麻豆约拍

British Pig Farmers met with the Government, retailers and pig processors at an emergency summit this week to try and find a way forward through the current supply chain crisis. There aren鈥檛 enough butchery workers to slaughter and process pigs, so abattoirs have been taking fewer, in some cases 25% fewer, each week. That's causing a huge backlog of pigs stuck on farms ready for slaughter but going nowhere. Farmers say they鈥檙e left struggling with financial, logistical and animal welfare problems. They say 35,000 healthy animals have had to be killed on farm - meat which will not go into the food chain. We ask the Farming Minister what needs to be done to solve the problems.

All week on Farming Today we've been talking about livestock markets. The mart has long been seen as the heart of many farming communities: a place to buy and sell livestock and to catch up with all the news over a hearty breakfast. Over lockdown that changed as while marts still ran, farmers had to just drop off animals and then leave, and the support network marts provide was missing. Now they're back to normal, and that includes the social side.

We hear from a farming estate which says it's all about creating communities: from soil organisms to new businesses on its land. When Tim May took over the family鈥檚 Kingsclere Estates, the farm grew arable commodity crops. He says he鈥檚 now on a ten year mission to regenerate the land and the finances. He's shifted to organic niche crops, brought in new partners and is exploring all the possibilities the farm might offer.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.