麻豆约拍

A report from the European Court of Auditors has raised questions about EU's systems for mapping farm fields to make subsidy payments, and they say it needs improvement. In Scotland they highlighted that aerial or satellite photos used were not always up to date, and that in some woodlands claimed for as grazed areas, the land wasn't actually grazeable.

Herefordshire County Council is selling off around 40 of the farms it owns and rents out. The council says it needs to make the sale because of financial pressures and the need to fund care for elderly and vulnerable people. But its tenant farmers say the Council has gone back on assurances it gave that none of them would be left homeless. Steve Clayton is one of more than 40 farmers who rent their land from Herefordshire County Council. He spoke to reporter Bob Hockenhull from 麻豆约拍 Midlands Today.

For many farming families talking about succession, or how a farming business is handed on to the next generation, is very difficult. In the East Midlands Young Farmers have been so concerned about how to get farming families to engage with the succession debate that last night they joined forces with the NFU and held an event to try and help families approach some of those awkward discussions.

All this week we're looking at crop science. In Scotland, the cultivation of malting barley specifically for the distilling industry is big business, but in recent years distillers have had difficulties with barley skinning; that's where the husk becomes detached from the seed at harvest, which makes it harder to process. Now researchers are now looking to the past for clues which might help overcome this and other crop husbandry problems.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Emily Hughes.