Landward episode 15 2024
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00If it's drama you're after, it doesn't get much better than this.
00:08Welcome to LAMBERT.
00:13A very warm welcome to the stunning Grey Mares Tale in the Southern Uplands.
00:36Covering an area of 922 hectares, this nature reserve is home to a variety of important
00:42habitats. But the star of the show is this incredible waterfall. I'm about to head up
00:49the well-trodden path to find out a little bit more about this special site and meet
00:53the people who look after it. But first, here's what else is coming up.
01:00Jebaz is in the milking parlour. For sheep.
01:04And that's you milking? Right, that's it. A bit harder than I thought it was gonna be.
01:08We've only got 55 seconds left.
01:10That's some nice timing right there.
01:12Marlene's on air with the radio station putting the community first.
01:17And Anne's and her gal picking up the Christmas tree to see how it can stop river erosion.
01:28But first, to farming. And in the 12,000 years we've been doing it, the principles are the
01:33same. You sow the seed, tend the crop, then harvest. But the way we've been doing it has
01:39changed dramatically. Kami's in the fields of Angus now to find out about the latest
01:44innovations.
01:54Not so long ago, machines like this were science fiction.
01:58This is an Agbot, a robotic tractor that, once programmed, can work completely autonomously.
02:07And this isn't a prototype. There is now a hundred of these working commercially worldwide.
02:13And now they're here in Scotland.
02:15This one's nicknamed Mary, Queen of Bots. And she's preparing this field for next season's
02:21crop. But she can do pretty much anything a tractor can, without a driver.
02:28Gregor Welsh is from farming tech company Soil Essentials.
02:34It's quite adaptable, so it has standard connections, the front and three-point linkage,
02:39what you'd expect to see in a normal tractor. So you can use those implements you already
02:42have and put them to an autonomous task.
02:45Mary doesn't come cheap. She retails for £320,000. But of course, she doesn't need any wages
02:54or take any days off, as a tractor driver would do. That's if you can find one.
03:00I think as a whole, there are struggles to get labour. This helps address some of those
03:06things within the countryside environment.
03:09Yeah, so I suppose the argument is it's already hard to get people. It's not that this is
03:12going to do people out of a job?
03:14No, it's quite challenging to get people. And this would be part of a system to complement
03:18what's already there.
03:21And I suppose the next big question I should be asking you is, what's the safety features like?
03:25So there's safety features on it. So as we see the vehicle coming towards us, it'll start
03:30to detect us. There's four or five different layers of safety on it, for any obstacles
03:35or anything that's going on.
03:36We're about to find out about them, I take it. You're very relaxed, so you're making me more relaxed.
03:40It'll safely come to a halt.
03:45Okay, okay, you've got me one over. If we wander off just now, will it go again?
03:52And I suppose the good thing is if there'd been a deer standing there or something there, or a sheep.
03:57An unplanned obstacle, or a sheep. The unplanned obstacle, it would detect and then naturally
04:03come to a stop.
04:07Agbots can't drive themselves down the road to a different field. They still need a human
04:12to take them, but they are impressive. And they're not the only smart tech available.
04:20Space for the two of us in here, is there?
04:23Right, I'm always excited when I get in a tractor.
04:27This sprayer is AI trained to recognise weeds.
04:32This is our SkySpot sprayer, and we're going to spray docks, and we're going to spray only
04:37the dock and not the grass.
04:40The sprayer still needs a human guide though, in the form of Colin Taylor.
04:46So normally when a farmer goes into the field, or a contractor goes into the field,
04:50they spray everything, because they don't have the technology on their system to pick
04:53out the dock. So we've developed a system which uses cameras, artificial intelligence,
04:59high spec electronics, to spot and spray only the dock.
05:04Cattle don't like eating these dock plants, and they can take over a field if left unchecked.
05:10Blanket spraying uses a lot of weed killer, but a targeted squat straight at the weed
05:16reduces the amount of chemicals used by up to 90%.
05:20Better for the planet, the farmer, and the cows.
05:25We don't want to spray the grass, because if we spray the grass, it can affect the grass,
05:29it can hamper the yield, and if we spray everything normally, it would kill the clover.
