Episode 4 The Hill Farm

For thousands of years, farming has shaped the landscape of Wales.

Hey, come on!

Generations of farmers have worked the land and, in Snowdonia,

one family has been farming the slopes

of the Carneddau Mountains for centuries.

Meet the Joneses.

For 350 years, my family can say that we have farmed this valley.

Gareth Wyn Jones is the latest in a long line of hill farmers

to rear sheep on the mountains near Llanfairfechan

on the North Wales coast.

But the way we buy our food has changed.

Lots of people have lost contact with the land,

with agriculture, with farmers.

Gareth's wife, Rhian, takes care of the family,

their home and the garden.

Picking peas.

Ahh, there is nothing better than eating peas fresh from the park.

Their sons, Rolant and his elder brother, Sior,

are following in their father's footsteps.

Steady, steady, hey, stand! These sheep get on my nerves!

And their daughter Mari isn't far behind.

Sit! Sit. Stay!

Their grandparents also live on the farm -

Gareth's mother, Eryl and his father, Roland Senior.

We will follow Gareth and his family through the course of a year,

as they take their animals from the mountainside

to the market place.

That's it. That's the end product.

After all that hard work, this is what we sell.

But with bad weather and rising costs,

what does the future hold for the traditional Welsh hill farm?

Physically, mentally, emotionally, it's tough, but truth is,

if you are born and bred into it, you know nothing better.

That's the way it is. That's the way the mountain is.

The warm summer sun has left the Carneddau mountains

and made way for autumn.

This is a crucial time for the farm,

when they find out if all their hard work

over the past year has been worth it.

Their sheep and lambs have grazed on the mountain pastures

since the spring.

WHISTLING

And here, on the family's land on Anglesey, the ram lambs

have been fattening up on richer grasses for a few months.

Come by, hey, hey, hey, come by.

Now they are ready to be sold.

That's it. That's the end product.

After all that hard work, this is what we sell - ram lambs.

Gareth has arranged to sell these lambs

to one of the biggest processors in the country.

They supply meat from more than 1.5 million lambs

to markets across Europe.

Gareth hopes all of these rams will be sold today, but at what price?

It could be £3.80, it could be £4 a kilo.

You're going to get a lamb

that's going to be worth 45 or 50 quid.

THEY SPEAK WELSH

The buyer, Wyn Ellis, is a friend of Gareth's, but business is business.

He goes go through the flock, looking for lambs

that are big enough to be sold.

I'm just handling these lambs now,

handling the line and the tail, mostly.

That will tell me if they are finished or not for our markets.

That's... What would you call this, Wyn?

Yes, that's one of the most well-fleshed lambs

I have seen today.

If they are all like that, Gareth, we would be millionaires!

THEY LAUGH I'm not that bloody lucky, are we?

Sheep flocks from around the UK

produce over quarter of a million tonnes of meat each year.

But over a third of this is exported

and very few of Gareth's lambs

will make it onto supermarket shelves in Britain.

These lambs are ideal lambs for the Portuguese and Italy.

A small lamb, that's the type of lamb they are after.

Although British farmers produce more than enough lamb

to meet demand, its seasonal nature

means we still import vast quantities from abroad,

60,000 tonnes from New Zealand alone.

These smaller lambs will not go into the supermarket trade,

because of their weight. There is no other reason.

The taste and fats and quality wise is OK.

Supermarkets can choose from any amount of lambs,

and they have chosen a bigger lamb to sell for bigger cuts.

So far, only the odd ram has failed to meet the standard

that Wyn is looking for.

This time last year you would be about £3.30 per kilo

-where you're £3.55 for them this week.

-Yeah.

He has given us a little bit more than what we were expecting,

but I think he is pleased with the lambs.

They should be doing from about £45 to £50 a head,

so I'd be really happy if we have a £50 average on all of these.

It's swings and roundabouts.

You know, they say it's a little bit more than last year,

but the costs this year have been a lot more, so, you know,

it's just one of them things.

You've got to make the most of what we've got.

But Gareth wishes more could be done to keep Welsh lamb in Wales.

After this spring, you know, I just thought we need to be selling

our produce locally and selling our produce in a better manner.

There is no product better in the bloody world and what do we do?

We ship it abroad.

