Documentary, BBC This Farming Life; S01 E01 Scotland
The working day begins as the sun rises above the horizon and it ends long after the sun has set. Across Scotland and Northern Ireland, the struggles and triumphs of farmers and their families are documented to give a unique perspective into the lives of those providing the nation with milk, meat and more. Against a backdrop of some of Britain's most remote and beautiful locations, these farmers go about their day with unprecedented dedication as they tend to their animals, harvest their crops, and care for their own families, as they endeavour to keep everything on the farm running smoothly during often testing times.
#FarmingLife #ThisFarmingLife #Scotland
#FarmingLife #ThisFarmingLife #Scotland
#Documentary
#FarmingLife
#ThisFarmingLife #FarmingLife #Documentary
The working day begins as the sun rises above the horizon and it ends long after the sun has set. Across Scotland and Northern Ireland, the struggles and triumphs of farmers and their families are documented to give a unique perspective into the lives of those providing the nation with milk, meat and more. Against a backdrop of some of Britain's most remote and beautiful locations, these farmers go about their day with unprecedented dedication as they tend to their animals, harvest their crops, and care for their own families, as they endeavour to keep everything on the farm running smoothly during often testing times.
#FarmingLife #ThisFarmingLife #Scotland
#FarmingLife #ThisFarmingLife #Scotland
#Documentary
#FarmingLife
#ThisFarmingLife #FarmingLife #Documentary
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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:01Across some of the most beautiful and remote landscapes of the British Isles.
00:06This is not a bad office, is it? You know, is it?
00:10Scotland's farmers carve a living.
00:13Everything, a time and a season, nature doesn't stop.
00:17Breeding sheep and cattle.
00:19There's a lot of old friends here. They've come to the end of their working life.
00:22Quite a sad day.
00:25Swear second.
00:26Bringing new life into the world.
00:29And battling with the elements.
00:33They're all cute in their own way.
00:35And especially if you end up on your plate as a lamb chop, yum.
00:40Over a year, five very different families let cameras onto their farms.
00:45Hell of a size of nuts on them.
00:47And into their lives.
00:49To share their struggles.
00:51I don't know why you won't move forward with us.
00:53Do you need to do this?
00:54And their triumphs.
00:56Look at my baby.
00:58Is alive.
01:00As they try and turn a profit in testing economic times.
01:04That's just depressing that really.
01:06There's cause for celebration.
01:08Gorgeous.
01:10And a time to reflect.
01:12I feel sad that I haven't provided the next generation to carry on here.
01:16But it's never dull.
01:18Don't let him go.
01:19It's not a job.
01:20It's a way of life.
01:22It's a good job.
01:23It's a way of life.
01:24It's September.
01:25On the Isle of Lewis.
01:26In the Outer Hebrides.
01:28A chain of islands.
01:29Thirty miles off the northwest coast of Scotland.
01:31The seasons are changing.
01:32And the autumn schedule of sheep work.
01:33Is about to be finished.
01:34In the autumn schedule of sheep work.
01:35Is about to be finished.
01:36In the autumn schedule of sheep work.
01:37It's September.
01:38On the Isle of Lewis.
01:39In the Outer Hebrides.
01:40No one enjoys going from summer into autumn.
01:43In the summer week.
01:45We have daylight at midnight.
01:46And it's just a.
01:47A.
01:48It's a fair day.
01:49Every time to meet Australia.
01:50It's a fair day.
01:51You get a great day.
01:52It's a beautiful day.
01:53In the autumn.
01:54It's a beautiful day.
01:55It's a beautiful day.
01:56So, it's a beautiful day.
01:57It's a beautiful day.
01:58It has a beautiful day.
01:59It's a beautiful day.
02:00It's a beautiful day.
02:01It's a beautiful day.
02:02A beautiful day.
02:03I even go to Emma.
02:04In the summer, we have daylight at midnight, and it's just a joy to be out and about.
02:12And then the year turns, and the nights start drawing in very fast, and we know where we're going.
02:18We're going into the pit of winter.
02:21Autumn is one of the busiest times of the year. There's plenty going on.
02:25There's plenty going on on the croft, gathering and sorting animals.
02:29There's a time for plenty of death.
02:34We spend most of our life looking after animals and keeping them alive.
02:40And when one's successful at that, there's a great deal of pleasure in it.
02:46There's no pleasure in the killing.
02:49So there's a sadness to this time of the year.
02:55I do sometimes think about being a vegetarian, but not for very long.
03:02Today, Sandy's travelling with seven other crofters to an uninhabited island less than half a mile off the coast, in search of his sheep.
03:16As dictated by tradition, the flock are all owned by different crofters, but have been grazing together on common land.
03:31Crofting is a tradition that's unique to the highlands and islands of Scotland.
03:35Stay right now!
03:37Dating back to the late 19th century, crofts are small plots of poor quality land with common grazing rights, that are part of a community where much of the work is shared.
03:48I love this. I could think of nothing better to be doing than being on the hills and the islands.
03:54And it's one of the greatest ways to spend your life, being on a hill with a trained dog or two, working these wild sheep.
