listening to the Farming Today podcast. I'm Kaz Grahim, and in this episode, we're down by a Devon Riverbank asking if Beavers really can help prevent flooding. And what will a government's new deal for workers mean for farming? The seasonal and permanent staff are an absolutely crucial part of our whole food supply system. So making sure they're properly looked after is in everybody's interest. But we do need that level of flexibility because the shift patterns do change in the farming and food production industry. More on that a little later. But we start today with Muk. Some Welsh farmers have claimed that they're having to choose between the risk of polluting rivers or breaking the law ahead of a controversial muck spreading ban. New rules forbid slurry spreading across Wales from mid-October to January in a bid to protect water quality. And if you can re-say, there is enormous concern after wet conditions of hampered efforts to empty slurry stores ahead of the deadline. But the organisation representing Rivers Trust in Wales, say farmers, have had years to prepare for the changes. Staff and messenger is Environment Correspondent for BBC Wales. The slurry pit, as you can see, is 12 foot deep. The area we've got left, we have about, if they're all the cattle we're in, we have capacity for about another month, I would say, left in the slurry pit. Gary Hoel's is slurry pit should be far emptier by now, with days to go until a ban on muck spreading comes into force across Wales. But weeks of rain has meant his land is waterlogged. It's been raining if you can remember through the autumn, August, as of September. The ground conditions are very wet. You can't take many tractors on particular fields. Do I risk polluting the river by dumping slurry on a few fields to get my pit empty? Or do I wait until after the close period, and as it is now, breaking the rules and the law to get rid of my slurry in a sensible way, working with nature, and with the weather, and getting slurry out when I can. I haven't polluted a river and I haven't broken a law in my life, and I don't want to start now. What does he rank and his government want me to do? By the 15th of October, most Welsh farmers need to show they have at least five months' worth of slurry storage capacity, and they're in a position to no longer need to spread their animals manure for three months. To have these very rigid calendar dates around spreading slurry is going to make it very difficult. There's a lot of worry out there from farmers about how they are going to manage this through the winter. I mean, it's just like having the rug pulled out from under you. I might be reading it, and I'm the end if you can read Deputy President. These rules have been debated, haven't they, for the best part of a decade, and they were announced in 2021, so farmers have had time to prepare. Neither the grant money has been delivered up until the last couple of months ago, and also with having serious issues with councils trying to get planning commission through. So, it hasn't been plain sailing for many, many farms. But at a time of huge public interest in water pollution, river groups take a different view. I'm Gail Deuswolsh, and I'm CEO of Avonith Camry, which is the umbrella body for the river's trusts in Wales. So, rivers are unfortunately in chaos at the moment. Natural Resources Wales published its 2023 stock assessments for the iconic species of salmon and sea trout, and they showed the lowest numbers since records began in the 1970s. Fundamentally, our rivers are on a really poor place, some of the highest areas of water quality impact moment coincide with very high agricultural rural communities. And sorry, it is frequently cited as one of the main causes of pollution. You know, it is really unfortunate and disappointing that at times like this, the farmers unions tend to call for a further delay to regulations. There was a generous transition period given by Welsh government to the agricultural community. We really need to see these regulations stay as they are. One thing I'm here in Cabinet sector is who should farmers contact to discuss the issues they're having? In the centre this week, the Rural Affairs Secretary, Huaranka Davis, said he was listening to farmers' concerns and announced there would be some leniency when it comes to policing the regulations this year, where farmers can prove they're taking steps to comply. I do recognise the difficulties farms have faced since the regulations were introduced, including the impact of global events on materials and costs and the need for time to access financial support to achieve compliance. So I have, in consultation with NLW, considered the enforcement approach in these circumstances. It will be down to natural resources whales to enforce the ban. It said it had carried out 500 farm inspections already and would continue to work constructively with the industry. And that was Stefan Messenger reporting. Now, all these week on the programme, we're looking at how we manage the nation's water, when there's too much of it or too little. Conservationists have long argued that the reintroduction of beavers can help reduce the risk of flooding. The dams they build can slow the flow of water in rivers, holding it back from built up areas further downstream. Well, beavers have been living wild on the river Otter in East Devon for at least 16 years, but last year there was significant flooding in the area. Following a five-year study to monitor their impact, the local wildlife trust is now working with Natural England to see whether there could be some kind of financial support for farmers who make space for beavers on their land. Fiona Clampin has been to find out how much difference the beavers are really making to flood risk in the river's catchment. Tipton St John near Otter East St Mary was one of the area's worst hit. Parents were told not to collect their children from the primary school this afternoon. Roads were absolutely impassable. That was how the BBC reported flooding of the river Otter in May last year, in an area of East Devon where beavers are known to live. Just walking up the farm track here. On our right-hand side is sheet-grazed grass pasture, and on our left is this kind of lovely riparian wet woodland with a beaver wetland in it. On the other side is a large maze field. Matt Holden from Devon Wildlife Trust is monitoring the beavers' impact closely on a tributary of the same river at East Budley. It's hoped the dramatic scenes of 2023 experienced a few miles upstream from here are a thing of the past, thanks to the reintroduction of beavers. This river corridor was always quite wet and boggy, and now we see it's a lot wetter and a lot bogier, and there's these lovely open water ponds created by their large dams across the small stream. What they're really looking for is water that's about 70 centimetres to a metre deep. They can swim around that safely. Importantly, they can have an underwater burrow in which they can access their lodge, and that's where they'll spend their day. They're a nocturnal corpuscular species, so that gives them a lot of evasion from predators, and in the day it means they can swim about to access forage. I'm Alan Patek. I'm a lecturer in nature-based solutions at the University of Exeter. For the last 10 years or so, my research has particularly been focusing on the risks that we face with flooding and drought and hydrologic wet streams. For me, the question here was, can this be ever wetland help