If they had the opportunity to taste it and buy it,

I think they would come back. Because, you know, quality sells,

the product would sell itself,

but for not getting the opportunity to buy it,

not getting the opportunity to taste it, well, that's it, isn't it?

They have to travel to Portugal and be on their holidays

to have a piece of Welsh lamb, when they're most probably coming home

and saying, "Do you know what, that Portuguese lamb is probably

"the best lamb I ever tasted," and for God's sake,

it's just come from down the road.

WHISTLING

This is one of many loads the farm will send for slaughter

over the coming weeks.

And this batch of lamb is worth almost £12,000.

But once the costs of producing them are accounted for,

only a small fraction of this will be profit for the farm.

Within days, the lambs that began life in the Carneddau mountains,

will be on supermarket shelves and in restaurants across Europe.

At this time of year, though,

the lambs aren't the only produce ready for harvest.

Back at the farm, there's a bumper crop in the family's vegetable plot.

After months of hard work, the Joneses' larder

will be well-stocked this year.

We've got a hell of a crop of carrots. And potatoes.

-Turnips over there.

-Then we've got leeks, as well.

-The leeks have been fantastic, haven't they, Gareth?

-Yeah.

I think autumn is a hell of an important time for farmers,

because, you know, it's the whole year

that you have been putting everything in.

-It's what you get back out, isn't it?

-Yeah.

At the end of the day, you know, whatever we grow, produce,

it is ready now, really, for us, isn't it, up here.

Because our growing season is a lot shorter than the majority of people.

-That's bloody lovely.

-Roger Rabbit!

Mmmm, that is good.

But carrots and turnips won't be the only things

keeping the family fed through the winter months.

Earlier in the year, Gareth and the kids each bought a piglet.

They have been fed every day

and now they are almost fat enough to be slaughtered.

I know exactly what have been given to these.

Nice potatoes from our farm, a bit of pellets, some apples, cabbage.

Everything, you know. I believe that a happy pig will have happy meat.

These guys eat what they want, don't they? Fat arses!

Within a few days, these pigs will be sent to the abattoir

before returning to the farm as chops and sausages.

Everything on the farm is on the menu.

The family eat their own beef, lamb and chicken.

Not the easiest one to pluck, I must say.

And at this time of year, the long nights are a chance

for Gareth and the boys to go hunting.

OK, boys.

Does that make any difference to the actual...?

I wish you told me, because I handled them afterwards.

LAUGHTER

No, you are lying, you're lying.

Tonight they are after rabbits.

To them they are a pest

and if left uncontrolled they can ruin the farm's grazing.

But they make for good eating

and nights out shooting are a regular pastime.

GUNSHOTS

Sior uses the lamp to catch the rabbit's eyes

and then Gareth takes the shot.

But he isn't having much luck tonight.

Eventually, though, they get one for the pot.

Does Dad shoot better than that usually?

Yeah, you do.

Yeah, quite rubbish.

LAUGHTER

We will take it down to the shed now and skin it.

Sior can skin it for the first time.

You've never have skinned a rabbit, have you?

Death is a part of life on the farm.

Farmers like Gareth spend their days

caring for animals that will end up on our tables.

But he believes that in an age of processed ready-meals

and complex supply chains, too many of us

have lost this understanding of where our food comes from.

He feels it is his mission to re-educate the public.

Well, I'm just tweeting a couple of pictures at the moment,

what we've been doing.

I've got five minutes on the way down now.

This is what I try and do.

To try share a little bit of what I do every single day.

I've been tweeting for about two years.

Yeah. And I've got over 3,000 followers.

I've shown lambs being beheaded by a fox and tweeted that.

There's a lot of people that don't like that.

But this is the truth, this is what happens.

Of course, there is going to be people that look at me

and think, "Oh, he likes to be seen or heard."

Well, you know, that's their opinion. And maybe I do.

The truth is that I do...

But I don't think I'm doing a bad thing.

I'm trying to be honest, I'm trying to be straight.

I think social media is the way forward.

You know, as farmers we are fantastic at producing something,

but we are not the best salesmen in the world.

And we need to be sharing our produce, our lives

and our everyday work with people.

It isn't only potential customers that Gareth shares his life with.

Journalists, politicians and even supermarkets

have all felt the benefit

of his wisdom and, recently, one or two have started to take notice.

I said, "Why not have a local aisle in every supermarket?

