Farm 999 Season 1 Episode 1

Name: Farm 999 Season 1 Episode 1
Uploaded: 2025-11-08T11:16:14+00:00
Duration: 28 min 45 s
Channel: Reality Insight Hub
Description: Farm 999 Season 1 Episode 1 #Farm999 #RealityInsightHub 🎞 Please subscribe to our official channel to watch the full movie for free, as soon as possible. ❤️Reality Insight Hub❤️ 👉 Official Channel: https://www.dailymotion.com/TrailerBolt 👉 THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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Farm 999 Season 1 Episode 1

#Farm999
#RealityInsightHub

🎞 Please subscribe to our official channel to watch the full movie for free, as soon as possible. ❤️Reality Insight Hub❤️
👉 Official Channel: https://www.dailymotion.com/TrailerBolt
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00:00Farming is the most dangerous profession in the UK.

00:06Within seconds, the whole barn was alight.

00:10And farmers are increasingly under threat from criminal gangs.

00:14Police officer, show yourself now!

00:17This programme follows the emergency services.

00:20I wasn't entirely convinced the outcome was going to be brilliant.

00:23And dedicated rural crime units.

00:25You're looking at the result of organised crime.

00:28Working in the UK's most isolated communities.

00:32There's a tractor! You're revving a lot!

00:35From heroic rescues to deliberate attacks on animals and farms.

00:40All the trouble started five years ago.

00:43And each year it seems to get a lot worse.

00:45Stand by for a slice of rural life like you've never seen before.

00:51You don't think about farming then.

00:54You're just thinking, am I going to live or die?

00:56I'm Steph McGovern and this is Farm 999.

01:05Coming up...

01:07A freak farmyard accident that left one farmer's life hanging in the balance.

01:12Whilst I told Jonathan he was going to be OK,

01:15I think anybody looking at that situation

01:18would probably have said, he's not going to be OK.

01:22Britain's biggest birds of prey are attacking Scottish lambs

01:26with disastrous consequences.

01:29Just killed just five minutes ago by a white-tailed eagle.

01:31And our reporter Paul Colgan travels to Cheshire

01:35to witness the catastrophic result of illegal fly tipping.

01:39Someone's got to come here, remove it, and if it's on farmland like it is here,

01:43it's going to be the landowner that ultimately foots the bill.

01:51It's going to be a busy show and we are starting with a truly remarkable story

01:55about a farmer whose efforts to save time led to a terrible situation.

02:00Now, if you're a bit squeamish, you may find this disturbing.

02:15For the last 40 minutes, Jonathan Willis has been impaled on his forklift.

02:20Even the slightest movement could be fatal.

02:24My thoughts were always just the girls and Wendy.

02:27You don't think about farming then.

02:29You're just thinking, am I going to live or die?

02:31I was quite aware that at any point in time,

02:35Jonathan could essentially die.

02:40We moved over to England from Northern Ireland in 2013.

02:54We, at that time, had three little girls

02:57and we now have five little girls.

02:59We are predominantly dairy farmers supplying milk down into London.

03:04We also are straw contractors,

03:06deliver straw to power stations in Northern Ireland as well.

03:12But back in October of 2020,

03:14moving a few bills of straw almost cost Jonathan his life.

03:20On the day, we were cutting maize silage

03:23and all the lads from the farm were away.

03:25So I was under pressure on my own, you know,

03:27with a lot to get through.

03:28And I suppose I was hurrying more than I should have been.

03:33Although only 1% of the UK's population work in agriculture,

03:39farming accounts for 20% of all workplace deaths.

03:44We had a lorry come in for a load of straw

03:46that was going to Northern Ireland.

03:48I was taking straw from one trailer

03:50and putting it onto the lorry that was going to carry it

03:53the rest of the journey.

03:54The lad who works for us, he was taking the straps off the straw

03:57and I knew I was under pressure.

03:59So I thought, right, I'll jump off and give Marcus a hand as well.

04:02As Jonathan was standing between the forklift and the trailer,

04:07it rolled forward and impaled him

04:10on one of the sharp prongs known as tines.

04:13I felt this prod in my back

04:16and the loader was moving forward towards me

04:19and I just put my hand down here

04:21and the spike had come right out through, you know,

04:23and it just let a yell out of me.

