- 7 hours ago
Landward - Season 21 Episode 4
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Short filmTranscript
00:01With spring in full swing, there's plenty of new calves on the block.
00:06Welcome to Landlord.
00:29Hello from the rich pastures of Turthorald in Dumfreeshire.
00:33The grass is growing, providing good eating for new arrivals.
00:38And with 700 calves expected over the next few weeks,
00:41it's going to be one of the busiest times of the year.
00:44In a moment, I'll be finding out why the calves are all coming at once and how it works.
00:49But first, here's what else is coming up.
00:52Shabazz meets the researcher using drones to keep an eye on Aberdeenshire seals.
00:59Cammie's planting spuds.
01:01Roughly 300,000 potatoes going into this one little field. Wow.
01:07And we pay a return visit to a native breed of a very unusual hue.
01:12They're having a good look at us anyway, aren't they? They're beautiful.
01:22But first, for Scotland's sheep farmers, spring means lambing.
01:27An intense period in the calendar where they bring on the next generation of lambs.
01:32Here at Lynne Farm near Dumfrees, they're doing the same with their dairy herd.
01:38For generations, dairy farmers in Scotland have always spread calving across the year.
01:45But these days, you'll find more and more of them doing it all at once in the spring.
01:51The method is called block calving.
01:54And the idea is you squeeze all the births into a small window, freeing up the rest of the year
02:00for other jobs.
02:02Michael Kyle, who farms here with his wife Laurie, was an early adopter.
02:07And he's been spring calving only for the last 20 years.
02:13Are they about to have calves then? No, no, these are all calves.
02:16They've all calves already? They're all calved and milking.
02:18He starts mid-February and ends in April.
02:22So tell me, Michael, the idea behind block calving.
02:25Everything calves in the spring.
02:28We like to do everything at one time.
02:33So we've got a calving season, then a serving season.
02:38Once we get past June, the rest of the year is relatively simple.
02:42It's just milking and grazing management.
02:44You need to have the right cows to suit the system.
02:47Yes, so we use a freezing jersey cross.
02:50And it's quite a resilient animal that can stand up to the weather.
02:54Also be able to walk, get back in calve and milk, of course.
02:59You need to be able to graze around the milking parlour.
03:02In other words, the cows need to be able to walk for the grazing.
03:05And so on some farms, that may not suit.
03:07Now, can we head down into the yard to get out this rain?
03:09Absolutely, that'd be a good idea.
03:10Good man.
03:12Why did you choose to adopt this system?
03:14It was just for simplicity, profitability.
03:19Just a nice family life as well, where we dried all the cows off at Christmas time.
03:23And we felt that suited our family life and that of our staff.
03:28Inside the polytunnel are some of Michael's new calves.
03:31They're fed milk in here for six weeks before moving outside.
03:36So how many calves do you expect each year?
03:39700 odd cows to calve, so we expect 700 odd calves.
03:43That's a huge amount of work though, isn't it?
03:45Yes, we've just developed systems over the years which have made it relatively simple.
03:50We batch the calves up in pens of 10.
03:53We batch them right away.
03:54We don't have single pens.
03:56And that works very well for us.
03:58And how important is it to have a team around here to manage all this?
04:01I mean, it's absolutely vital.
04:03And the team we have are very dedicated and they work very hard to make everything a success.
04:13It's half past two and a couple of hundred cows make their way to the parlour.
04:19Their milk will be used for cheese.
04:23Overseeing milking and calving, his farm manager Willa Skillen.
04:29So you've got 700 cows and how many have you still got to calve?
04:34About just under 100.
04:37Yeah, so it should hopefully be finished up the end of April.
04:41Just another month really.
04:42Obviously quite intense when we are calving.
04:45We do bring a team in.
04:46They come in for like a bit a month and take the pressure off obviously up here.
04:51So they man the shed 24 hours a day for about four weeks.