"Give that consumer the chance.

"They can walk up the aisle, pick what they want locally.

"If they don't want it, carry on through."

If the supermarkets find it doesn't work after six months...

they don't need to support it, but, by God, I think it would work.

For now, though, the year is drawing on,

and there is important work still to be done.

At over 3,000 feet above sea level,

winter on the Carneddau mountains can be perilous.

Strong winds whip through the valleys

and with the temperatures dropping well below zero,

ice and snow will soon cover the upper slopes.

It is an inhospitable place for even the most hardy of animals.

HE WHISTLES

After over six months on the mountain, it is time to bring

the last of the sheep down off the slopes for the final time.

I can't even feel my fingers.

Tess, Tess!

These ewes are the farm's breeding stock.

They will now be put to the ram and will spend the winter months

grazing on lower ground before lambing in the spring.

While the sheep were on the mountain, the farm's cattle

have spent the summer on land in a neighbouring valley.

Now they need to be brought home for the winter

and they will be walked back to the farm over the mountain.

This is a proper old hike.

There is not many who are doing this.

They are two, three miles from home now,

to take them back, so you've got a long walk.

HE LAUGHS

There are over 300 cows and calves

that need to be driven back to the farm.

Yeah, it's a great day, this. Driving the cows home.

You know, crossing the rivers. Just a fantastic feeling.

But it is the beginning of the end.

You know, we are coming to the winter,

so it is an important time as well, so it's closing up shop.

Summer is over, winter is moving in.

This ancient road traverses several miles of open mountainside and would

have once been part of a route that connected Chester to Caernarfon.

This is the old Roman road.

And the old road would go down here.

And not as it goes now through to Aber, but it would

come down to a place called Rhiwau, which is an old farm down there.

People would cross then, as you can see here.

The tide is nearly right out and they would cross cattle

on that tide.

So this was the old trading route.

So what we are doing is something that people have done

over thousands of years.

HE TOOTS HORN

Evidence of those who walked this route centuries ago has

quite literally been carved into the landscape.

HE LAUGHS

Here it is. Nine Men's Morris.

It's amazing that the Romans would play games here.

Can you see the little squares where they've dug this out?

Here, a line. Right round.

Shows you what history there is up on these mountains.

Some people think that cattle drives only happen

in America, Australia, Brazil and abroad,

but two miles from Llanfairfechan and seven miles from Bangor,

but look, there is a cattle drive and nobody knows about it.

We are so dependent on the weather and the cycle of the year.

The colours on the mountain tells you it's changing

and everything is closing in.

This year it was a very late spring and it was a poor spring.

And then we've had a fantastic summer

and a brilliant autumn and it's still growing now.

You know, we are nearly approaching winter.

'You can do another one here then.

'You can have a crooked smile,

'it doesn't matter, does it, if that all comes out?'

OK, got it.

So you've got to do that, but don't do the whole square.

Not there! I don't like it there. It looks weird.

Oh, Mum!

But it's supposed to look weird, look! That won't come out.

Do one there.

The meaning of Halloween in Welsh is Calan Gaeaf

and what that means is that it's the eve before winter,

so it's quite a symbol, I think,

from generations in the olden days that they would celebrate

the end of harvest,

the end of summer and all the... All your hard work,

bringing it in and storing it and harvesting it.

And like a celebration really.

My mum gets a bit annoyed.

She says it's gone too American, the Halloween.

I did a high-five to my grandma

and she said, "Oh, Americans do that."

Yeah, she gets annoyed sometimes.

In a way, old traditions get lost then, don't they?

People don't remember the old things, they remember the new.

SHE SPEAKS WELSH

Wow! That is amazing! Yes!

-Ah, yes.

-I told you it was good. But if you cut...

FIREWORKS EXPLODE

October makes way for November.

Winter has arrived.

But there is one final job to be done on the Carneddau.

The mountains are now clear of sheep,

but the wild ponies still roam the slopes.

They are a rare and unique breed that have inhabited

this range for centuries.

Earlier in the year, over 100 were lost to the snow,

almost half of the estimated population.

Every year, the ponies are rounded up

to check on the health of the herd.

The old and the lame will be kept off the mountain

and, to control their numbers,

most of the males will be sent to graze elsewhere.

The gathering brings together dozens of people from

all parts of this mountain community,

and for generations,

Gareth and his family have been at its heart.

It's a big gathering.

A lot of them are family, a lot of them are friends.

It brings the community together and that's an important part.

You don't see this anywhere else really, in Great Britain,

gathering wild ponies like this. It is a very exciting day.

HE SPEAKS WELSH

Welcome to everybody to Llanfairfechan.

As you know, this is the annual gathering.

This year is going to be very special because we lost

about 100 ponies, so we want as many ponies as we can.

You know, there is a good gang of people here today.

Always stay behind the ponies.

It's a little bit like a big fishing net.

We are going on the outside

and we are bringing all the ponies into a funnel.

OK? Bringing them in, as tight as we can,

onto the quarry here.

Right, let's go, boys.

There is a hell of a lot of people to organise today!

Lucky I don't get stressed!

The bikes will ride over five miles

to gather any ponies from the far end of the Carneddau range.

Meanwhile, Gareth and the others

will gather the slopes closest to the farm.

We've got a fantastic bunch of people and they know exactly what

they are doing, so we'd better get some rock'n'roll on.

Hey! Get out of it!

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Whoo!

There is about 25-30 coming along the bottom here.

They are looking really well.

This is going to be the problem today.

What's left is just the strong ones. The really, really powerful ponies.

We might have some fun and games with these today.

It doesn't look like they want to come home.

With little to no human contact

and no fences on the mountain, the ponies run wild

over thousands of acres, roaming the slopes in small family groups.

It's quite a big operation to be gathering such a mountain

because they are not like sheep. They are really, really fast.

Really wild and they don't want to go the way you want to take them.

It IS difficult to gather wild ponies, but it's good fun.

From the plateaus to the peaks, the terrain across the Carneddau

can be treacherous. Steep climbs, sharp rocks and sheer drops

can prove challenging for even the most experienced gatherers.

And this is where the net closes.

This is where it is crucial.

This is where we can lose them.

After the losses we've had this year,

it will be good to see what is left.

I can tell you something, there are some fit horses here.

I haven't seen any weak, any lame, any sick ones.

It's maybe nature's way of culling

and keeping these ponies up here, is, through the snow,

a natural cull.

It's a great view. It's a good day for everybody.

And the ponies will come back today or tomorrow

and we can keep an eye on them.

We won't be coming up onto these mountains for a few months now.

Yeah, I miss it. I miss the scenery and I miss the fresh air.

With the all the ponies down at the farm, it is time to see

how many have survived the spring.

40, 50, 60, 70... 120!

Now, that is a good number.

Beautiful. Yeah, very pleasing.

I was expecting to see about 80 here, to be honest.

That's a very good gathering.

So this is probably the best gathering we've had in a long time.

These ponies are a vital part of the mountain and looking after them

is an important tradition for this community.

Before they are returned to the mountain,

Gareth and his uncles work their way through their ponies,

keeping check on which ones have been gathered.

This is the old-fashioned way of knowing that they have been in,

docking the tails.

When you see the ponies up on the mountain with a long tail,

we know then that they haven't been in.

With their tails docked, the ponies will now return to

the slopes for another year.

Their future, much like the farmers who gather them,

is tied to the Carneddau Mountains.

Yeah, this kind of wraps up our yearly calendar.

It's wind-down time now on the farm.

And everything is coming in.

And it's a lovely sight to see.

Quite a sad sight that another year has passed so quickly.

I think the older I'm getting, the faster these years are going.

Yeah, it's been a funny old year.

It's been a roller coaster of a year, with ups and downs and everything.

And...I suppose, in the end, we've come out OK.

I'm a farmer's daughter, so I'm used to this life.

I don't know anything better really.

But on the hill farm it is far more intense.

The peaks and troughs are higher and deeper.

These hills are a big part of our culture

and the farmers depend a lot on these mountains.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to stay home

and to raise a family and live on this land.

What you have seen is this year, but this year is every year for us.

Next year they'll just trickle on.

So we can only prepare, we can only deal with it as it comes.

The future? I hope I am here in the years to come,

doing the same job.

And maybe seeing my grandchildren,

like my father seeing Sior, Rolant and Mary, doing exactly the same.

That would be perfect for me.

We must be doing something right if we have lasted 350 years here.

I just hope we can last another 350.