04:02But it's a tradition that's disappearing.
04:05These hills and islands used to be full of sheep, and now there's very few, just people from a few villages, and mostly we're pretty old.
04:13It's been said that if you come to one of our sheep gatherings, it's like a saga outing.
04:18The group are trying to drive the flock of 60 sheep into the handling pens by the shore, for sorting.
04:27But the sheep, who've been living wild here for the last year, have other ideas.
04:40At the pens, they need to weed out the male sheep destined for slaughter, from the ewes that need to be sheared.
04:48The ewes aren't sandies, but everyone chips in with the shearing, using traditional tools that have been around for centuries.
04:59Most people here use the shears, or call it the jevish.
05:02It's not as fast as using mechanical shears, but you can shove them in your pocket and take them anywhere.
05:10With flocks scattered across different islands, shearing happens all year round, whenever visits are made.
05:18You'll be still there, my love, will you there? And you'll be feeling much better when this is off you.
05:25Black-faced sheep are a hardy breed, so can happily withstand the harsh Hebridean winters with a shorter coat.
05:32You're an old bully.
05:38Sandy hasn't been wrangling sheep all his life.
05:41He was once a criminal barrister in London, but gave it up for a more traditional life, when he moved to Lewes with his wife 12 years ago.
05:50I've known this island all my life, because my mother came from here, and the croft we now have is next door to one that was my grandfather's.
06:01He died about 1938, so it was a long time ago that it was his.
06:07A cup of tea, chaps.
06:10Sandy's now on a mission to try and preserve this traditional way of life.
06:14God's been good to Wilson, because even though he's struggling to learn...
06:17Who's not got a cup of tea?
06:18The one with the midge, which one's that?
06:20Come on with you.
06:21He's set up a co-operative selling wedder mutton, the meat of two-year-old castrated male sheep, to customers across the UK.
06:31If we can sell enough mutton to the English, we'll keep it going for another generation.
06:38It's strange that I, who have come here fairly lately from London, should be such a traditionalist, but there's no doubt that I am.
06:48To get his precious mutton to his customers, Sandy first has to get the wedders off this island, and over to Lewis.
07:08The only way is by boat.
07:14Six at a time.
07:16So they must ferry them across in shifts.
07:24All aboard, they're set off for Lewis, a ten-minute boat ride away.
07:36Sea shepherding, moving livestock between islands, has been a common practice in the Scottish Isles for centuries.
07:43And if crofting were to die out, so would this unique tradition.
07:50I have a role in what is a dying way of life.
07:54And I would love to think that we could get another generation doing this, producing this great meat.
08:04If we are the last, we're having a great time doing it.
08:07On the mainland, north of Aberdeen, in the north-east of Scotland, Martin Irvine and his family rent a 240-acre farm, where they rear-pedigree limousand bulls.
08:20His family have been tenant farmers for five generations.
08:36His father started breeding bulls 30 years ago, and it's now their biggest source of income.
08:49Our business is the bull job, and it all starts with a bull and a cow.
08:54What we are trying to produce is bulls other farmers buy from us to use on their cows to breed calves to sell for burgers, steaks, all that kind of thing.
09:03Limousand were imported from France in the 1970s.
09:09Renowned for the quality of their meat, they're the most popular breed of beef cattle in the UK.
09:15Martin has one breeding bull in his herd.
09:19When we bought Irish, we were looking for mussel, we were looking for the Arnold Schwarzenegger bulls, and he is the Arnold Schwarzenegger bulls.
09:29He's full of mussel, meat in all the right places, rippling, looks like that.
09:34He's a good worker, we'll give him better. He has breakfast every morning, actually keeps him in good condition.
09:42Irish needs all the sustenance he can get.
09:46Because his job is to service Martin's entire herd of 70 cows.
09:53Come on, girls.
09:55Our cows, most of our cows are big, framey cows, big pens, big fleshy girls, that's how we like him.
10:03The females are going to hopefully throw in the genetics for the size and power.
10:07An Irish with all this extreme mussel and ripness to him, he's going to mix it and hopefully the calves off of this will be a bit of both.
10:13Martin aims to produce a new batch of around 35 male calves every year, from which he cherry picks the best to nurture for sale.
10:22So we've got the bull pens here, and this is the creamware crop.
10:29What you look for in a bull is a nice big top, nice and wide across here, and nice in here.
10:36All the expensive cuts come in there, and all your steak is in here.
10:44This bit here is his balls. This is the most important bit of the bull.
10:48And that's where all the genetics come from and bridge all this muscle.
10:53Martin knows the exact measurements of the perfect pair.
10:5735 centimetres to 40 centimetres in diameter.
11:03Bulls were Martin's life, and then farmer's daughter Mel came along.
11:07We met through young farmers. I always knew who he was. It most definitely was not love at first sight, because when I heard of Martin Irvin, you know, he was very... I thought he was quite up himself.
11:26Mel had came across, standing behind my pen of bulls, and the first thing she says to me, she likes Aubrey and Angus.
11:37So right from the start, I didn't like Mel, actually.