04:25I immediately ran outside.

04:28I looked down and I could see that it was impaled,

04:32but I thought it's only just nipped into his boiler suit.

04:38I was standing with my hand over the spike and she says,

04:41what's happened, what's happened?

04:42And then I just took my hand away.

04:44She actually just dropped her knees.

04:46I got on the phone and dialed 999.

04:49My husband is hurt on our farm and we need an ambulance.

04:53It's well known that farmers only call 999 when life is on the line.

04:58So we had a suspicion it was going to be quite a serious job.

05:02The main benefits that we offer is enhanced care over and above that of the standard ambulance response.

05:11I still vividly remember looking up and seeing them and the way I described them is like seeing angels.

05:23God had sent his angels and they played such a critical part.

05:27Within 25 minutes of the 999 call, the emergency services, including the air ambulance crew, had arrived.

05:35These men came walking across the yard.

05:38They were like something you see in a movie with the backpacks and all on them.

05:42They're like superheroes coming.

05:44When we turned round the corner and first set eyes on Jonathan,

05:48I honestly took a few seconds to compute what I was seeing.

05:53The crew knew instantly that one wrong move could prove fatal.

05:58The major blood vessels like the aorta, the inferior vena cava, his liver, his lungs and his heart

06:05were all really close to the track that that time would have taken.

06:10The time would need to stay in place for now so the crew could keep Jonathan safe and comfortable.

06:16Our first priority really was getting some firefighters to hold him off the ground,

06:21but in exactly the same position that he was in.

06:24We wheeled an ambulance stretcher underneath, pumped it up so that it was supporting his weight.

06:29That meant that we could then start giving him treatment without the worry that he was going to lose his position and fall off the spike.

06:36This took the weight off my legs, you know, but then the biggest thing was how are we going to get this spike off?

06:43Whilst I told Jonathan he was going to be OK, I think it's fair to say that anybody looking at that situation would probably have said he's not going to be OK.

06:56Later we'll see how Jonathan got on when they tried to remove him from the forklift.

07:01But now let's join Paul Colgan. We sent him to find out more about a rural crime that's a nightmare for farmers. Fly tipping.

07:14This doesn't feel very much like Farm 999 on the side of a dual carriageway in Chester,

07:32but what I'm doing today is following along Operation Permit and what they're checking for is illegal waste.

07:39Our beautiful countryside is increasingly being used as a dump site for rubbish.

07:45And farmers are paying the price, but police here are fighting back.

07:53Cheshire Constabulary have gathered experts from a range of agencies to clamp down on people who are dumping waste illegally in the county.

08:01The plan is to stop any vehicles and bring them in, commercial waste vehicles primarily,

08:06but there may be other stuff caught up for us to check.

08:10Rob Simpson heads up Cheshire Rural Crime Unit.

08:13He recognises how illegal waste disposal has become big business.

08:18People are seeing an opportunity here to make money.

08:21They'll turn around and say, we'll get rid of it for you cheaply.

08:23They've got no intention of taking it to the places that need to deal with it properly.

08:27So they'll just load up a van in the morning, disappear off into the countryside, get rid of it,

08:31and then perhaps go and do the same kind of route again.

08:34This van has several fridges packed inside,

08:37the kind of cargo that rings alarm bells for Rob's team.

08:41These are items that you and I can't just easily just get rid of.

08:45So again, these kind of items are the ones that we'll see in a lay-by,

08:48we'll see in a field, we'll see just because of ease.

08:51By intercepting loads that could be en route to an illegal dump site,

08:55the team are saving the economy a fortune.

08:58It's estimated that waste crime in the UK costs UK PLC just under a billion pounds every year.

09:05We know that about one in four reports get to us,

09:08so there's a massive under-reporting.

09:10And farmers will know all about the consequences of illegal waste dumping.

09:14Absolutely. We do a lot of campaigns with landowners

09:16because we know that there are swathes, particularly in the Cheshire area,

09:19of rural land that's very vulnerable.

09:22Rob has brought me to a large illegal dump on farmland outside Congleton,

09:33discovered in 2023.

09:35It contains 200 tonnes of waste.