slow the flow of water, increase water storage within the landscape, and during those damaging flood events, can it protect that downstream village? Just using this site as an example, it really has here. The wetland we're now, it can store up to six and a half million litres of water, and thanks to the Environment Agency, we've got excellent monitoring just downstream of the site. So this allowed us to show, for instance, that during the storm events, when you get that rapid, brush of water quite often leaving the dam, causing that downstream damage, we were seeing flood peaks reduced by around 30%, and I think you can't attribute it soy to beavers, but since beavers have been here, I don't think we've suffered flooding in the downstream village. You get the best view of the dam from here, really. So what do they make the dams from? The dams are made from mud and sticks, and then stones, all sorts, really. You can see a little bit of maize that's been popped on top from where they've been feeding, but you also get things like pills, macans, wine bottles, bricks, so they're really quite strong and capable animals. That has actually come up kind of half a foot since I saw it a few weeks ago, and that's brilliant in how much water it's holding, but a lot of people get concerned about what if the dam kind of blows out or disintegrates, and what we see is that very rarely happens, and when it does, it's a very slow process. I started this piece with a click from last year when a village, not far from here, in St John, was flooded, so when we see some villages being flooded where beavers are, but also others like this one, not being flooded or the flood risk being reduced, how successful do you think beavers are in that sense? St John's on the main river otter. In the main river otter, beavers don't need to build dams. They've got plenty of adequate, deep water, so it's really in these headwater streams where they build their dams, and they have the most influence or impact on flows of water. Beavers can be part of a solution, not the best solution, I think that's critical to say. Beavers won't construct wetlands everywhere, but we do have a science in the evidence to say where beavers can provide benefits and where we might need to work with their landowners to manage their impacts. Alan Putuk from the University of Exeter, a Matt Holden from Devon Wildlife Trust. If you have any thoughts on beavers and flood prevention or anything else you hear in the programme, please do get in touch. You can email us on farming.today@bbc.co.uk and on Twitter or X we are @bbc farming today. Now the Government has published its Employment Rights Bill, so what will it mean for farmers and the staff who work for them? Deep proposals include protection against unfair dismissal from day one, flexible working, improved rights for sick pay, bereavement and parental leave and a move to regulate zero hours contracts. Most of the plan changes won't take effect until 2026 and there will be a period of consultation between now and then. Tom Bradshaw is President of the National Farmers Union, and I asked him what impact the new bill will have on farm businesses. We need to make sure that we have the flexibility within the workforce to work the hours that are required within the food industry. The seasonal and permanent staff are an absolutely crucial part of our whole food supply system, so making sure they're properly looked after is in everybody's interest, but just we do need that level of flexibility because the shift patterns do change in the farming and food production industry. If we look at, for example, zero hours contracts under the proposed legislation, people who were regular hours over a defined period, maybe 12 weeks I think is a suggestion, they'll be entitled to guaranteed working hours. I mean, that only seems fair, doesn't it? It does seem fair, but then on the other hand, I think what it's saying at the moment is about exploitative zero hours contracts. So if the employee wants to have a zero hours contract, is that still okay? I mean, I was with a business yesterday, a dairy business, and they were saying that actually a lot of their employees are perfectly happy being on a zero hours contract, they know they're going to get the work, but their shift patterns change according to both what the business needs, but also when the person is available. So I think that just making sure that there is that level of flexibility is really essential for what the industry needs to continue producing that food, but again, we do have to respect that our workers, our employees are just such a crucial part of our businesses. It's not easy finding these people, and so making sure that they're properly respected after is also absolutely critical. It can be difficult for farms, can't it? Because they are very small businesses. They don't have many staff, or some of them don't. They certainly don't have an HR officer or a lot of them to keep track of the legislation. How much difference will that make to individual farming companies? But a lot will take on, say for example, casual labour at certain times of year. I mean, this is the huge challenge for a lot of our members that do run very small businesses. They don't have the HR department. Often they'll only employ one or two people, and then their team tends to be an incredible amount of flexibility that works often for the person doing the work, as well as for the farm business, and making sure that this doesn't become too cumbersome so that that relationship doesn't work is going to be something which is really difficult to try and get that balance right. Because clearly the government want to protect the workers' rights, but it's also important that the worker and their business are still able to have that flexible relationship between them. We had a statement from the British Meat Processes Association saying that they would like government to, while they're doing this, have one eye on how the new legislation will impact costs and therefore the competitiveness of British companies. They're worried about imports, basically. This is something we have to be very, very conscious of to make sure that we don't disadvantage production here. And getting that balance right between looking after our crucial workforce and making sure that we're not adding a cost burn to the industry, and it is going to be really interesting. Well, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, he calls it a pro-worker, pro-business bill. Do you think farmers will agree? At the moment, it seems to be something that most people will be able to work with. I mean, obviously day one rights is something, particularly for our horticultural sector, where they have a lot of seasonal workers coming in. Day one rights there could be a bit of a challenge. They'll be really worried about the cost burden that that could bring into the business. But, again, those seasonal workers are a huge part of our food supply chain and that continuity of supply. So I think that when it comes to implementing changes, we just need to make sure that they're implemented in a sensible and gradual manner so that it doesn't impact on the production within members' businesses. Tom Bradshaw from the National Farmers Union. And that's all from us for today. I'm Kaz Graham. The producer is Heather Simons, and farming today is a BBC audio Bristol production. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union. The producer is a production of the National Farmers Union.