05:36Clover is good, high protein food for cows, and it also draws nitrogen into the soil.
05:44By saving that clover, we're also not needing as much artificial fertiliser,
05:48and it means that the grass can benefit from that extra nitrogen.
05:52Another win for the farmer, and the environment.
05:55And while this particular sprayer is trained to recognise docks,
05:59the system can be taught to spot other weeds, in different crops.
06:04It's really smart stuff.
06:09Right, cheers Colin.
06:09Thanks Cammie.
06:12Farming is often thought of as an old-fashioned industry,
06:16but the technology we've seen in action today proves that's not the case.
06:25Now, from the very new in our landscape, to something that's been here for millennia.
06:32Nestled in the Moffat Hills, the famous Greymares Tail Waterfall
06:37plunges 60 metres into the Moffat water below.
06:41It's the fifth highest in Scotland, and this area is a really popular attraction.
06:48It's managed by the National Trust for Scotland,
06:51and ranger Isbel Hayes can tell me who the reserve attracts.
06:56We get a whole mix of people.
06:59We get upwards of 60,000 visitors a year, and we get some locals,
07:03we get lots of tourists from all over the world,
07:06and some of them will just come and have a picnic in the car park.
07:09Some of them will head up to Loch Skeen at the top,
07:11some of them are going right up onto the tops beyond that.
07:14So it's not just the falls, it's more than that?
07:17It is, it's a wonderful landscape, but it's also renowned for its wildlife.
07:22So we've got peregrines in the area, and wild goats on the hill,
07:26which lots of people like to see,
07:28and then we've got various rare alpine plants and flowers on some of the crags as well.
07:34So we're walking all the way to the top?
07:35Well, there might be other options for you today.
07:40Taxi for my point.
07:46Excellent.
07:50But it's not just here for me.
07:53Today, after it's dropped me off at the top,
07:55it'll carry more than 130 tonnes of stone in 70-odd trips.
08:03The number of boots on the ground at the falls is wearing out the path,
08:07and the rocks are needed to repair it.
08:12But this is an amazing opportunity to see the nature reserve from the air.
08:19Taking me over Loch Skeen, which feeds the waterfall.
08:26Then, touching down beside the path.
08:37Thank you very much.
08:38That is never not exciting, being in a helicopter,
08:41but you really get a sense of the landscape here.
08:44It's pretty steep, it's pretty wild.
08:46So if you're bringing stones up here, having a helicopter like that is amazing.
08:53The trip may have saved my legs, but there's real work to be done.
08:59Today, we're mainly lifting aggregate, so gravel,
09:02which will end up as the surface of the path.
09:05So it's as good a surface as we can for people to walk on.
09:09Sure, but you also have big stones as well, though.
09:11Yeah, absolutely.
09:12So with our last helicopter lift, which we did last week,
09:16we brought in some big chunks of stone,
09:18and a lot of them will go into the sort of underlayer,
09:20but also a lot to build the drainage of the path.
09:23And I guess without the helicopter then,
09:25building the path like this would have been impossible.
09:28Absolutely, yeah.
09:29We can saw some stone off the hill,
09:31but there's a real limit to that without damaging the habitat.
09:35The river, we don't want to go changing the hydrology
09:38by taking huge amounts of stone out of that.
09:40So yeah, the helicopter's really the only way we can get
09:43large quantities of stone up here to do the maintenance necessary.
09:49And this is why it's needed.
09:51So this is a prime example of how footpaths become eroded.
09:55They take a lot of wear from all the people on them,
09:57but also from the weather.
09:59There's huge amounts of water here that's eroding it,
10:01and you can see some sitting on the path.
10:03The path through it doesn't become obvious.
10:04People want to walk around, keep their feet dry,
10:06and you can see how it's just expanding from maybe a path that was half a metre.
10:10It's a metre, two metres,
10:11it quite quickly becomes a big area of exposed peat.
10:13And this is an historical kind of pipe that's in there.
10:16Yes, this is a historical piece of drainage.
10:19We don't use plastic pipe anymore.
10:20This will eventually come out,
10:22and it'll get replaced with a nice big stone cross drain,
10:24which will drain the water off the path
10:26and give a much more obvious route through this peaty mess.