09:38It really is disgusting, isn't it?

09:41Yeah, it's quite an assault on the senses, isn't it?

09:44And it's piled high as well.

09:47Things ranging from fidget toys right through to medically contaminated waste

09:50that ends up piled up here.

09:52And literally the kitchen sink?

09:53Absolutely, yeah. We've got one or two kitchen sinks in there.

09:58What I think of fly-tipping is, you know,

10:00people throwing bags out of their car on the side of a road.

10:02This is something completely different.

10:04You're looking at the result of organised crime, essentially,

10:08and that organised crime has moved into the business world of dealing with waste.

10:14It seems there's no simple fix to removing this.

10:17Is this going to be here for a long time?

10:19The material's in here.

10:20There are facilities that can deal with it.

10:21But the question has to be, who's going to pay for it?

10:24Someone's got to come here, remove it.

10:25And if it's on farmland like it is here,

10:27it's going to be the landowner that ultimately foots the bill.

10:36Back at Operation Permit,

10:37it looks like they've intercepted a potential offender.

10:41I can see why you've pulled over this one.

10:43Absolutely. This vehicle is absolutely laden with waste,

10:46so it's a great opportunity for us to check whether he's got the right permits in.

10:49But when you look at the actual condition of the vehicle as well,

10:51alarm bells start ringing.

10:53Look at the screwdrivers.

10:54Oh, yeah.

10:55Wedged under that.

10:58And again, stuff that they're carrying is coming out onto the road,

11:01so it gives us that impression straight away.

11:03Is this someone who's going to legitimately take your waste to the right site

11:07and get rid of it?

11:08The truck is jam-packed with assorted waste materials,

11:12and it's hard to see exactly what's inside.

11:15So the team sent a drone up for a closer look.

11:22So there is a mixture of household waste there.

11:24You can see bits of furniture, you can see drying racks,

11:26but then there's black bin bags containing an unknown waste.

11:28You've also got garden waste in there.

11:30So every conceivable kind of waste that we'd be interested in looking at

11:34and that ends up in farmer's fields is contained in that vehicle.

11:38Upon closer inspection,

11:39this waste carrier is committing a litany of other offences

11:43and the vehicle is seized.

11:45There's all kinds of things flagging up.

11:47It's untaxed, so we're going to deal with the driver for that.

11:50And it also has this waste because the gases are in the fridges,

11:53so there's lots of different things.

11:54So that's why we've got the experts in the EA and the local council

11:57who are dealing with them for those offences.

12:01Operation Permit is wrapping up.

12:03Time for me to catch up with Rob to see if he's happy with how the day's gone.

12:08So in terms of the overall impact that these sort of operations are having,

12:12can you give us a sense of what you've achieved so far?

12:15By doing these kind of operations, by working in partnership,

12:17we've had a 50% reduction in waste crime flag tipping and so on

12:21in this part of the county.

12:23And that's a win for farmers as well.

12:25That is an absolute win because that 50% reduction,

12:28who knows where it's going to end up?

12:30I can tell you where it's going to end up,

12:31and that's going to be in someone's field, in someone's waterway,

12:34someone's private land or at the side of the road.

12:36But it's a huge win for our farming community

12:38because they're not having to deal with that output of waste anymore.

12:41Well, that's quite the achievement, isn't it?

12:45Halving the problem in that particular area.

12:48So how do we build on this?

12:49Well, with me now is Tim Passmore.

12:51And Tim, you've got quite a few different hats in this, haven't you?

12:54Because you're former farmer, police and crime commissioner in Suffolk

12:57and also chair of the National Rural Crime Network.

13:00That's right, yes I am.

13:01So give us a sense of the scale of this problem in the UK.

13:04Well, fly tipping sadly has been around for a number of years,

13:07but I do think it's starting to get worse.

13:09Figures that we've got, certainly in England,

13:12the levels recorded have gone up by 6% in a year

13:15to over 1.1 million cases, and that's just on private land.

13:19We know that organised crime groups have got their tentacles into it.

13:22In that film, you see some of the places where this fly tipping's happening.

13:27It's like a lot of stuff we're talking about here, isn't it?

13:30It's not just a couple of mattresses and a fridge.

13:32This is like extreme.

