Old Knowledge New Tricks

Available for over a year

It was fifty years ago that the Cross family in North west Norfolk faced the challenge of farming in a drought. In 1976 John Cross’s father solved the problem of feeding 300 cattle on light land by growing the legume lucerne, and grazing on a rotational basis, so the crop grew as it was needed. Anna Hill hears how half a century later, in this summer’s drought, his son David, is using similar techniques. He’s grazing cattle and sheep on a mixture of herbal leys, grasses and legumes in an alley-way system with fixed watering points, to try to beat the lack of rain. It’s been a tough few years, switching from arable and sheep to livestock alone, especially in this part of the country where most of David’s farming neighbours are arable. But David hasn’t sunk all his eggs in one basket. The animals and the grazing mix he is using is putting goodness back into the soil, so that if he needs to get back into growing crops, he can. John and David speak with warmth about this undulating part of Norfolk ...it’s somewhere John looks forward to coming back to, after his work in London with policy-makers as chair of the Bovine TB Partnership. He tells Anna that there is a clear commitment now to bring in vaccinations against the disease, hoping to bring TB-free status to England by 2038. Presented and Produced by Anna Hill