10:30And here is one you made earlier.
10:32Absolutely.
10:33So this is one we put in just a couple of weeks ago.
10:35It's still looking very fresh.
10:37But this was like the bit we've just been at.
10:39It was two or three metre wide exposed peat.
10:42So we've come in, we've dug a drain through it
10:44and got some big stones in to make this cross drain.
10:46It'll feed the water off.
10:48And we've resurfaced this section we're standing on.
10:51And it'll just keep people on the path,
10:52but keep water moving off it.
10:54The aim of all this hard work, of course,
10:56is to prevent erosion and protect the reserve's flora and fauna.
11:02But it's also keeping the Greymares Tail accessible
11:05so visitors can keep coming and experience this special place.
11:13I think it's a landscape like no other.
11:14It's taken straight from a geography textbook almost.
11:18It's a beautiful landscape.
11:19It's a beautiful landscape.
11:21It's taken straight from a geography textbook almost.
11:25It's such a glacial landscape.
11:27There's the spectacular falls.
11:30But as you get further up the hill,
11:31you've got the sort of lumpy, bumpy moraines.
11:34And then you turn the corner
11:35and you're just on top of the breathtaking view of Loch Skeen.
11:38I think it's pretty spectacular.
11:39There's not many places like it.
11:49Come and look at this.
11:50It's absolutely beautiful.
11:52This is Loch Skeen and it feeds the Greymares Tail.
11:56And as well I get my breath back,
11:57let's go to Caithness near Wick,
11:59where Shabazz is up early for the milking.
12:02But there's not a cow in sight.
12:09A few years ago, I followed my dream
12:11of becoming a landscape photographer.
12:16And up this bumpy track is someone else
12:18who's pursuing their passion
12:20and taking an entirely new path.
12:25Great to meet you, Joe.
12:25Oh, Shabazz, how you doing?
12:26It's a great spot you've got here.
12:28Oh, you've picked a grand day to come.
12:30When Joe Hargreaves spotted this derelict farmstead
12:34near Thrumster in 2017,
12:37he knew he'd found the ideal place
12:39to set up his new farm business and life.
12:43Basically, I turned up as a heating engineer
12:45after I left school.
12:46And I had done some plumbing work
12:47on a friend's dairy farm.
12:48So that's how you got into farming then?
12:50Yeah, I used to relief milk on my friend's dairy farm.
12:52I just fell in love with farming then.
12:54I really wanted to milk,
12:55but obviously getting into milking cattle
12:58is quite capital intensive.
13:00So I was trying to think of different ways
13:02we could get into it.
13:03And I stumbled upon sheep dairy.
13:05So I tried some sheep's milk for the first time
13:07and thought, I quite like this.
13:09So we give it a go from there.
13:12With no affordable farms around his patch
13:14in South Derbyshire,
13:15Joe looked further afield
13:17and to Caithness, an area he already knew.
13:21We used to come up on holiday up here
13:23and just fell in love with this place.
13:25Certainly is a great part of the world.
13:27Can I have a look at some of the sheep?
13:28Yeah, of course you can, follow me.
13:31Oh wow, look at these.
13:33These are our ewe lambs from this year.
13:35They're growing well at the moment.
13:37Hopefully next year we'll be milking them.
13:39And what breed are they?
13:40These are our Friesland cross lacunes.
13:42They're a pure dairy breed.
13:43The lacune is a French breed.
13:45They're famous for making the Roquefort cheese.
13:47And the Frieslands are from the Netherlands,
13:48the same as the Friesian cow.
13:50And how do they find Caithness?
13:52It's not their optimal conditions,
13:53but they grow a good fleece on them.
13:55It keeps them warm in the winter.
13:56These are not the ones that we'll be milking?
13:58No, the milkers are just around here
14:00if you want to follow me.
14:03Joe's wife Ellen is already in the milking shed
14:06preparing the ewes for their novice milkers.
14:15Okay, so how many sheep are you milking a day?
14:19There's 26 that we're milking at the moment out of 30.
14:24Hopefully next year we should be milking about 40.
14:27Do you want to have a go on this one?
14:28Right, okay.
14:30So turn them on first.
14:31Oh, turn them on first, right.
