Ear to the Ground Podcast
The ‘Ear to the Ground’ podcast, the first of its kind to be available in both Welsh and English, shares technical information, advice, support and inspiration to the farming community in Wales.
Episodes are just 20/30 minutes long and will include interviews with farmers and industry experts on a range of topical themes.
A new episode will be published every fortnight, and topics for the Autumn months will include conversations recorded at the Innovation and Diversification Wales event, the Farming the Environment event and an opportunity to get to know some of our new demonstration farmers.
LATEST EPISODE:
Episode 41 - Welsh couple climbing the New Zealand farming ladder
In 2016, Nia Jones and her husband Marc left Wales to follow their dairy farming dream in New Zealand. Three years later, they came runners up in the national Share Farmer of the Year competition in New Zealand. Quite an achievement! In this episode, Nia shares the story behind their success and reveals the next step in their journey as they continue to climb the farming ladder.
Recent Episodes:
Episode 35 - Improve your bottom line by improving your silage
Farmers producing silage within the top 25% in Wales are achieving significant productivity gains. Beef farmers are achieving extra daily liveweight gains of 400g/head and dairy farmers are seeing an increased yield of 2.2 litres of milk/cow/day, compared with the average. In this episode, we meet Dr Dave Davies of Silage Solutions Ltd to discover how improving the quality of your silage can improve your bottom line.
Episode 36 - Soil pH is the key to the engine that drives the farm
Our guest this week is the agronomist, Rhys Owen. He believes strongly that soil pH is the “key to the engine that drives the farm”. In this episode, he talks about the importance of regular soil sampling, understanding the analysis and ways of correcting the pH in the soil in order to improve farm performance.
Episode 37 - Reducing reliance on wormers through more targeted treatments
In this episode, we discuss strategies to reduce wormer use in ewes with the well-respected sheep consultant, Lesley Stubbings and Technion’s European Operations Manager, Eurion Thomas. As a part of a EIP project, they’ve been working with a group of six sheep farmers based in mid and south west Wales to develop roundworm treatment plans for their ewes in the lead up to, and shortly after lambing.
Episode 38 - How a Welsh dairy farmer saved £25,000 a year by tackling foot health
Research suggests that approximately 1 in 3 cows in Wales is lame at any one time. Lameness can have a huge impact, not only on animal welfare, but also on the productivity of the business. In this episode, we meet one of Farming Connect’s demonstration farmers, Russell Morgan of Graig Olway Farm, who has managed to save over £25,000 a year by improving the foot health of his dairy herd. We also hear from Sara Pedersen, a farm animal vet who has been supporting the project.
Episode 39 - How to harvest top quality silage
The renowned silage expert, Dr Dave Davies, joins us to share his top tips on harvesting quality silage. He explains how to avoid some of the common mistakes made whilst harvesting and shares some practical pointers on how to get it right.
Episode 40 - Is liquid fertiliser more effective than compound fertiliser?
As a part of a three-year European Innovation Partnership (EIP) Wales project, trials have been undertaken on four farms in Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion to see if foliar feed (liquid fertiliser) is more effective than conventional compound fertiliser. In this episode, we meet the consultant Nigel Howells who has been leading the research project and one of the trial farmers - Mike Smith of Pelcomb Farm near Haverfordwest.