13:34No, there's arctic loads of stuff dumped on our beautiful countryside.

13:37Not only is it against the norm and illegal, people make a huge amount of money out of it.

13:42I think the cost of the economy is over a billion pounds a year.

13:45Yes, incredible.

13:46And of course the environmental impact could be potentially serious.

13:49And the organised crime side of it, how does it work for them?

13:52Like, how are they making money out of it? I don't get it.

13:55Well, at the moment, if you are a legitimate waste disposer,

13:59you have to be licensed by the Environment Agency and it costs.

14:02And unfortunately what organised crime groups do,

14:05they will go around offering to get rid of rubbish for you.

14:08We'll do it for 50 quid instead of 100 quid.

14:10And of course they don't get rid of it properly.

14:12They dump it in the countryside or in some cases they actually burn it.

14:16And that's again, you need a permit for that.

14:19So it's all highly illegal.

14:21It's not just the money we're talking about here though,

14:23because there's loads of stress that comes from this too.

14:25Oh, absolutely. The disposal, the cost, the damage to your land.

14:29If you've got livestock in a field, are you going to harm them?

14:32There is a welfare issue as well.

14:34And it's this perpetual worry because there are certain places

14:37where they get repeat offences occurring.

14:40And yes, it worries the hell out of people.

14:42Well, that's not good enough either.

14:43So there is a human cost to it as well.

14:45And it really is time that I think people, the consumer,

14:48all of us understood the pressures that farming is under.

14:52They don't need this.

14:53And if we want to have food security and look after our rural economy,

14:56then we've got to step up to the mark collectively on this important issue.

15:00There's nothing I love more than going to the tip near where I live.

15:03You know, the recycle centre.

15:05Oh, I love doing that. It's a real sense of achievement.

15:07Yeah.

15:08And that's the way, you know, you've got to do it properly basically.

15:10Well, and again, I think we need to make it easier for people

15:12to dispose of waste legitimately.

15:14Yeah, really important stuff. Thank you very much, Tim.

15:16Pleasure.

15:18Still to come on Farm 999,

15:20we find out what happened next to our Cambridgeshire farmer

15:24whose life hangs in the balance, impaled on his forklift.

15:29If that moves, that could cause him to bleed out.

15:32Our next story comes from the west of Scotland,

15:37where sheep farmers, or more specifically their valuable flock,

15:41have found themselves under attack from above.

15:44Sheep farmers' livestock on the west coast of Scotland are being attacked by birds of prey.

16:01Just killed just five minutes ago by a white-tailed eagle.

16:05It's not a crime. No blue lights are involved.

16:08But for many farmers, it is an emergency.

16:12It's so unviable now for us that we are going to have to give up.

16:20Ricky Rennie farms sheep in this beautiful area on the west coast of Scotland.

16:24His wife's family have farmed here for four generations.

16:29The couple took on tenancy in 2018 and hoped to eventually hand it down to their three-year-old daughter, Clemmie.

16:38What's not to like? I mean, this is my office.

16:41Like, it doesn't matter if it's a good day or a bad day.

16:44Weather-wise out here, you're your own boss. It's freedom.

16:47Unfortunately, this idyllic landscape has also become the backdrop for a farming catastrophe.

16:56White-tailed eagles, also known as sea eagles,

16:59are a native species that were successfully reintroduced in the 1970s.

17:06There are now around 200 breeding pairs.

17:10But for the past decade, these magnificent birds have been preying on local sheep

17:15in increasing numbers.

17:182024, we've had just shy of 300 lambs taken.

17:22I mean, we've lost over 30,000 worth of stock.

17:26You've not got your replacements for the hill, which is our biggest impact.

17:31Like, we can't actually keep breeding replacements,

17:33so the numbers are just going down and down.

17:38David Colthart is a sheep farmer and chair of Argyle and Loch Arbour

17:42Sea Eagle Stakeholder Group, who regularly meet to discuss the situation.

17:47I think one of the biggest issues is lack of natural prey.

17:51There isn't sufficient wildlife round here for them to eat,

17:55and that's why we feel that they're focusing on our livestock.

17:59Although they mostly live on fish, seabirds and small mammals,

18:03their attacks on lambs are placing farmers' livelihoods at risk.