14:40Is that us?
14:42And that's you milking.
14:43Right, okay.
14:43It was a bit harder than I thought it was going to be,
14:45but got there in the end.
14:46It takes a bit of practice.
14:47Cammy's got nothing to worry about.
14:49Then you're ready to go on this young girl.
14:51This one, off you go.
14:55Oh, there you go.
14:57I don't think I'll give up the de-jog just yet.
14:59So what kind of volume are you producing from these?
15:01You're looking for about 1.2 litres a day.
15:05You're looking forward to trying some?
15:07I think so, yeah.
15:13I'm just slowing you down,
15:14otherwise you'd be doing this a lot faster.
15:16A little bit faster.
15:23Come on then, girls.
15:25Milking over, the ewes head into the Cateness sunshine.
15:28Come on then, girls.
15:30While their milk goes next door to be readied for bottling,
15:33or made into the Hargreaves award-winning cheese.
15:39Moment of truth now.
15:40Have a little taste.
15:41Let's see what you think.
15:44It's quite creamy.
15:47Much lighter than I thought it was going to be.
15:49What's the difference between this and cow's milk?
15:51A lot of people find with cow's milk that it can be quite heavy on the stomach
15:54and it takes a lot longer to digest.
15:56Plus it shoots milk, it's packed full of calcium.
15:59A lot of people who've got allergies, skin conditions, tend to drink it.
16:03It doesn't affect eczema as much as cow's milk does.
16:05It's really lovely.
16:06I'd like to try some cheese now.
16:07Of course, you can't help yourself.
16:08Looking forward to this.
16:09I do love my cheeses.
16:14It's really nice.
16:15It's got a lovely texture to it.
16:16It seems to be selling well at the moment
16:17and we hope to start adding more cheeses to the range soon.
16:21It's obviously been a hard graft and a lot of work has gone into this.
16:24Has it been worth it?
16:25Most definitely.
16:26It's not very often many people manage to fill the dreams,
16:28but I think in life you get opportunities
16:31and you've just got to take them at the end of the day.
16:33If you don't, you'll just be sitting kicking yourself.
16:35I can absolutely see your passion for this.
16:37If you ever need a hand milking in future, you can give me a call anytime.
16:40You won't be first on the list.
16:41You know what, I'm not surprised given how bad I was.
16:49Earlier this year,
16:50we reported on the dramatic decline of the population of Atlantic salmon,
16:54now an endangered species.
16:56I was on the River Spey finding out how the change in climate
16:59has impacted fish populations and river habitats.
17:05I think a lot more flooding.
17:06Yeah.
17:07A lot more extremes in weather,
17:08which is obviously affecting the fishery.
17:12Anne's in Argyll now to find out about a project
17:15working to beat climate change
17:17and safeguard the future of the species that live in their rivers.
17:28Hey, good morning.
17:30Nice to meet you.
17:31How are you doing?
17:33Here in Glendalough,
17:34the Argyll Fisheries Trust are busy with some forestry work.
17:38So to find out why,
17:40I'm joining Trust Senior Fisheries Biologist, Alan Kettle-White.
17:47So I thought we were going to be talking about rivers today.
17:49Why are we here in the woods?
17:52Well, this is a source of materials for us.
17:54It's like a larder, if you like.
17:56We're doing work on rivers locally.
17:58There's lots of stuff within the forest,
18:00the willow and sicca that we can use.
18:05So these are materials we're going to transport down to the river.
18:08And we'll re-utilise this within the river bank
18:11to help protect it from floods.
18:17More intense rainfall events are destroying river courses
18:21and washing out gravel beds.
18:25These unwanted trees are used to reduce that damage.
18:29But I've noticed a pile that looks a bit out of place and seasoned.
18:35What's the deal with all these Christmas trees dotted around?
18:37These are repurposed Christmas trees,
18:39which weren't sold from a retailer in Glasgow.
18:43So we actually install these along the bottom of an eroding bank
18:48and they help to buffer the harsh water flow
18:51and reduce the erosion of the river banks.
18:54So where we get lots of eroding bank,
18:56we get a lot of fine sand and silt entering into the river.
