Country Focus

An outbreak of Foot and mouth disease in Germany brings import bans and calls for farmers to be vigilant. We speak to the Chief Vet for Wales.

Signs of spring - have you spotted any yet? The Field Studies council would love to hear from you - details below.

Ahead of the RSPB's Garden Birdwatch (Jan 24th-26th) for our bird of "conservation concern" in Wales we hear how the humble house sparrow is fairing

and the project to kickstart live, community gigs coming to a rural village near you!

Floodplain meadows are a beautiful and natural landscapes that are found alongside rivers on larger flat areas that dry out sufficiently in the summer, through well drained soils. However their value goes way beyond their beauty and wildlife - the many benefits we get include storing floodwaters, keeping soil and nutrients out of rivers and helping to protect water quality. A project is underway to increase our knowledge of Welsh floodplain meadows and promote and conserve them for the future. The Welsh floodplain meadows partnership is focusing on south-east Wales, Carmarthenshire, and the Wye catchment, building connections with communities and organisations working in the floodplain. Caroline Evans meets with members of the project to discover what the work involves and what they hope to achieve.

In 1823, geologists investigating mammoth remains in Gower found a partial human skeleton, bones heavily stained with red ochre and surrounded a wealth of grave goods including shell beads and carved ivory. Two hundred years on, Tourism Swansea Bay is exploring new ways of the celebrating the legacy of this important find, what came to be known as the Red Lady of Paviland. The project will explore Gower's rich palaeolithic and neolithic sites with walks and places to visit, culminating with the Red Lady Festival at the Gower Heritage Centre 22nd June 2024. Caroline Evans takes a walk back in time to the cave and explores the history and the heritage and asks should the bones the artefacts be returned?

At the 'Tŷ Te' Tea Hub in the village of Trimsaran, the local community gather together weekly for a chat over a good cup of tea! Hosted by Tetrim Teas, a Welsh family business based in the Gwendraeth Valley, is a not-for-profit, wellbeing and ethical tea company. Caroline Evans joins them at the community centre in Trimsaran and hears how they're developing Rhubarb tea and mushroom teas. And they're not the only ones that think tea grown and made in Wales, has a future. In the hills above Knighton, Mandy Lloyd, who seems to relish the challenge of growing tea in less than favourable conditions, is hoping to build on the existing knowledge of growing tea in the UK. Meanwhile, Lucy George has been growing tea for around 9 years on her farm in the Vale of Glamorgan and is now a Nuffield Scholar looking at tea cultivation as a high value niche crop in the UK, one with ecological and social benefits too!

It's become a feature of the countryside Christmas.....the increasingly popular festive tractor run. Country Focus presenter, Caroline Evans joins the Young Farmers for this year's parade through the towns and villages around Llangollen.

Falling numbers of livestock ....new figures show the Welsh sheep flock has fallen to just 8.75m in 2024 - down from 12m in the 1990s. We hear how it's of prime concern for the Chair of Hybu Cig Cymru-Meat Promotion Wales

The rural gallery, MOMA - or the Museum of Modern Art - celebrates 40 years in Machynlleth, calling for future funding to continue its success

For our bird of "conservation concern" we head to the Gwynedd coast and hear about a small, dumpy, short-legged wading bird - the Ringed Plover!

and what does it take to write a Country Diary? We speak to John Gilbey who writes about his local area around Aberystwyth.

Using natural ingredients and traditional methods - and a little bit of patience....this week we're at an award-winning dairy in Gwynedd that specialises in cheeses and creamy yogurt - made from sheep's milk. Dr Carrie Rimes used to make cheese on her family farm growing up and honed her skills at a fromagerie in France before setting up her own enterprise Cosyn Cymru in 2015. She was awarded the ‘Best Food Producer 2023' at the prestigious BBC Food & Farming Awards and the business has expanded into new premises in Bethesda where Country Focus visits to learn more about this artisan cheesemaker and her craft.

A revised version of the Welsh Government's Sustainable Farming Scheme - "Tree planting and hedgerow creation" replaces the 10% tree cover requirement and the checklist of actions farmers would have to sign up to in order to access the scheme's universal layer have been cut from 17 to 12. Country Focus presenter, Caroline Evans attends the Royal Welsh Winter Fair in Llanelwedd, Powys, to assess the reaction to the proposals.

Farming news - we look back at the farmers' protest in London over the Agricultural Inheritance tax and look forward to the changes the Welsh Government will announce at this year's Royal Welsh Winter Fair on the Sustainable Farming Scheme.

Cegin y Bobl - a new Welsh charity is to form an army of chefs to change the way we eat and think about our food.

and we have a sneak preview of the Christmas tree that's been grown near Knighton, before it's chopped down and sent to London, to stand outside Number 10 Downing Street this year.

Climate Change: as world leaders gather at Baku, in Azerbaijan for COP 29 in the next two weeks we take a look at projects focused on tackling the impacts of climate change. We take a look at efforts to conserve a rare lichen at Dinefwr Park in Carmarthenshire and hear how slag waste could hold the key to better biodiversity.

It's good news for free range egg farmers with changes to the marketing of free-range eggs when hens are housed during Avian flu outbreak.

And for this month's bird of Conservation Concern we take a look at the small, golden, "king of the birds"