11:40It was one of our young farmers' dances, barn dances, that we went to.
11:45And then he asked me to dance, and we danced, and the rest of it's basically history.
11:49We never actually went for a meal or to the cinema for about two months.
11:54It was all kind of just up to the farm, and showed her the bulls like you do, and run about the park and the quad bike, and just kind of worked away from there.
12:05We have so much in common.
12:07When we first got together, I remember we sat on the phone for about two hours, and it was all about cows, and farming, and how his day had went, combining and things.
12:19So we just haven't looked back since.
12:25They're getting married in eight months, and together they have big plans for the future.
12:32Mel's an enterprising shepherdess, and last year made over £2,000, rearing her first flock of 34 sheep.
12:41I doubled my money on them, and that was then put into my wedding fund.
12:44And Martin, being a sheep-hater, and he hated sheep, and told me that he just couldn't stand sheep, went on to thinking,
12:51oh, this is actually quite a good idea.
12:55Having opened up Martin's heart to sheep, she then persuaded him to take on a contract to manage a flock of 550 ewes for the local estate.
13:04Come on!
13:06To increase their profits, she wants to grow the flock even more.
13:11So tomorrow, they're going to the first ram or tub sale of the season, in search of some virile males to service the estate's ewes.
13:20The first trails may be the cheapest of the year, but we'll be there and we'll see what happens like.
13:25But we're looking for Texels.
13:27We're open to negotiating which breeds.
13:31Yeah, but looking for Texels. Texels would be the goal, but they're going to be a bit more expensive.
13:35I'm not needing superstars, but I'm just needing good tups to improve them, so that's what we need.
13:39Good tups that are going to leave good lambs with plenty meat.
13:42Yeah.
13:43That's what we're looking for.
13:46Early the next morning, they head to the sale 30 miles away, in Thanestown, near Aberdeen.
13:55Farmer's day out is going to the mart and seeing everybody and looking at livestock.
13:59This may be sad to some, but it's a day out for us and we'll enjoy it.
14:04This pedigree tupsale is held once a year and attracts buyers from across Scotland.
14:09Today, six different breeds will be auctioned off for sale to the highest bidder.
14:16Brilliant. Thank you very much.
14:18The most popular breeding tups in the UK are Texels.
14:22And Martin and Mel want to buy as many as they can within their budget.
14:26That's a pen that we need to go have a look at. These are all like ram lambs, aren't they?
14:30Originally from the Netherlands, the breed are heavily muscled and known for their superior meat quality.
14:36We're looking for a big, strong man light up with a nice round bum, a long back and the head.
14:46Yeah. Something that's pleasing to the eye.
14:48Yeah.
14:49And something with plenty of meat on it. That's where I want it.
14:51Something to produce plenty of lamb, should I say.
14:53It's the first sale of the season, so it's Mel's best chance of bagging a bargain.
15:02A little professional at it now.
15:04We'll go in and we'll pretty much go through every pen, how I feel and how I look at everything really.
15:08The tups coats are dyed a darker colour to help show off their shape.
15:13Just dressing pretty much. Poofing them up.
15:17Yeah, Mel loads of Texels. Mel used to hate some Texels when she was younger.
15:21I'll let her go at it first and then I'll pass my view on it.
15:25Mel wants to buy eight, but she needs to size up over 200 before making her choice.
15:35He's got a good head on him.
15:37Two, four, one.
15:38I've already marked him down.
15:40A big lad at the corner there.
15:42He's smaller, but he's got a nice bum.
15:46He's a bit open coated, I don't know.
15:49You're looking for ones with nice tight skins.
15:52This is a nice tight skin here.
15:55The wool's all cut close, compacted together.
15:57It's not open like that, naturally.
16:01You know, you want, like, you want meat.
16:05But it's their most important asset that she's focused on.
16:09They feel fine.
16:13So when we're looking at tups, the main part is their testicles,
16:16because that is where all the semen's made.
16:26So when we're looking at tups, we always have a feel.
16:30And see that they're not soft or spongy, they're quite firm.
16:35And feel the same sort of size.
16:38If you buy this tup, this tup could be serving it up between 50.
16:41And make the young.
16:44Hell of a size of nuts on him.
16:47She should be used to big tests, doesn't she?
16:49I don't know.
16:56Having done the rounds, Mel wants to narrow down the field over lunch.
17:03This is the best bit of the day.
17:06I love a marked lunch.
17:10This is the only time you take me out.
17:11Yeah.
17:12Two hours, actually.
17:14How many of you picked it?
17:18Erm...
17:20Seven, eight, nine...
17:22Nineteen.
17:24Nineteen.
17:26That's enough.
17:28That should be enough.
17:30One o'clock, and the auction is underway.
17:33Five, fourteen, two hundred.
17:35One, nine, six, two hundred.
17:37Two hundred and eight.
17:39Of her select nineteen, Mel wants to walk away with eight.
17:42And is hoping at least half will be Texel's.
17:45OK, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
17:47We'll now start the Texel section.
17:49She has four and a half thousand pounds of the estate's money to spend.
17:54We've got a budget, so we can't go past it.
