Farming Today

28/03/25 Investigation into supply chain arbitration, sexing chicks in eggs, small island dairy


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Farmers are too afraid to use a government system that was set-up to improve their relationship with the supermarkets, according to a new investigation by BBC One’s Countryfile.

All week we've been looking at the egg industry. Yesterday we heard about pullets, the young female chicks that grow into laying hens. But for every egg that hatches a female chick, there's another that hatches male, and cockerels can't lay eggs, which obviously renders them useless for egg producers. In the UK these chicks are gassed at one day old, but in Europe techniques are being used to sex the chicks before they're hatched, whilst still in the egg.

St Agnes is the most southerly of the Isles of Scilly. It's home to the Hicks family and their very small herd of dairy cows. The herd provides milk for the island’s residents, around 80 people, and summer ice cream for the tourists. For this Sunday's edition of our sister programme On Your Farm Sarah Swadling went to meet them.

Presented by Anna Jones and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

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