04:56Just till we get about 65% of the herd calved.
05:01And then obviously like it's down to us guys to finish it off.
05:04So some late nights, early mornings.
05:07So dairy all the time.
05:09So you don't like sleeping then?
05:10No, no.
05:13Everything happens at one time.
05:15So you have your busy time and then you finish calving, move on to serving.
05:19After that people can get holidays in and it's a different work life balance.
05:25Aye.
05:26And I can understand why that might be appealing.
05:29Calving 700 cows all at once might seem daunting.
05:34But all that effort brings real rewards.
05:37Especially I guess if it means you can take a break at Christmas.
05:45Our resident photographer Shabazz loves sticking up a drone to capture Scotland's landscapes.
05:52Now he's on the Aberdeenshire coast meeting a woman who's using drones in the name of conservation.
06:02Just outside the village of Newborough, the river Ithin empties into the North Sea.
06:10This tidal estuary is home to lots of different bird species.
06:15But people come here for another type of wildlife.
06:18I knew I was going to see a lot of seals but wow!
06:29On the north bank of the river mouth is one of Scotland's largest seal haul out sites.
06:35With up to 3,000 regularly recorded, it's a hot spot for viewing grey seals.
06:42But marine biologist Claire Stainfield is keeping a closer eye on them than most for her PhD project through Scotland's
06:50rural college.
06:52I see we have an audience.
06:54Yeah, we've got plenty of seals on the beach today.
06:56And what is it you're trying to find out?
06:58So my research is looking at this really cool site where seals are using the space but people are also
07:04using the space.
07:05So I'm looking to find out a couple of things.
07:07One thing is how seals use the area and use the space seasonally.
07:11And the other is how we have an impact or if we do have an impact on what we can
07:16do to make it safer for them.
07:20Unfortunately, there have been incidents of seal disturbance here.
07:24People getting too close, triggered stampedes that cause injury and pups being abandoned.
07:32In 2017, it became a designated seal haul out site, giving the colony special protection.
07:40Visitors are advised to watch from the south bank of the estuary.
07:43And that's where Claire's counting them today. But not from the ground.
07:49So today I'm going to be flying a drone, trying to get the GPS locations of where they're resting.
07:54And the numbers that are resting on the beach as well.
07:57And will I get a chance to fly my drone?
07:59I'm afraid not. So it's a recreational no-fly zone for people with drones.
08:04And I've got special permission from Nature Scott to be able to conduct these research surveys.
08:08I'll just watch then. Shall we go have a look?
08:12Down on the beach, Claire and her research assistant Amber Anderson set up a cordon.
08:18So how's the wind speed looking?
08:191.2, about the same as what we were getting up on the hill.
08:22Excellent.
08:31I'll be honest, I've got a bit of FOMO.
08:34With the drone flying a pre-programmed route, it takes hundreds of photos of the hauled out seals.
08:42So drones and wildlife don't normally mix.
08:45Yeah, so it's becoming more of a useful tool in ecology and conservation.
08:50But you have to use specific guidelines.
08:52And using these automatic transit sites keeps it nice and smooth,
08:55so that it minimises disturbance.
08:58And as you can see, the seals didn't react to it today.
09:01This sort of high-flying survey allows Claire to count the seals more accurately.
09:07But as you can see, there's a lot of movement between the seals,
09:10and they sort of stack between each other.
09:12So you get one in front of the other, in front of the other.
09:14So it means that the land-based counts can be a little bit inaccurate,
09:18compared to the snapshot that I can get with the drone.
09:21The site has been surveyed every week for the last two years.
09:25That's a lot of seals to count.
09:28So all the still images that I took from the survey,
09:31I've stitched them all together to create a map of where the seals have been sitting on the beach.
09:35And how are you going to use the footage from today?
09:37So the footage for today is going to be fed into my model.
09:41So as you can see, the AI just focuses on the pixels that are the seals,
09:45and it means that I can pull them out and the model can count them for me.