19:00And what that does, it clogs up all the riverbed substrates,
19:04which are utilised by fish for cover.
19:07And also by their food, the macroinvertebrates.
19:13So to find out if the three engineered river banks are working,
19:17I'm meeting biologist Graeme Anderson.
19:22Hi Graeme, what are you up to here?
19:24So we're just taking some freshwater invertebrate samples
19:26just to see what's in the river here.
19:29Do you want to come and have a look?
19:30Sure, let's go and have a closer look.
19:32So we've got some mayfile larvae, some stonefile larvae here,
19:35some midge larvae, some other things dotting about there.
19:38What is all of this telling us then?
19:40So if the river was in bad condition,
19:41we wouldn't be seeing some of these things.
19:43So a lot of these will provide food items for the fish.
19:46This is good then, this is a good find?
19:48Yep, the work we're doing improving the health of the river,
19:51just cleaning up the gravels,
19:53that provides more habitat for these guys to live,
19:55which is good for these guys and for the fish.
20:02Another indicator of the project's success
20:05is a healthy fish population.
20:08Two more of the team are electrofishing,
20:11stunning the fish in an electric field
20:13so they can be measured by Alan.
20:19OK, we have some samples here.
20:23Oh wow, OK, it's a diverse mix.
20:24I know.
20:25Two salmon, a trout, an eel and a minnow.
20:29A trout, an eel and a minnow.
20:31They'll be returned to the water later.
20:34So I'm just going to put some anaesthetic in here.
20:38So you leave them in here for a few minutes?
20:41Yep, just means we can handle them more safely.
20:43So they're starting to sort of relax now,
20:45so I'm just going to take out the smallest fish.
20:50So this is a trout fry,
20:52so that would have been spawned last autumn
20:56and would have been incubated as an egg
20:59in the gravels here over winter.
21:01And so it's grown from something like
21:03would have started life at 30 millimetres,
21:07now it's more like 60.
21:08Fantastic.
21:09And your eel is too big for the board.
21:12So what we're going to do, we're not going to measure it,
21:14we're just going to give an estimate of the length
21:16for our records.
21:17And this is a minnow,
21:20so that is not a native species,
21:23but a translocated species.
21:25So it's been common within the British Isles,
21:27but is now more widespread.
21:30Are you quite happy with what we've found today?
21:33Is that encouraging?
21:34Yeah, it's good that we've seen both species,
21:37salmon and trout, and also European eels.
21:40That's always a good sign.
21:42I'm not so pleased about the minnow,
21:43but we can live with that.
21:46How important are projects like this for the future
21:49and how hopeful are you for the changes
21:52that can be made?
21:53The work is really quite important to understand
21:56which direction salmon and trout are going in.
21:58I'm hopeful that we can do enough,
22:00that we can make the improvements to our rivers
22:03that we need to ensure the future of salmon and trout.
22:07So there's no doubt that we need to improve the habitats
22:11if they're going to survive into the future.
22:17Now, wherever you are, information is key.
22:21But if you live in a sparsely populated rural area,
22:25beautiful though it may be,
22:26getting that info that can help you with your day
22:28can be difficult.
22:30Arlene's in the North West Highlands now,
22:32fiddling with her car radio.
22:38We've all been there.
22:40That frustration of driving through rural parts of Scotland
22:44when your signal drops out,
22:47just when your favourite song is playing.
22:50What do you do?
22:51You hit auto-retune and hope for the best.
22:54Bright or sunny intervals and showers,
22:57these most frequent in the West,
22:58with one or two on the heavy side.
23:01And taking a gamble with the retuning button
23:03means you can quite often come across the unexpected.
23:08Putting our communities first,
23:10this is Radio Wester Ross.
23:16There are dozens of community-led radio stations
23:19across Scotland.
23:20All of them providing tailored information
23:22for their audience wherever they live.
23:25ScotRail confirmed that the 1041 Inverness to Kyle
23:28and 513 Kyle to Inverness services had returned.
23:32This is Radio Wester Ross News.
23:35Radio Wester Ross has been broadcasting
23:37in one form or another
23:39from this button bin in Gearloch for the last 20 years.
23:43Radio Wester Ross.
23:44Well, that's me out of time for this morning.