18:06Usually, if a predator attacks livestock, farmers can take measures to minimise the impact.

18:13But white-tailed eagles are a species protected by law.

18:18My grandfather came here 99 years ago.

18:21So the flock that is here, some of them anyway, are descended from then.

18:25And what's one of the biggest effects the birds have had on the flock

18:27is by predating some of these very, very hardy lambs, you lose that genetic hardiness

18:33that over decades has been built up.

18:37Nature Scott is a government agency that's been working with farmers

18:41to try and come up with solutions.

18:43Their goal is to help protect farmers' livestock

18:46without harming the protected sea eagles

18:49that have become a major draw for wildlife tourism.

18:52I do have sympathy with farmers and crofters that are having this issue.

18:56You know, these are magnificent birds, and farmers and crofters acknowledge that themselves,

18:59but I suppose the challenge is trying to, you know, balance that with the sometimes negative impacts

19:04that come through predation.

19:06The numbers of farmers affected is rising.

19:09In 2024, 194 farms and crofts received help through Nature Scott's Sea Eagle Management Scheme,

19:17a figure that's almost doubled since 2020.

19:19We're working with people who have sheep from four sheep to over 2,000 sheep,

19:25so, you know, the scheme has to be flexible to those different extents

19:29and challenges that individuals face around predation.

19:32Ricky has worked with Nature Scott to try and find ways to protect his lambs from attack,

19:38but so far, he hasn't had much success.

19:41We've tried different feeds.

19:43We've had lambing jackets.

19:48We've built a shed to lambing inside.

19:52So, the lambing jackets we use, it's like a plastic jacket.

19:55It just goes over.

19:57You slip the legs through, and it keeps the weather off.

20:00It's got a kind of rustle to it, so it keeps foxes, et cetera, away.

20:03But once the lamb is big enough and the jacket tears off him, the eagle still came and took them.

20:12The sheep grazing here are kept in unfenced upland areas, known as hefts,

20:16and Nature Scott has offered funding for a shepherd to tend the flock here to try and reduce the attacks.

20:23What we're doing is we're bunching up one heft, we're gathering it up every day,

20:28and they're walking it round the hill and keeping them tight.

20:30It's so as eagles won't come in and hit a single lamb it's maybe out with.

20:35Well, that's the theory anyway, so we'll see if it works.

20:38There's a huge amount of effort to try and resolve the issue,

20:41but it's basically just going to be a very difficult issue to solve.

20:46We're never going to move fast enough for farmers and crofters affected by this,

20:49I understand that.

20:50But, yeah, we're certainly doing our very best to get a better understanding of those issues on the ground

20:57and implement mitigation that hopefully allows that coexistence in the future.

21:02If it wasn't my wife's job, we wouldn't have been able to feed our daughter or clothe her.

21:07Just now, the way we are going, we've literally got a year left.

21:16Well, to tell us more about the situation for farmers and crofters,

21:20we've got Padraig Morrison here, who is from the Isle of North Uist,

21:25and a third generation crafter.

21:27And you are, of course, as well, the director of the Scottish Crofting Federation.

21:30So you know what you're talking about when it comes to crofting.

21:33So can you explain, first of all, what it is?

21:35Yeah, so crofting is essentially small-scale farming.

21:39It's distinct to just the north and west of Scotland.

21:42The size of the parcels of land are generally smaller,

21:45ranging between 5 and 50 acres, on average about 10 acres.

21:49And therefore, most often folk are doing that alongside another job or something else that they do.

21:54Do you think you can see a life where sea eagles and crofting can exist together?

21:59That's a very tricky question. I mean, there were sea eagles here at one time before, and people had sheep.

22:07It was perhaps a time when folk were doing a lot more shepherding.

22:11And indeed, now there has been money, say, from the Scottish Government, which is allowing folk to, say, shepherd more.

22:17But I suppose the question has to be asked, is that the best use of the money and for the crofters and farmers time to just be on the hill just keeping an eye on livestock?

22:28It's so tricky, isn't it? Because you don't want to see any animals harmed or stopped from doing what they do.

22:36But you can see both sides of this, I guess.

22:39I think we're still finding that balance, you know, and as with any sort of ecosystem readjustment, there's going to be greater impact on some species than others.

22:47Sheep and lambs for crofters are not just their economic income. They're also something that, you know, it's a way of life. It's what people are passionate about.

23:00People care deeply about their livestock. And so people don't want to see them taken by the eagles.

23:07Well, thanks so much for explaining that. It's a lot more complicated than people might think, isn't it? Thank you.

23:11Right, it is time now to head back to the Willis' farm. Now, when we left, Jonathan was still impaled on his forklift and the paramedics and fire service were trying desperately to rescue him.

23:34Jonathan Willis was impaled on the metal prong of his forklift, known as a tyne.

23:42The air ambulance team were on hand, but the situation was complex and life-threatening.

23:49I've been doing this job now for 30 years, and without doubt, this is the most serious job that I've attended.

23:57The tyne had come into Jonathan's back, just to the right side of his spine, and it had exited out through the front of his chest.

24:06I was also quite aware if that moves, that could ultimately just cause him to bleed out.

24:13Jonathan had been impaled for 40 minutes. To be able to get him to hospital, they needed to get him off the forklift without moving the tyne from his torso, which wasn't going to be easy.

24:26We couldn't screw it off because of the rust on the nut, so we were going to have to cut the spike.

24:33Unfortunately, the fire brigade had nothing really suitable to cut through this thickness of pure solid steel.

24:39And I suggested then we get the angle grinder from the workshop.

24:45Because it's such hard-tempered steel, it required quite a concerted effort to cut it.

24:51That in itself was going to cause friction, and that was going to cause heat, and that was going to cause other factors that we need to consider in terms of making sure that he was kept a pain-free, and b that we weren't going to cause any internal damage from transmitted heat down the tyne.

25:07We got buckets of water, we got as many tiles as we could, we tried to just get the tyne as cold as possible.

25:15With emergency fire hoses in place, all the team can do is start grinding and hope for the best.

25:28Obviously I was just concerned when we spoke about the heat, you know.

25:31But it was no time at all until the spike cut with the angle grinder, so we were all relieved then.

25:40But Jonathan's troubles were far from over.

25:43He still had to make the one-hour trip to a specialist major trauma centre, still impaled on the metal tyne.

25:50The journey to hospital was excruciating, and I remember going over the cattle grid and thinking, my goodness, if I come back, that is one thing I need to fix.

26:00And as we went round the roundabouts, that's when it hurt the most, when the spike was actually rubbing to the side.

26:06And I do remember going in and out of it a wee bit, you know, on the way there with the pain.

26:10When we'd handed Jonathan over to the hospital staff, I know from my personal opinion, I wasn't entirely convinced the outcome was going to be brilliant.

26:25After seven hours in the operating theatre, the spike was removed.

26:31Wendy spoke to the surgeon straight after the surgery.

26:34Mr. Huggett came on the phone, and he said, Mrs. Willis, and I said, is Jonathan okay? Is he alive?

26:43He said, Jonathan is alive, and Jonathan is the luckiest man I have ever had on my table.

26:51When I woke up within 20 minutes, Wendy was there, you know, and just over the moon, never happier.

26:59It was absolutely amazing when we found out the following day that Jonathan had not only survived his operation, but he was also conscious and having banter with the nursing staff.

27:12And I must say that was a very special day for all of us.

27:17The air ambulance were instrumental in saving Jonathan's life.

27:22It took an army to save Jonathan's life that day.

27:26The fact that he did so well was really important for us, but it also meant that the kids got their dad back and Wendy got her husband back in one piece.

27:37I take a lot more time with the girls and appreciate them a lot more, you know.

27:42I'm just eternally grateful for everyone who helped me.

27:46Well, that story is a powerful reminder of just how dangerous farming can be, and what an amazingly resilient couple.

28:01We wish them all the best for the future.

28:03That's it from us. We'll be back next time with more dramatic stories from our farms and fields across the UK.

28:08But if you want more episodes now, head to BBC iPlayer and search for Farm 999.

28:38We'll be back next time with more sociedade, please.

28:40We'll be back next time.

28:41Bye.

28:44Bye.

28:46We'll be back next time with more people.

28:50Bye.