05/06/26 Dartmoor ponies, upland economics, Open Farm Sunday

Concerns have been raised that new agri-environment schemes will require such a steep drop in the numbers of grazing livestock that 90% of Dartmoor ponies will be lost.

We’re talking about upland farming all this week, and this morning we hear how the phasing out of the old EU farm payments are affecting English hill farmers, with two generations of a Lake District farming family.

It’s twenty years ago this summer that a group of farmers put their heads together and decided to set aside a particular day when they’d all open up their farms to the general public. It was a fairly radical idea at the time, driven by a desire to address the disconnect between urban populations and farming, and inspired by a similar project in Denmark. That was the very first Open Farm Sunday which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this weekend.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.