23:46Thank you for tuning in
23:47and keeping me company across Wester Ross.
23:49Just off air is presenter Joshua Taylor.
23:53He's also the station's deputy manager.
23:56Hi, Arlene.
23:57Welcome to Radio Wester Ross.
23:58Thank you very much indeed.
23:59Can I come in?
24:00Yeah, it's horrible, isn't it?
24:01Come on in.
24:03Oh, my goodness.
24:05This is the grand tour.
24:06So this is the one room that we have.
24:08Come on in.
24:09This is the studio.
24:10The station is staffed mainly by volunteers
24:13and is run not for profit
24:15but for the benefit of the community.
24:17No matter how spread out it is.
24:20As you can see, a huge area goes right down to Shildig
24:23and almost right up to the top of the north of Scotland.
24:27Now, how many people do you have listening?
24:29Our broadcast area now is around 5,000 people.
24:32It doesn't sound like many,
24:34but the station is a lifeline
24:36when it comes to getting information to that audience.
24:39Our community-focused features as well
24:41to keep you up to date with everything going on locally.
24:43We're able to broadcast information
24:45that you wouldn't get otherwise.
24:46Stuff like the inshore forecast,
24:48because we've got loads of fishermen
24:50and people in this area
24:52who go out on the waters for a living.
24:54Also the mountain forecast.
24:56But I think one of the main things is the ferries.
24:58Locals use them a lot to get over to the islands,
25:00but also visitors here on holiday,
25:02they need to know what's happening as well.
25:04So welcome, Westring Home 5 past 5.
25:07And I've been invited on
25:08to presenter Ian Meadows' drive time show
25:11to pass on some of that information to the community.
25:14I've been roped in.
25:15I have the mountain forecast for tomorrow.
25:18And then for tomorrow, I just can't believe I'm reading this,
25:20a fine day with some spells of sunshine.
25:23Light winds, highs of 18, believe it when I see it.
25:26Before I go on, and during the tunes,
25:28it's clear to see that Ian is passionate
25:31about the station's mission.
25:33It's no use just rocking up and playing your favourite songs.
25:36What you've got to do is think about,
25:38yeah, what do people want to hear?
25:39What do they want to know?
25:40You know, it's not about you, it's about them.
25:42We've only got 55 seconds left, so you'd best get back to work.
25:46It's a lifetime in radio.
25:48Anyway, look, let's get to the housekeeping, shall we?
25:51The mountain weather forecast for the North West.
25:54This is you.
25:55Westerly winds, 25 to 30 miles per hour in the morning tomorrow,
25:58easing to 10 to 20 miles per hour midday
26:02with the highest speeds likely near the West Coast.
26:05I wish I'd brought my specs.
26:07Today, though, it felt like it was at sea level.
26:09Absolutely boggled.
26:11Absolutely Baltic.
26:12Yeah.
26:14Well, I think you passed the test.
26:16I think...
26:16Any jobs?
26:17Yeah, well, funny you should say that.
26:19We can put you a nice little bed in the corner of the studio.
26:22Terrific.
26:22Yeah, nice.
26:24Thank you so much for coming in.
26:25An absolute pleasure to meet you all
26:27and keep up with your work.
26:28You do a great job.
26:29This is Radio Westeros.
26:32If you want to watch this programme again
26:34or would like to catch up with any of our previous episodes,
26:37go to the BBC iPlayer and search for Landward.
26:40And just before I leave this beautiful scenery,
26:43I've just got time to tell you what's coming up next time.
26:47We're taking the bull by the horns
26:49with a special episode all about cattle.
26:53Arlene meets the family who say they've been looking for a bull
26:56for a long, long time.
26:58About cattle.
27:00Arlene meets the family who saved Aberdeen Angus.
27:03Get to work.
27:04Anne's in Shetland to see Britain's most northerly dairy.
27:08And we'll just see how they react to us
27:11because, you know, this is their island.
27:12And Cammie gets cautious with the wild cattle of Swanagh.
27:18Please join us for that and much, much more if you can.
27:21In the meantime, from all the Landward teams around the country
27:24and especially from me here at The Grey Mare's Tale,
27:26thank you so much for your company.
27:28Bye for now.