09:49And this is a tool you've created?
09:50Yeah, so it's taken a while to teach the AI what a seal is.
09:55So a survey like today, it would have taken me close to three hours to process manually.
09:59And in terms of putting it through my AI, it can do it in less than a couple of seconds.
10:04Wow.
10:05For Claire, the hope is that her research will answer the big questions about how people can continue to enjoy
10:11the seals,
10:12and how the seals can live here undisturbed.
10:16What I'm hoping to find out long term is if we do have an impact, how we can help mitigate
10:21it.
10:22So if the visitor numbers continue to grow, or if tourism continues to grow in the area,
10:27we've got a good idea of what works really well here.
10:30And what are you hoping to find from this in the future?
10:32Wildlife and people are interconnected, and tourism is building on that.
10:37And people are wanting close encounters, and they're wanting great encounters with wildlife.
10:41And we have to be really responsible about the way that we interact with our wildlife,
10:46but also how we can protect it for future generations.
10:53So, by finding out what the colony is doing, from that respectful distance,
10:58allows us to watch the seals, watching us.
11:07The farming community have come a long way in recent years,
11:10when it comes to opening up about physical and mental wellbeing.
11:14But there's one woman who believes there's an issue that's still barely been talked about.
11:20Arlene's in Easter Ross to meet her.
11:25It's one of the last things you'll hear mentioned within the farming community,
11:29and yet it's an issue that affects thousands of women in sheds, fields and farm kitchens across the country.
11:39Menopause will come to half the population, so it's hardly a niche issue.
11:43Hello. Hello.
11:46But crofter Jane Thompson thinks we don't talk about it enough,
11:50especially in the farming world, where women make up 40% of the workforce.
11:56I see you have some of your sheep. What are you up to?
11:59Yeah, I had one with a sore eye, so I just wanted to get them in and check she was
12:03all right.
12:03The wellbeing of your sheep, obviously very important,
12:05but the wellbeing of yourself is equally as important,
12:09and that's what we're here to talk about.
12:11Menopause.
12:12Around 13 years ago, Jane started to notice that jobs on her croft,
12:17near Muravord, weren't as easy as they used to be.
12:20I felt I fundamentally changed.
12:23I lost my confidence, I lost my rationale,
12:27I lost my temper frequently, I was starting to not sleep very well,
12:32and I just couldn't work out what was going on and why I was feeling so out of sorts
12:38when there was nothing physically wrong.
12:42When you're working with livestock, how did that impact on you?
12:46I felt confident.
12:47I would think I need to go and get the sheep in to take them to the mart,
12:51or for the scanner coming, or for a vet, or whatever.
12:54I would start worrying about that the minute I'd made that decision that I needed to do it.
12:59I only have 30 ewes.
13:00And I thought, why am I putting myself through all this angst about looking after them
13:06and keeping them healthy and then getting them to market, getting them sheared,
13:09getting all the other stuff.
13:11None of it is a big deal, but it is a big deal when your brain isn't working
13:15because your hormones are all in a mess.
13:17So, yeah, I did quite often think, am I actually doing them a disservice
13:23by not being able to, in my mind, look after them properly?
13:26And I need them, because they're my out-of-work-work sanity, in a way.
13:33Though you wonder why I normally keep sheep to stay sane.
13:38No two experiences of menopause are the same.
13:41Oh-ho!
13:42We're off!
13:43They are off!
13:44Symptoms typically appear between the ages of 45 and 55,
13:49ranging from hot flushes and joint pain
13:51to the brain fog and mood changes Jane experienced.
13:57When did you decide to seek help? How long did it take?
14:00It took nine years.
14:03The further I went on, the more I would think,
14:06well, surely I'm getting to the end of it now.
14:09So, you know, I just need to have put up with it for another year or two,
14:12and then those year or twos kept going.
14:15Jane eventually sought the help of her GP, and now uses hormone replacement therapy patches,
14:21alongside a weekly line dancing session, to manage her symptoms.
14:26But for other women, diet, exercise and other medications can be helpful.
14:32The thing with the HRT is it doesn't take your symptoms away completely.
14:37There's no magic cure.
14:38But it takes that top layer of sheer angst away,
14:43so you're more able to rationalise, more able to think sensibly,
14:47and to stop yourself spiralling into that,
14:50I can't do this panic.
14:54Now, Jane wants to open up the conversation around menopause in agriculture.
14:59If I can share my experience and help one lady go and get help,
15:04then that's good enough for me.
15:07And she's joined forces with Alex Ritchie from FarmStrong.
15:11Hello.
15:12The Farmers Wellbeing Charity provides advice for those experiencing symptoms
15:16as part of their award-winning menopause initiative.
15:21So menopause is going to impact every farming business,
15:24whether it's somebody that you're working with,
15:26a mother, a daughter, a sister, a farming employee.
15:29So the more that we know about it,
15:31the more we can support those who are impacted by it,
15:33which is everybody, then it just makes sense, doesn't it?
15:37Well, as someone who's gone through it for a number of years
15:39and still has probably a number of years to go,
15:41I think it's great that this is now a topic for discussion
15:45for men and for women because it affects everyone, doesn't it?
15:49Yeah.
15:49Absolutely.
15:50And I think just be brave.
15:52If you're struggling, be brave.
15:54Go and talk to somebody, anybody.
15:56Just share it.
16:06What do champagne, prosciutto and Ayrshire tatties have in common?
16:12Well, they all have special protected status,
16:16celebrating the areas they come from.
16:18We sent local lad Cammy to find out why Ayrshire spuds are so special.
16:30It's March, and at Girvan Main's farm, they are preparing to plant Ayrshire earlies.
16:36Normal tatties, called main crop, are harvested in autumn
16:40and planted in April or May.
16:43But this is actually quite late to plant earlies.
16:49Is this a good day for the job, is it?
16:51Well, it's a wee bit better than it's been. It's brighter now.
16:54Drew Young is one of the brains behind the Girvan Early Growers Co-op
16:58and a man who certainly knows his tatties.
17:02What he doesn't know probably isn't worth knowing.
17:06I love these old boxes.
17:07Ah, well, Cammy, there's some of them nearly as old as me, to be fair.
17:11Today, he's showing me a time-honoured Ayrshire trick,
17:14one that's been giving local tatties a head start since before tractors were even a thing.
17:20This is old, old-style chitting.
17:22Well, it started in Ayrshire in 1857, believe it or not.
17:26You only need to tell me what is chitting? I've never heard of that.
17:28Chitting is when you grow the sprout on them prior to planting.
17:32This gives you 10 to 14 days' advantage on growth.
17:36So you've got a head start?
17:37So you've got a head start.
17:38And these are grown multi-chitted so that they produce lots of numbers
17:42to produce lovely small, flavourable, round, white potatoes that suits the retail sector today.
17:50Ayrshire farmers picked up the tricks of the early potato trade from the Channel Islands.
17:55They used every new invention they could to make sure their tatties were first on the shelf.
18:01In 1860, they even built a light railway line to take the potatoes off the fields,
18:06which run right through to the early 1940s.
18:10And in the fields, if you get the timing of the planting right, the soil right,
18:15and if the weather plays the game, these spuds will be ready by summer,
18:20weeks before the rest of the country.
18:24David, how are you?
18:25How are you doing, Cameron? Are you alright?
18:26Permission to come aboard?
18:27Yes, as long as you wipe your feet, that'll be fine.
18:29Oh, did I just give a kick in the step?
18:30Alright, okay.
18:31Oh, you're fine, you're fine. Come on in.
18:37The person in charge of getting them into the ground is Drew's son, David.
18:41No shortcuts here, though.
18:43Just careful planting and a lot of patience.
18:48Oh, glad you've got a heater on, actually. Quite a brush window there.
18:51And I'm glad you've brought the better weather with you.
18:53Aye, you need it for the pant tatties.
18:55Oh, definitely, aye. That's our main constraint,
18:58is the amount of difficult weather we've been getting recently, anyway, this year.
19:01This part of Ayrshire has a bit of a secret weapon.
19:04Mild coastal weather and sandy soil.
19:07Perfect for Ayrshire tatties.
19:10We've got that gulf stream that comes in from the south-west,
19:13which very much aids, as I say, very little frost here on the shore.
19:17We're right on the shore here.
19:18You can actually see the firth of Clyde there, right next to us,
19:21within a hundred metres.
19:23But you go a mile inland, and then you can get frost.
19:25And these won't work if they get hit by frost?
19:27They'll kill them?
19:28Aye, it'll certainly stunt them.
19:30It'll stunt their growth.
19:31If they get hit by frost, it'll stunt their growth for about a fortnight.
19:34And also, if a man working in front of us here, lifting stones,
19:38what's the issue with stones in tatties?
19:39They'll condition the soil to take all the stones as big as your thumb to bigger out of it.
19:46And that means when we come to harvest potatoes,
19:47there's no stone content in it to cause damage and scuffing and things in the potatoes.
19:51OK.
19:52There's all these little things you'd never think of when you're just eating your tatties.
19:55Oh, I know, I know.
19:58They're planting around 100,000 potatoes per hectare.
20:02All to produce a tight crop of small tatties.
20:06Exactly what the shops are after.
20:10Roughly 300,000 potatoes going to do this one little field in there.
20:14That's...wow.
20:15Wow.
20:16I probably haven't eaten 300...in fact, I definitely haven't eaten that amount in my entire life.
20:21I probably have.
20:23Every meal, every meal, I think it was my breakfast, lunch and dinner.
20:28I love it.
20:28I love it.
20:34Further along the road, watched over by Ilza Craig,
20:38the very earliest of the earliest are making an appearance.
20:44Why are these things covered with plastic?
20:46Well, this is the first crop, Cammy, that we planted.
20:49It was planted just over a month ago.
20:51And you'll see, to bring the crop on early, we'll put the plastic on to heat the soil up.
20:57You know what it's like sitting in a car on a sunny day, behind the glass, the heat that it
21:02generates.
21:03So this is the same aspect.
21:05And you'll see here, this is the first potatoes just coming through the ground.
21:08There was no plastic in the 19th century, of course, but it's just another in a long line of innovations
21:15these Ayrshire farmers have used to get their tatties out first.
21:20Why is this tradition so important to you?
21:22It's a bit of nostalgia. There's still a demand for it.
21:25The area has been growing potatoes since 1857.
21:29So why would you want to stop it?
21:30Well, listen, you have totally opened my eyes to this world.
21:34And the next time I'm sitting down to a plate I'm in St Atties, I'll be thinking about you.
21:37I hope you enjoy it. I hope you enjoy it.
21:41No more.
21:47Now, we've met some amazing people in Landlord's 50 years.
21:52And to celebrate our golden anniversary, we're catching up with a few more,
21:57including this family who specialise in a native breed with its own distinctive hue.
22:04And down on the coast, near Gatehouse of Fleet.
22:09It was 1982 when Landlord's very own Rossmuir donned his shirt and tie to come and visit the cattle here
22:17at Ardwell Farm.
22:20Back then, Walter McCulloch and his son Alexander were running a successful commercial beef business
22:27with a herd of native breed Galloways on the side.
22:32But they weren't black Galloways, nor belted, but white.
22:38And I, it was about 25 years ago now, I was in the market at Newton Stewart
22:43and they brought up a band of these white calves in, and I bought four, and that's what that started
22:48from.
22:48And so began Walter's obsession. Instead of black coats, white Galloway calves are generally born white,
22:57with distinctive black points on their ears, noses and feet.
23:01How are they accepted by traditional Galloway breeders?
23:05Oh, they don't like them very much. They don't call them Galloways even.
23:10But they are in fact Galloways. You took the skin off and they're just the same.
23:14And Walter passed that enthusiasm on to his son Alexander.
23:19Why do you put so much stress on the fact that the white Galloways should have these tips to their
23:24nose and tips to their ears?
23:26Purely as a hobby.
23:27Purely decoration, really.
23:29Decoration. I like to see them with these black points.
23:33Takes you back, that.
23:36I was just a whole whippersnapper then.
23:39Look at that head of hair.
23:40Exactly.
23:42It's gone.
23:45What's it like watching that back? It must be quite unusual to see yourself.
23:49Well, it's strange to see my father. I'm now older than my father was in that picture.
23:54Oh, is that right?
23:54Yeah.
23:55What do you remember about Landward coming to film with you?
23:59The one main thing I remember was sitting out on the lawn out there and we were having a cup
24:04of tea.
24:05Suddenly there was...
24:08And Ross leapt his feet and shot around the corner like a scalded cat.
24:13And this was a peacock.
24:14It had seen itself in the mirror in the painted piece of car.
24:18I was pecking at it.
24:20It was a brand new car too.
24:22Oh, gosh.
24:24He wasn't very pleased.
24:29Alexander took over the farm completely when his father died back in 1988.
24:34And he's continued with the White Galloways.
24:38I'm glad we've still got White Galloways.
24:42To me, they're the backbone of the farm.
24:46You started as a president.
24:48You've built up a reputation.
24:49And I think it's very important to keep them going.
24:53And the next generation will do just that.
24:57Alexander's daughter, Maggie, has inherited the family's passion for White Galloways.
25:03We run about 60 White Galloways between the heifers and the cows.
25:09There's been about 10 cows born so far and about 35, 40 to go.
25:17We cross the White Galloway cow to a Black Galloway bull.
25:21That means that they keep their black points on them.
25:25If you cross it to a White Galloway bull, they lose their points.
25:27Oh, OK.
25:28But that means when you're calving, you've got a 50-50 chance of a black calf or a white calf.
25:34There's actually, at the moment, there's more black calves than white calves.
25:38Is this about as close as we'll get to them, do you think?
25:42Yeah, they're not really used to many people coming and seeing them.
25:45We try and keep them as natural as possible.
25:48They're having a good look at us anyway, aren't they?
25:50They're beautiful.
25:53The family's idea is that the White Galloways hold their own,
25:57not just in looks, but as a viable beef-producing beast at home on wild, rougher hill ground.
26:04They're smaller than the continentals.
26:07They're less weighty.
26:08They make less of a mess when they're being outwintered.
26:11And they're much more natural foragers than the continentals.
26:15And their grazing pattern is much more suited to this ground.
26:20Despite being a native, they're an unusual native breed.
26:23And they're just really lovely looking at a herd of White Galloways.
26:27So you can expect to see White Galloways in the future of the farm here, do you think?
26:33Definitely, definitely.
26:34We'll always have White Galloways here, definitely.
26:42That brings us to the end of this programme.
26:45If you'd like to watch our special 50th anniversary episode,
26:48go to the BBC iPlayer and search for Lambert.
26:51Here's what's coming up next time.
26:55Rosie's on the hunt for herring.
26:57They camp inshore to look for spawning habitat.
27:01So this is there for the prime time.
27:04While Liana is seeking snipe.
27:07So sweet.
27:11And Cammy tries handling heavy horses.
27:14I know how the Formula One boys feel now.
27:18Please join us for that and much, much more if you can.
27:21In the meantime, from all the teams around the country,
27:24and especially from me here at Dumpreshia,
27:27thank you so much for your company.
27:28Bye for now.
27:29.
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