17:57Parking average, our tups would be five, five fifty.
17:59They'd quite help me.
18:01Because it's very easy to get carried away.
18:03Yeah.
18:04Very easy.
18:06If you see something that you like, you think,
18:08right, I want it, but it can go crazy money,
18:10so you've just got to learn to sit on your hands.
18:13The Texel section lasts for about an hour.
18:16And the first tup is in.
18:19At auctions, the bidding is in guineas.
18:23One guinea is the equivalent of one pound and five pence.
18:26Seven hundred gease. And seven hundred.
18:29Seven hundred.
18:30That's way out of our price round.
18:32...
18:34120.
18:35750.
18:36800.
18:37800.
18:38800.
18:39800.
18:40800.
18:41You human included this.
18:42I'll go crazy.
18:44See what happens.
18:46250.
18:47280.
18:48320.
18:50My seat.
18:51420.
18:53420.
18:54Fifteen minutes in and they still haven't managed to buy one
19:04Then it's the turn of one of her favorites
19:24Tremere on time
19:26Mel's finally got herself a Texel
19:30And it's not long before she's in with a chance on another
19:40She gets him to and goes on to close the deal on another four to balance the books she also buys two crossbred bargains
19:49She walks away on target and within budget
20:02Yeah
20:19Further north in the highlands near Inverness
20:23John Scott runs a large farming business rearing sheep beef cattle and growing crops
20:37He owns his farm which stretches across a thousand acres and he rents another three thousand nearby
20:44We've got a fairly large sheep enterprise with just around about 4,000 ewes
20:49We've got 180 beef cows
20:51We've got 400 acres of cereals
20:53And we've got land rented out for potatoes as well
20:55The farm's been in the family for four generations
20:58He started working on the farm aged 17
21:01And has since expanded the business and increased the profits
21:05Success is important to me
21:06I suppose you're measured by your success
21:08It is important to be doing well in life
21:11Farming well and farming profitably is very important to me
21:19Running the venture alongside him is wife Fiona
21:25These guys are all going to be sausages at some point
21:30Like bull breeder Martin, John fell for a farmer's daughter
21:33They've been married for 15 years and have four children
21:38John and I met at young farmers
21:39There was a welly-boot throwing competition
21:41And I threw the welly-boot and just about knocked him out
21:46Ez, you nearly ready?
21:49My mum kept saying to me, don't marry a farmer
21:51They put in really long hours
21:53But I didn't feel I wanted to be away from it
21:55And I think the kids are very lucky to be growing up in amongst it as well
21:59John has high hopes his children will follow in their footsteps
22:04Farming is a family business
22:06And it's important to ensure the farm is kept in good heart
22:09Hopefully James and maybe a couple of others will take things on
22:13And that will be fantastic, that sort of drives us on really
22:16Oh, come on, that's it
22:20Today, John's also starting to lay the groundwork for the tupping season
22:24With one of his two permanent members of staff
22:26We're going to go through the ewes and just check everything
22:32Make sure they're okay for mating time, for tupping time
22:35So traditionally we would have caught each sheep and turned them over
22:40But this crate makes life a lot easier
22:43We clamp them in first of all
22:45And I flick this lever here
22:47And it's a very quick spin over
22:49It means we can do a lot of sheep quickly
22:52Without hurting our backs
22:53It's a very handy machine
22:55As John's got 4,200 ewes to check over the next week
23:00It's just like having your nails trimmed, they're not feeling that
23:03We just want to expose any problems
23:05And try and reduce the risk of there being problems
23:08Because you really don't want this girl going lame
23:11Through that breeding cycle
23:13You want her just to be out there eating grass
23:14And thinking about, well thinking about sex really
23:19And getting pregnant
23:25If any of our breeding ewes are not good in the feet
23:30Unable to move around freely
23:32We really need to cull them from the flock
23:34John keeps on only the fittest to breed
23:36And every year one in five ewes are culled
23:40Oh, this is a dodgy one, Martin
23:43This is a young sheep
23:45But not happy with their feet
23:47Martin's got a bad foot there in the back as well
23:50So she will be marked as a cull
23:52We haven't got space to carry pastures
23:55These sheep have to be able to do the job we need them to do
23:58And if they're not up to it, they go
24:00Anything that we don't retain for breeding
24:02We'll be fattened up and sent to slaughter
24:08And I'll just mark her up
24:10That's it, that's the dot of death
24:12The red is fairly terminal around here
24:15Sold on as meat, ewes can fetch up to 80 pounds per animal
24:23But foot inspection is just one of the jobs John must attend to today
24:28Where did granny find ewes?
24:30Moistering
24:33Eldest son, 12-year-old James
24:36Is back from school
24:38And itching to help with the rest of the chores
24:40Slave labour is great
24:42No, he's quite useful
24:44Seems quite keen, which won't encourage
24:46He's got a good eye for sheep
24:48The weather's been mild
24:50So John's on high alert for a dangerous condition called fly strike
24:54So this ewe here, you can see
24:57She's itching herself, she's dark
24:58If I look in there, I'll probably find maggots in there
25:02There, look!
