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Around 60,000 newborn male dairy calves are killed each year on farms in Great Britain - according to the AHDB. That’s about 4% of all the calves born to dairy cows - the rest are raised for meat. The industry has made a commitment to stop killing male calves by the end of this year…and the industry group, Ruminant Health and Welfare, says the use of sexed semen will be key. It means, some cows can be inseminated with sexed semen from a specialist dairy bull - to produce only female calves which will then join the dairy herd. Other cows can be inseminated with semen from a beef type bull - and the resulting cross breed calves are worth more on the beef market than a pure dairy bull calf.

Manure or slurry is a significant pollutant, especially if it gets into waterways. Wessex Water is working with farmers to reduce the amount of phosphates in the Brinkworth Brook - a tributary of the Bristol Avon. We visit one of the 60 farms taking part.

And, retailers won’t accept potatoes with scab - a disease that makes them look blistered, although they're still fine to eat. No chemicals will prevent scab, but scientists at the John Innes Centre in Norwich have been testing hundreds of strains of Pseudomonas bacteria, found naturally in the soil, that protect potatoes against this disease. They are now working on developing a soil bio-addition full of the best protective bacteria, to prevent scab from happening.

Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons