Episode 6 Home Ground

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Home Ground.

This week it's the last in the series, but fear not -

we've got a jam-packed programme for you.

Here's what's coming up on the show.

When there's no-one left to take over the family farm,

what's the solution?

I meet two men that are a match made in farming heaven.

They're essential to our ecosystems, but bees are under threat.

Ruth's in Limavady.

Don't turn your back to it. Always keep your face to the front.

And in the Mourne Mountains, I'm fighting fire with fire.

Also later in the programme, we've our weekly weather forecast.

But first tonight, it's often said that the lakes are in Fermanagh

for one half of the year and for the other,

Fermanagh is in the lakes.

Well, today there'll be no mistaking where I'm going to be -

very much in the lakes.

I'm here on Devenish Island to take part in a craze

that's getting more and more popular across the country -

wild swimming.

-Beautiful setting.

-It's gorgeous here, isn't it?

What's happening today? Don't know if I'm looking forward to this.

-We're going for a swim!

-What is wild swimming?

It's pretty obvious, I suppose - get in amongst it. But...

It's getting outdoors, it's swimming in places

that most people don't swim - not swimming pools.

Lakes, rivers, the sea.

And today you're going into the lake.

-It's really taken off, Paul, hasn't it?

-Oh, it has, yeah.

Triathlons have brought it on,

and people now are getting out to the outdoors,

and tri suits and things like that

make it warmer to get into the water,

so it's accessible now to more people.

Bit of body fat a good thing, is it?

A wee bit of body fat's a good thing.

-Yes, natural insulation.

-My good Christmas may have helped.

-The calories will be burnt off here.

-How cold's it going to be?

You haven't been in swimming much, have you?

-In the pool, does that count?

-It's colder than the pool.

It's considerably colder than the pool.

We'll get in slowly, so we'll walk in gently and get used to it,

but you are going to feel cold.

But you'll soon get used to it and get your breathing settled,

and then we'll take a little bit of a trip.

-No dive off the jetty, no?

-Well, we'll save that for the end.

You have to be safe doing this.

You can't just rock up to your local river and jump in.

Yeah, you need to check - various things to check.

One, as you said, the temperature, and that's one of the big things.

If you jump straight into really cold water, you can gasp

and just inhale water, and that's not a good thing,

and that's how a lot of people lose their lives.

So the main thing is to get in slowly, get yourself used to it.

If it takes you time, if you have to swear a little bit, we'll not mind,

and get you dipping into the water, and once your breath is settled,

you'll actually be able to swim quite comfortably.

And away from the actual sporting side of it,

-is it about just getting in touch with nature?

-Oh, it's great, yeah.

You feel alive after you come out of the water.

That cold, pink feeling that...

-You know, the blood rushing through the body.

-It does.

-Keeps away the colds as well.

-Yeah?

-The cold and the flus.

I find when I swim all through the winter, don't get a cold.

-OK, we'll find out, will we? Will we go and get involved?

-Yes.

-Ah, good man. Good man.

-Help!

The most important thing is to be safe.

Both Paul and Mo are highly experienced swimmers.

Mo has even swam the English Channel,

so they'll look after me today.

Real wild swimmers -

-big Jessie.

-Oh, wait till you hear the scream!

They've co-authored a book about the best places to wild swim

in Ireland, because you can only do this in approved sites.

Get the water up around you.

See round the armpits, the places that will be very warm...

-This is my weekly bath.

-..get them used to the shock.

We're down. Come on, let's see you.

It's different from the sea, you know.

In the sea you're obviously a wee bit more buoyant, too.

You've got the suit and all on, adds buoyancy.

-I feel like a fraud with a suit on, actually.

-Well, you are.

-LAUGHTER

-Well, maybe, maybe.

It's just always worth keeping an eye out that there aren't

-too many other boats about.

-Yeah.

-Cos we're very small in the water.

-Yeah, very hard to see.

-They're not really looking for swimmers.

I can see the appeal, cos it's nothing like a swimming pool.

Exactly. I mean, where do you get a view like this in a swimming pool?

You feel the water.

Just, you're down eye level with nature.

The birds don't mind you. They fly past.

The ducks will join you.

Swans will chase you.

We're going very slowly.

When you two are competing, different ballgame?

Yeah, different. I'd be doing front crawl.

There's a lot of people swimming in pools.

-Would you say to them, "Come out and try this?"

-Try it!

-Try it, yeah.

-But be careful, you know.

-Come out with a buddy.

-Yes.

-Swim with somebody and try it.

Pick somewhere quite easy,

where you know you can walk in and you can walk out again,

-and you'll get the bug. You really will.

-Race you back?

Away you go.

-Well done, you!

-Well done, Gavin.

-I think I'm sold. Brilliant.

-You are, yeah.

-Really enjoyed that.

-Another one over to the dark side.

-Sorry I was too slow for you.

-Not at all.

-It was brilliant.

-That was good.

-Real eye-opener, actually.

-I think he had that race won.

Not as cold as I thought it was going to be.

See, it's beautiful, isn't it?

So some hot chocolate now, do you think?

-Hot chocolate.

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

-But first, one more thing.

Been promising myself this all day.

He just couldn't help himself, could he?

Anyway, farming - it's more than a job. It's a way of life.

But what happens if there's no-one to take over?

Well, I've been to County Down to find out

about one potential solution.

And these are two new chicken houses

that are just up now four months, five months.

Today I'm in Seaforde with arable farmer Allan Chambers.

He grew up on a farm, but he bought this land back in 1983,

and has been growing crops here ever since.

Is this all your land here, as far as the eye can see?

Well, not quite as far as the eye can see,

but we have a nice circle right round us here.

All bordered by a public road.

Almost 300 acres of land in one block here.

Right, so we'll just dig this out, over here.

This has been produced from one seed.

'We're in a field of spring wheat,

'gathering soil samples to see just how fertile the ground is.'

And is that typical? Does that bode well for the crop?

Yeah, that would be good.

Although this is a bit sort of yellowy coloured

with all the wet weather we've had, but, you know,

I'm happy with the amount of tillers that we've got.

-It ain't going to be bad.

-No, it should be all right, yeah.

So farming's in your blood. You've been a farmer, man and boy.

Yeah, my family have been farmers since 1680.

-1680!

-Generation after generation.

-Yeah.

-So I've known nothing else.

I just love my work and I love the job.

Well, do you feel sorry for young men

coming into the farming world now?

Well, it's not easy,

but it depends, really,

how well the family farm has been set up for them to walk into.

A lot of guys are wanting to be farmers,

but just cannot find the right spot to get on with the job.

'Like an increasing amount of farmers, there's no successor

'to take over the farm, and Allan's thoughts are turning to the future.'

Because there's nobody in my family who are actually wanting to be -

in my immediate family - wanting to be farming,

the simple thing to do would be sell the land.

-Head off to the Bahamas and party.

-And who could blame you?

But that wasn't an option.

No, not for me, because when you've worked your life

to build up a business which is based on the land,

you want to stay involved.

You want to help, you want to make the decisions.

You actually want to do the work, but you have to realise that

you're no longer fit to do the amount of work

that's involved in this job, so...

There were options out there,

and I chose the one of asking a nephew to come

and share farm with me, and he's been working extremely well.

He's a good lad and he wants to do it.

Share farming agreements are schemes

which match-make older farmers with no successor

with young farmers with no land.

They already take place in the south of Ireland, England

and other big farming countries like New Zealand,

and now the Ulster Farmers' Union is rolling it out here.

Allan asked Neill Patterson to share farm with him

and look after the day-to-day running of the place,

initially for the next ten years.

It means that Allan can take things a bit easier,

and Neill can start to think about the next chapter

of this farm's life.

Going now from January 2012.

In terms of our agreement, we both have our inputs.

We both put 50% in to the agreement,

so I get the opportunity of farming the brilliant farming land

and Allan knows the ground is going to be worked

and the work done on the time it needs to be done, type thing, so...

What do you get out of it long-term, though?

Well, I suppose the agreement is in that I know now within

the next ten years that I can work the farm to...

Cos I know that I'm going to have a farm in it.

So it's a guarantee.

Allan's 50% into it is providing the ground, what the crop needs

from the word go - so buying the seeds, fertiliser spray,

if there's drainage work to do, hedge cutting, whatnot -

everything the crop needs to get it to its full potential

-through the year.

-Right.

-And then my 50% into it

is doing all the work. So that's whether or not I get a contractor in

or have my own machinery. The day-to-day running of the farm is

-up to myself, you know.

-Well, you see, I'm imagining

his 50% is sitting in there by the fire with his feet up,

having a laugh, having a drink of coffee, and you're out here...

-Oh, aye, yes.

-..working your socks off.

-He's never out at all, no.

Nonsense, he couldn't be enough help, you know.

So he still loves that he can take a day off or do

-his own thing and whatnot, whenever he wants.

-Yeah.

But yet whenever I need him at harvest times or whatnot,

-he's there, you know.

-So he's quite hands-on?

-Och, aye.

I was lucky, I suppose, to have the opportunity to...

for Allan to approach me. He could have went to anybody

but he saw that it was something that maybe I was wanting to do

and to this day I'm glad he asked me.

Do you find he's able to take a step back, or does he kind of nit-pick

-and interfere?

-No, no, he definitely does.

We both have our inputs into everything.

Yes, workings on a day-to-day basis, I have maybe

more of a say to timings of things and what we're doing, but...

Yeah.

No, he takes a step back and we swing an odd golf club now

-and again.

-Oh, and who wins there?

Aye, it's a little bit of competition,

-but, no, I'll say nothing.

-LAUGHTER

-Well, there's the man himself.

-Hi.

Well, clearly, for this arrangement to work,

the pair of you have to get on,

-regardless of what happens on the golf course.

-That's true,

that's true. Well, so far, so good.

Will you get on like a father-and-son team?

Yeah, yeah, it's grand,

and we will do as long as he continues to do what he's told.

LAUGHTER

-Would you recommend it to others?

-Yes, I would, absolutely.

At least take a look and see, anyway.

But be careful where you go to pick the person and pick them well

and pick them right.

They're essential to pollination and the health of our ecosystems,

but bees have been in decline over the past ten years.

Ruth's been to meet one beekeeper

who hasn't let anything get in the way

of her passion for the native Irish bee.

Nothing says summertime like the buzz of bees in the countryside.

I've come to Limavady to find out about this clever little insect

and to meet a very special beekeeper, and her guide dog.

I was listening to the radio at home one day,

about four or five years ago, and there was a beekeeper's conference

being held in the Guildhall in Derry.

And they were looking for members of the public

who would be interested in beekeeping

to come to the conference.

And I thought, "I'd like to do that,"

and ended up doing a beekeeping course

and my colleague Jim, here, was one of the lecturers on the course.

-So it's your fault?

-It's his fault!

LAUGHTER

Jim, when you first saw Bernadette coming in with a guide dog,

did you think,

"This might be a challenge to get Bernadette looking after bees"?

Do you mean Bernadette or the guide dog?

LAUGHTER

No... Well, I suppose you immediately think of

the difficulty that that person who is partially-sighted

or blind would have.

But then, actually, one of the greatest beekeepers

was a man called Francois Huber, 18th century.

Francois Huber was blind

and he made some of the most remarkable discoveries

about bees. But he had a servant at the time,

-and he encouraged the servant to help him keep his bees.

-Yeah.

So Jim's my servant!

LAUGHTER

You walked into that one, Jim, you walked into that one.

Thanks very much.

Wow!

'So, time to get out to the hive - and wrapped up to avoid stings.'

We need to make sure that the bees don't get up inside your sleeve.

Yes, please.

'Today, Jim is using a smoker. It calms the bees

'before opening the hive.'

-That's it.

-Right.

-This is the crown board

on top of the...the brood box.

-And...

-Oh, look!

-..you can see the bees there.

Now, as you can see, they are very docile, they're not agitated,

they're not swarming out to attack us or anything.

-Good!

-And I always think that it's nice to talk to the bees, you know.

I'll be telling them, you know, the TV was terrible last night,

you know?

But it will be good tonight, because Home Ground is on.

LAUGHTER

Very good, Bernadette!

It gets the bees used to your voice and they get used to you coming.

You know, they can recognise you, I think.

I'm going to get round behind the hive, Ruth.

And...

-Oh, wow.

-So...

-So how many are in this?

-What would you reckon, Jim?

-Well, it's not fully formed,

-so maybe about, what, 20,000?

-20,000?!

-And these are Irish native honey bees?

-Yes, they are.

'Bees have been in global decline over the past decade,

'so Bernadette is very keen to protect our own

'Irish native honey bee, which makes up around 95% of

'our honey bees in Ireland.'

But you'd like to see the bee population here being 100%

-native Irish.

-Absolutely.

-Why is that?

Well, if people import bees of a different species,

-there's a chance that they would hybridise our bees.

-Yes.

And we don't want that. It's something that's been native

to this country for thousands of years

and we need to conserve that bee and, you know,

protect its health, because quite often imported bees

can bring in pests and diseases.

Bernadette, being visually impaired,

do you think you can pick up on how a hive is by the sound of it?

Absolutely. Before you open the hive, you would nearly know

if they are agitated or if they're not, you know.

Luckily, I haven't ever had an agitated hive,

but I have some friends who keep bees

and I knew by the sound of the hive as I was approaching

-that they were agitated.

-And does that change sort of day-to-day

or depending on conditions or just how they're feeling?

Well, it depends if the queen is present or not.

The queen can leave the hive and swarm.

And if she's not there, they're going to be...

..looking for her and, you know, getting a bit agitated.

-There.

-There she is, look at that.

-She has a long body,

-long abdomen.

-That's a very good spot.

You're both very, very calm! Is that essential when

-you're dealing with bees?

-I would think so. The last thing you would

want is someone who's going to wave their arms about and shout and

roar if a bee is buzzing near their ears or anything.

So, no, it does help if you're calm and placid.

But working with a colony of bees like that,

you couldn't be anything else but calm.

Like, just... We've stepped into the middle of their home,

their world, and they're getting on with their business.

And their concentration is phenomenal,

people have commented on that throughout the ages.

They are very focused on what they do

and they being focused on what they do helps us, I think,

to remain focused.

-There's a sealed brood here.

-And what's that?

-That's the little larva growing.

-Ah! Really?

And if we could see one, a bee emerging,

that would be wonderful. And there, look, there's a bee emerging.

Oh, my goodness! Look at this!

Jim, that's almost like a bee being born.

LAUGHTER

-It's out.

-It's out!

-Did you get that?

-Oh, brilliant.

-And you see the colour it is?

-It's just literally...

-Yes! It's like a newborn, pale.

-Look! Oh, brilliant!

-Being born.

-Welcome to the world, little bee.

It did that just for yourself, Ruth, just to sort of say,

-"Look, this is how it happens."

-Wow.

-Welcome to Limavady!

Well, it's been a lovely day here on Devenish Island.

Let's take a look at what the weather has in store

for the week ahead.

Five years ago a major wildfire in the Mourne Mountains

caused widespread devastation and ruined much of the landscape,

but now those tasked with preventing a repeat

have a rather unusual method of doing so.

Burning.

The Mournes, amongst the most stunning scenery

and important ecology in the country.

But back in 2011 all that was under threat.

NEWSREEL: Fires like these are raging across the Mournes.

As the wind increased, the fire got hold again

and was soon travelling across acres of heathland.

This area was engulfed in the worst gorse fires of recent years.

Skip forward five years

and today the fire service is back in the Mournes.

They're working with the Mourne Heritage Trust to pilot

a new technique aimed at preventing a repeat of the 2011 blazes.

Today, they're literally fighting fire with fire.

Isn't it just stunning? Not a bad spot to be responsible for.

But today we're going to be putting a match to it.

Why on earth would we want to do that?

Very good question. You would think in Northern Ireland

that there wouldn't be a problem with wildfires

but that's exactly what we're starting to see now.

So what we're doing is

we're trying to work out where there are critical areas

so that if we reduce the fuel load, which is the vegetation,

it means it would slow any fire that's coming through down

and it would give the Fire and Rescue Service

and other supporting agencies an opportunity to get on top

of the fire and stop it spreading into the greater landscape.

There are people that may say, you know, put the resources,

put the money into tackling fires in the towns and cities,

not up a mountain somewhere.

Well, I can give you an example.

Wildfires in 2011 cost the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service

-approximately £8 million.

-Wow.

So it's a severe drain on our resources. So if you

look at that, what we're trying to do is, we're almost invest to save.

If we can invest our time here now and reduce,

er, mitigate the spread of wildfires if they do occur,

but hopefully prevent them in the first place,

that will reduce the cost to us as a fire service

and we'll be able to put those resources into the structural fires,

into the urbans and the cities and address the normal firefighting.

Well, I know I've got all the gear on - pretty sharp, I think.

-Should I be nervous?

-No, no, you'll...

This is going to be a controlled event,

so you've nothing to worry about.

It's incredibly windy today, so there's hope that it will

die down enough so the burn can take place.

Otherwise the fire will get out of control.

The aim is to burn and extinguish strips across the mountainside.

It's hoped that these will act as natural firebreaks

and stop any future fires spreading.

This is serious stuff and the conditions have to be just right.

But after some checks, things look good

and very soon we see the first flames rising.

Right, it's over to me and then you're behind and coming in, OK?

If the wind blows in the wrong direction,

there's a chance the fire can spread out of control.

Don't turn your back to it, always keep your face to the front.

And it's not long until the fire does spread.

It's easy to see how it can get out of hand,

just like it did five years ago.

2011 we had a long period of droughts,

we had very high temperatures and we had a strong easterly wind,

and all those conditions created the perfect storm,

so we had one of the busiest periods

of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service.

On one particular bank holiday

-we received a call every 45 seconds.

-Wow.

And we had every single fire engine out, with the exception of one

in Rathlin Island, which is our volunteer station.

So, yes, it was an extremely busy period.

I think we had approximately 3,000 calls within the first six months

and in that sort of two-week period

we had 1,977 wildfire, gorse-related fires.

Right, keep it a bit tight at the lines, OK? The next one's starting.

There's an art to today's exercise,

and it wasn't long until I was roped in to help -

under strict supervision, of course.

Can't believe it.

I tell my kids to be careful around fires, never to start fires,

and here I am, about to start one myself.

They'll never listen to me again.

-So dip down in, get a bit of flame?

-That's it.

-OK.

-Then just drop down, drop the fuel, that's you.

-OK.

Sure.

What we do, come up and just grasp it really quick...away. That's it.

And down.

You've covered a good bit of land.

-Are you pleased with the way today's gone?

-It's gone excellent, Jo.

Couldn't have gone better. It's been very controlled.

As we can feel up here and we can see, it's very windy, but down

in there it's in a little hollow and we were able to work with the wind.

It changes direction as well when you get down lower at the end of,

like, a spur, and the wind can come from one side and then the other.

-Yeah.

-The team worked very well together.

The whole thing is about communication, and we were

able to keep the lines tight, the fire at the right intensity.

As you can see there, we've taken all that vegetation off -

you can see the exposed stones there.

But the key thing is, we've not burnt into the soil.

So we want to keep the soil protected

and so the seeds are still OK.

Presumably this is something we could share with other countries.

Yeah, this is actually...what we're doing is probably ground-breaking

with regard to what's happening here in Northern Ireland,

and our European partners are looking at

what we're doing here to see if this model sort of is effective.

-And let's face it, you had my input, too.

-Well, that was critical.

-That's what made the difference.

-Absolutely.

-Come on, guys.

I almost don't want to give this back, I've really loved wearing it.

We'll get your name on it! THEY LAUGH

Starting fires?

I don't think your kids are going to listen to you again.

Ah, they never do anyway.

That's it for this episode of Home Ground.

-In fact, that's it for this series of Home Ground.

-Yeah, pretty sad.

We've enjoyed making it, I hope you've enjoyed watching it. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.