25:04That's blowfly, they've laid their eggs there
25:06And those maggots are eating the sheep
25:08Basically, which is pretty bloody horrible
25:10That's what happens when blowfly lays eggs and it's a maggot
25:13And they'll lay that even on clean wool
25:15And that'll start eating the sheep alive
25:17Which is a common problem that we get
25:18And this year's been particularly bad
25:20And there's been a lot of problems
25:22Both in ewes and lambs
25:2480% of flocks in the UK are affected by fly strike each year
25:29So what we're going to do is we're going to trim all of this area away
25:34And get them away from it
25:36The infestation on the sheep is easily treated
25:42By removing the infected wool and maggots
25:46And using spray on antibiotics
25:49I quite often put a bit of fly repellent type spray in that as well
25:53But it should be fine now
25:55But we'll watch it, we'll monitor the recovery
25:58It's annoying if that was to be left and untreated
26:02It would be terminal eventually, or could be terminal eventually
26:05So it's important we try and get on top of these things as quickly as possible
26:10Farming means a mass of paperwork to attend to as well
26:13And at the end of most days, John and Fiona work through this together
26:18We don't talk much, I've got my phone over here
26:20We actually communicate by email sometimes
26:23I'm not joking
26:25Sometimes more civil that way
26:29Sometimes you know you'll get an answer if you email them
26:34If our kids decided they didn't want to farm, I would struggle with it
26:39It's quite a family orientated business and that's what drives me on
26:44I'd like to build something for the kids to take on and follow our footsteps
26:48And if they suddenly turned round and said, we don't want to farm
26:52We'd have to go to plan B
26:55And at the moment there isn't a plan B
26:57To think that nobody was going to be, none of our family were going to be here
27:00And carry it on
27:02Yeah, actually it would be quite a thought
27:04But yeah, if they don't want to
27:06As long as they're happy, you've got to be happy for your kids
27:08But no, I'd just keep farming until I drop dead
27:11And I'm not going to be home until I drop dead
27:22Much further south, on the other side of Scotland
27:25Than just a stone's throw from Loch Lomond
27:27lomond bobby and ann lennox rent two hill farms from a big estate their land stretches for 5 000
27:36acres and one of the farms has been in bobby's family for over 200 years we have been tenants
27:47on this farm here since 1750 i've not actually counted the number of generations that goes back
27:53but it's quite a lot like crofter sandy in lewis they rear hardy blackface sheep that can thrive in
28:03the rough hilly terrain we're not going to get a rich farmer in this type of land it's hard work
28:13but the lifestyle is good if you're a farmer it's bred into you you don't want to do anything else
28:21it's what you love doing you produce good stock the satisfaction in that is immense
28:30today they're beginning the process of sorting out their 1100 lambs born in the spring now five months
28:37old they've gathered them in from the hills and ann's waiting to get them into pens close to the
28:45farm to begin their work we do a lot of hanging about and waiting are you a patient person no
28:54that wasn't around another handing out patience and diplomacy you're in the pub i was in the pub
29:03the lambs were separated from their mothers two weeks ago and need to be tagged so they can be easily
29:09identified each lot of eh lambs have got to be tagged eh with basically in the sort of first six months
29:17of life two each lamb has two tags in it a yellow one which is electronic and a ear identifier color
29:28they'll they'll feel it but no no more than somebody got an ear pierced a nip at the time
29:34bobby and ann have three grown-up children but so far none have followed them into farming
29:44they're both in their 60s and do most of the work on the farm themselves but often take on exchange
29:50students to help this year it's shanae from canada it's through an agriculture program and they match you
29:57up with the host family that with your personalities and whatnot it's not all work she goes out to your
30:05local young farmers club yeah that's a very active social life just ask me i'll tell you all about it
30:16in this part of the world it isn't easy to make a living farming sheep
30:20we've shrunk the cost structure down about as low as we can get it if you you know if you're on a
30:28better land more options that you've got other crops you can chop and change into other livestock
30:33or something like that but the only thing we can do is sheep here
30:39to make the most of his flock one of the crucial decisions bobby faces every year
30:45is which of his new lambs to keep on for breeding basically we're only looking to keep the females
30:53to replace the stock and we're looking to really about 500 females a year
30:59most of the male lambs are for selling and we we keep about 20 so i'm trying to keep the best
31:08for the last 24 years bobby's adopted a cutting-edge approach to making his choice
31:15he invests 200 pounds to employ the services of veterinary sonographer will wilson
31:21so that was just an image of the basically alarm chop that's what we're looking at if you want to
31:26put it in in very simple terms most of bobby's farming income comes from selling his lamb meat to
31:33supermarkets and his entire operation centers around detailed knowledge that helps to produce animals of the
31:39right size what we're taking is three fat measurements and a muscle depth measurement
31:47from and below the fat interface down to the top of the lumber vertebrae bobby was one of the first
31:54farmers in scotland to pioneer the use of ultrasound to identify the best blackface use and tubs
32:0031 kilos and he keeps meticulous records of their weight we're looking at trying to match up the best
32:12genetics in both the male and the female side and make some genetic improvement it's trying to produce
32:19lambs to respect that the supermarket wants so they fit in the nice wee plastic boxes
32:2831 kilograms
32:31supermarkets will only accept lambs between 16 and 21 kilos
32:36and bobby gets paid for his meat by the weight the big improvement that i've seen it is when the lambs go to the abattoir
32:46they're now weighing four and a half kilos heavier meat on them than there was 20 years ago
32:56bobby will put his precious ewes and tubs to good use in eight weeks time when the tupping season begins
33:06north of inverness john scott's taking a break from his busy farming schedule
33:15to host a very special event on his farm
33:24he set aside 240 acres of barley fields to host the 2014 world sheepdog trials
33:33held every three years it's the olympics of the sheepdog world you know the farmer it's important that we
33:40don't just just farm we have to be out there and we have to promote what we're doing we're trying to
33:45sell a lot of bulls and rams each year so you know having the events like the world sheepdog trials does
33:51give us a chance to showcase what we're doing here being able to share the highlands which is such a
33:57special place with the rest of the world is that's really just tremendous
34:04it was john's late father-in-law who died seven years ago who paved the way for the competition to
34:10be held on the farm my dad was uh he was really into his dog trials and he suggested that we have the
34:19scottish national here he wasn't he wasn't fit to run his dogs by that stage but he was just chuffed to
34:26bits that it was here and then after the scottish national they said how about having international
34:32so it just all kind of snowballed in the next few days thousands of people from all over the world
34:38will come to john's farm to see the very best handlers and their dogs compete you can imagine
34:44you're walking across here you've got your best mate with you you've got your dog by your side you've got
34:48a grandstand to your left with several hundred people in it pressure's on
34:53far away in the distance that's where the sheep will get released and they've got to bring the
34:58sheep down and through the course through the gates and eventually pen them in this pen we see here
35:05i haven't ever done this so i'm talking without the relevant knowledge my my pet is fine for
35:10fine for farm use but she's not really a trials dog but this is a different level
35:15tonight there's an opening ceremony in tane the local town five miles from the farm and john's one
35:23of the guests of honor we're going in there for the parade of competitors so they're all going to
35:29parade at the main street with um pipe band in front of them and they'll be carrying their national
35:35flag and a bit like the opening ceremony of the olympics really um but for the sheepdog world
35:39not only are the world trials a pr coup for john but with visitors from across the world descending
35:48on the town it's one of the biggest events the area has ever seen
35:51good to see you same here good to see you yes good well done good on you yeah
36:14it's taken two years of meticulous planning to get to this point
36:17i'm looking along the street there and there's loads of people here um a real buzz
36:25so many friendly people that we've met before and great to see them back here again um great
36:34tomorrow the serious business of the competition will begin
36:47um across the sea on the isle of lewis barrister turned crofter sandy is at home with wife ali
36:58having sent their wedders to the abattoir they need to attend to their other livestock
37:07they have a dozen highland cattle native to scotland on average female cows weigh about half a ton
37:13to make them easier to work with as adults sandy and ali start to handle them when they're young
37:21they were taken from their mothers probably not quite a week ago we'd like to put them in here when
37:26they're weaned and the mothers come and go outside the just by the outside the bars so it's quite a
37:34it's a gentler sort of weaning every morning they harness up their two 10-month-old calves to take
37:41them for a walk outside this is caitlin and that's christian yeah they don't come when called by
37:50name go on let's get this on last night she's um she's actually better she's much better than
37:55water he tends to be a little bit wild that's why sandy's got him when you first put the halter on
38:01over their neck it's like a rodeo they just go wild they're climbing the walls and their eyes are
38:07rolling they throw themselves to the ground they like just getting little bits of food in their mouths
38:14they can be they can be persuaded to quite get to like people
38:24by the time the calves go back out into the world they'll eat from your hand and they'll walk on a
38:32halter without this training there can be painful consequences i broke a rib last week when uh
38:41in a bit of a cattle crush in a gateway that thing that sort of thing happens much less often when
38:49you've got nice tame cattle like these well you're a couple of good calves really aren't you not such bad
38:55calves at home at all this routine is a world away from their old life down south like sandy ali was a
39:06lawyer and when the youngest of their two sons went off to university they decided to make a change
39:14we were just coming up to 50 then so if we were going to do something different it had to be then
39:20before we got too old and we've always loved coming here there's always been a sort of call
39:27from the far north there's something about this place it's very beautiful and uh we just thought
39:33this was this was just the chance for us to to come here and be crofters come on old fella
39:41we had a phone call one night from a cousin who lived in the village to tell us that this
39:46croft and its house were for sale well we um bought the place over the telephone that night
39:55they sold their family home moved up to lewis and reinvented themselves as crofters i think a lot
40:01of people thought it was really an exciting thing to do some people thought completely mad others including
40:06my father were disappointed he felt that i was throwing away a valuable career
40:17sometimes it's hard and it's always exciting and it's a very satisfying way to spend your life
40:24i think you have to make a change now again if you've only got one life it's a shame to spend it
40:29doing only one thing after a few laps around the yard sandy and ali bring the calves in when they've grown
40:36up great big cows with big horns it's uh they're really
40:44always gentle and easy there we are leading in the winner
40:49on the mainland near inverness it's the start of the world sheepdog trials on john scott's farm
41:08over the next four days 213 competitors and their dogs from around the globe will fight it out to be
41:17the sheepdog trial champion of the world we're registering all the handlers and dogs for the
41:23trial and i think the furthest away is probably brazil and obviously lots of european competitors and
41:29obviously the home nations as well so we're just getting them to sign in and say that which dog that
41:34they're running
41:36all of the guys here will be really good you know they've qualified to get here they've had to go
41:41through competitions at home to get here now they're here they're here to win they're not here to make
41:45get numbers 25 countries are taking part we are from norway yes north of norway and we was coming
41:57with plane i'm from a little village in vermont in new england we come from forment yeah it's the second
42:05time we've been competing in the world there's also a large scottish contingent of 17 including local
42:14and close family friend of the scots michael shearer he's one of the favorites and lived next door to
42:21john's late father-in-law he's got me encouragement to start trialing so that's how he got going he was
42:28just a neighbor along the road and it was handy for when practicing he could put sheep boot for me and i
42:32could be cheap it for him so it's better than easier than trying to do it yourself really keeping
42:38our fingers crossed for him he was a good friend of my late father-in-law and i'd just be delighted if he
42:42can just pull something off here the first two days of the qualifying rounds
42:54all the competitors and their dogs must navigate a flock of five sheep around a specially designed
43:00obstacle course through gates and into pens in just 15 minutes
43:05two judges mark each round they assess the quality of the working relationship between man and dog
43:18and how skillfully they heard the flock
43:20but even for the best in the world it's not always easy
43:28and that's timer for your handy jobs our next competitor is michael shearer from scotland
43:38michael and his dog bob did well in the qualifying rounds and have now made it into the semi-finals
43:45he has to make his way round the same course and follow the same rules as before
43:57but only the highest 16 scores will make it through to the final
44:01it's been a good round he's made very few mistakes and for the first time in his career michael wins a place
44:19in the finals of an international competition
44:30further south
44:35bull breeder martin has torn himself away from his herd and is in a race to harvest his barley
44:41and he's going to be a little bit of a seed
44:45i was at about half past six this morning
44:48getting the combine ready when conditions are ready you go for it
44:53every year he plants 50 acres of crops to help feed his cattle and give the fields a break from
44:58grazing he needs to harvest the barley while the sun is shining the weather is due to break tomorrow
45:06he's forecast rain for another five days so this is probably as dry a chance we're going to get
45:11a combination field i mean there's work to be done you do and that's it it could be 24 hours a day
45:18it could be four days solid during harvest season you don't get much sleep
45:27it's 12 o'clock and they've another 27 acres to get through so brother darren and dad stevie are lending a hand
45:34in their newly acquired combine that separates the barley seeds from the straw they're hoping to get
45:43it all done by sunset at eight so it's a new toy for us it's a very capable machine you make money
45:51combine martin and stevie decided to invest in this secondhand combine to do their own fields and also
45:59bring in extra income doing contract work for other farms they got it cheap for 23 000 pounds
46:06new models can cost around six times that
46:14but sometimes bargains come at a cost
46:19they quickly identify the problem there's a wee washer in here it's spent so we have to take this bolt
46:33off drop this bar take a washer out strain it off just hopefully put it back in it's fixed
46:39stevie has to use all his mechanical know-how to take it apart
46:51oh here comes go on darren put your fingers back
46:55all that little problem you were saying
46:57and having fixed it they need to put it back together okay
47:11good job done you see if it works nothing
47:17okay the breakdown has cost them an hour
47:21it's now after two and they've still got most of the work to get through
47:32again i had a high point for that he's quite mccarthy minded and
47:36i've been quite a tinkerer you're stuck in the middle of that field you just get on
47:41wet and use your own initiative really especially when you've not enough time
47:44in the day really we're gonna get struggle we're gonna struggle for time to get things finished
47:50tonight martin stands to make nearly six thousand pounds selling his barley as animal feed to other
47:57farmers and the straw will save him a fortune on bedding and food for his cattle over the winter
48:04but if he doesn't beat the rain the lion's share of his harvest could be wiped out
48:09this pile is ready to be cut now just wait another week the rain could damage it heads just start
48:17falling off so you start losing yield start losing quality
48:24two hours later the rain arrives early and they have to stop
48:32wet barley is difficult to harvest in the combine
48:35we've just finished that field there but we're hoping to go on and
48:39start a 19 acre field in there but the weather's beat us there's forecast to come in early hours
48:43of the morning but there's a light shower rain came across us hopefully this rain channel pass by
48:48it's not heavy it's just a pest really
48:54it passes in half an hour and martin's straight back in the saddle
49:00it's gonna get real noisy
49:01but the rain has had an impact
49:11and the combine is struggling
49:19rank is too dumb it's choking on one side
49:22the way it is it's new it's going underneath the company's tramping it and he cannot cut it so he's
49:27dragging it dragging the barley
49:32so you can see as we come across here it's flat like this it just makes the job harder to lift it off the ground
49:37it's liable to jam and choking a knife martin plows on
49:43but just 10 acres and over three painful hours later
49:51come on
50:00come on come on come on
50:04well this new combine the diesel gauge is a bit wonky so it was telling me i had quarter of a tank
50:13but obviously hasn't got quarter of a tank so
50:16running out of diesel is near the best thing to do at this time of night like but
50:19uh hopefully we'll bleed there and she'll get going the next five minutes if that
50:27dad he's in the case right now
50:30you're right dad
50:33once again it's stevie to the rescue
50:37it's frustrating just because you know there's only maybe another hour and a half left in the night
50:42we haven't got it started yet though
50:4330 minutes later and topped up with diesel it's time to try again
50:56here it goes
51:02i should only tease this but now they're losing the light
51:09they've eight acres to go
51:13it's eight o'clock and with the sun down conditions are getting worse
51:21the dew will start coming down pretty shortly the grass is starting to get a bit of damp
51:25it starts getting sticky and doesn't flow the same through the combine
51:29the combine will start telling you she'll start making noises and she'll grumble and groan
51:34it can change no matter 15 minutes you can go everybody in perfect conditions
51:39it's time to stop and go home
51:47it's a risk to keep going they can't afford to damage such an expensive bit of machinery
51:53the combine's telling me it's time to stop all that grumble and groaning just a bit sore on her
52:07well there's just tell me she's grumbling and groaning
52:11sticking in the shed
52:12and we'll wait and see what the weather does when it's cold it's
52:23hope less rain only i'll get too long long it'll work since it's high dry weather
52:28farming depends on the weather so much it's just not fun when the weather's not right
52:32but at least he's made it home with 80 of his harvest oh well that's around bed for the night
52:40that's me getting away for a cup of tea
52:53north of inverness
52:54on john scott's farm it's the final day of the world sheepdog trials
53:03how are you doing how have you been today a bit busy i'm exhausted we're at the culmination of the
53:10event and being the final day and we'll announce the winner um really looking forward to seeing who
53:15that'll be fingers crossed it's a scotsman out of 213 entrants and 240 dogs they're down to the
53:24last 16 finalists and today they'll battle it out to decide who will be the sheepdog champion of the
53:31world the event is being broadcast on gaelic tv across scotland and in addition to the kudos of
53:39the title the winner will also get a three thousand pound cash prize the scots family friend michael shearer
53:48is one of the front runners the last 16 you must be tremendously proud of that achievement oh yes oh yes
53:54getting through to the finals i've got i've got a maybe semi-finals a couple of times but it's the
53:58first time i've made it in the finals how will you feel if you walk off with that world trial
54:03oh i'd be delighted but it's so whatever would be other yeah and they'll all be trying for it
54:15michael and nine-year-old bob are first up
54:18at this stage they're in third place five points behind the leader kevin evans from wales
54:34the finalists face a more complex and difficult course than in the qualifying rounds and semi-finals
54:40this time they must herd two flocks of ten sheep around an area twice the size
54:50and instead of two judges to impress this time there are five
54:58points are deducted for mistakes
55:00if michael's to overtake the leader he can't afford to make too many
55:11the trickiest section is separating or shedding five sheep with red collars from the rest of the flock
55:18and then the final test is herding these five into the pen
55:37michael finishes within time and with a high score of 691 out of 850 which pushes him into the lead
55:46oh i'm delighted yeah yeah she's really happy at that time but there's a lot of good dogs to come
55:51so at the moment it's looking good but we'll wait and see
55:56now it's the turn of michael's biggest rival kevin evans from wales and his dog greg
56:08he's been performing consistently well and if he has a good run michael won't stand a chance
56:16so
56:29the sheep have hesitated and have cost his rival 10 points
56:34but will it be enough for michael to hold on to the lead
56:37for john and his wife fiona it's the culmination of two years hard work
57:02and michael's win a poignant reminder of john's father-in-law
57:11brilliant just fantastic i'm just wrapped just
57:14yeah very happy very happy very happy holding back tears feeling us crying for me
57:27congratulations well done it was just the icing on the cake when michael won
57:35dad would have been probably in tears as well would have meant a huge amount to him
57:41these memories that we have from today will live with me for a long time forever
57:46it means an awful lot to us an awful lot
57:57next time
57:58well come on martin and mel put their new tups to the test
58:02he knows what he's doing the only thing that they need to do is stay alive and make babies
58:09sandy heads south to hand deliver his prized mutton we always give a warning
58:15danger eating this meat could spoil your palate for the ordinary stuff
58:20and john attends the oscars of the farming world the winner of the sheep farm of the year is
58:33and this farming life continues tomorrow at seven
58:36tonight mary berry's not cooking lamb but she is doing her thai chicken curry delicious and
58:43foolproof at 8 30 and then picking a jury surprising arduous and for prosecutor marcia deeply unsettling
58:50the people versus oj simpson continues at nine next up on bbc2 it's university challenge
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