麻豆约拍

The shooting organisation BASC says itis taking legal action against the government over gamebird licences in England. Following a legal challenge by campaigners Wild Justice, since 2021 the release of birds like pheasants has been licensed by Natural England. Because of concerns about avian flu, this year the licence doesn't cover protected areas. Anyone wanting to release red legged partridge or pheasants within 500 m of a Special Protection Area, which protects rare, vulnerable and migratory birds, must get permission from Natural England. BASC says there has been no consultation on the change and it was announced too late to give shoots time to adapt.

We start our theme for this week: agricultural estates. They are complicated businesses, with farming often at the heart but diversifications from holiday homes to shoots and micro-breweries helping to pay the bills. This week we're going to take a tour round the Holkham Estate in North Norfolk, owned by the Earl of Leicester.
The estate covers 3500 hectares, growing salad potatoes, malting barley for beer, wheat and sugar beet, and maize for a biodigester. It includes forestry, a national nature reserve on the coast, grazes 900 beef cattle and 600 breeding ewes. It's also a tourist attraction.

And a Leicestershire beekeeper says he has noticed a forty percent increase in honey production from hives near a solar farm.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.