Spring calving update, fungicide resistance explained and a pork pie without pastry?!

March 18, 2026·37 min·3 clips

Mark uses cameras to check cattle twice at night without leaving bed, a luxury his father never had.

The return is cheerful. Hannah is back at the table, and the opening wanders through skiing, a runner's knee, cake, and apres ski before the farming work starts. Spring then takes over. The forage update makes the point that this part of the year can race ahead, with growth even doubling week on week. The figures help. Contributors average 40 kilos of dry matter per hectare, with readings from 15 in Dunfriesshire to 56 in Gloucestershire. Quality is the bit to watch. The grass analysis averages 12.6 ME, 22% dry matter, and 19.7 crude protein, and the aim is to hold that quality. Correct average farm cover comes across as a steady, everyday discipline, because it helps keep high quality grass coming through the season. Then the show swerves. Charlotte brings in a Jeremy Vine radio debate about pork pies, which turns into a strangely lively age-and-habits story. Tesco research says almost a third of 18 to 24 year olds in Britain have never tried one. The room does not quite know what to do with that. Pastry, health perceptions, Christmas, beige spread, jelly, and a producer tasting one live on radio all get pulled in. It stays light, but it still says something about food habits and perception. Fungicide resistance is named near the end as part of the busy running order. Mark closes the farming thread with a point about keeping income coming into the farm without compromising its integrity.

As heard by us

Practical spring farm talk, grounded in detail and kept human by a little banter.

The episode stays rooted in spring coverage, moving through grass-growth figures, forage quality, a food-story diversion, and a plain-English look at fungicide resistance.

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Why you'd press play

Grass numbers, a pork pie debate, and a jam-packed ag update you will not forget.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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