Episode 1 This Farming Life

Across some of the most beautiful and remote landscapes

of the British Isles...

It's not a bad office, is it? You know, look at it.

..Scotland's far carve a living...

Everything has a time and a season.

Nature doesn't stop.

..breeding sheep and cattle...

There's a lot of old friends here.

They've come to the end of their working life. Quite a sad day.

Wait a second!

..bringing new life into the world...

..and battling with the elements.

HE WHISTLES

They're all cute in their own way

and especially if they end up on your plate as a lamb chop. Yum.

Over a year, five very different families

let cameras on to their farms...

Hell of a size of nuts on him.

..and into their lives to share their struggles...

I don't know why you won't go forward, missus.

Do you need to do this?!

..and their triumphs...

Look at my baby! He's alive!

..as they try and turn a profit in testing economic times.

That's just depressing, that, really.

There's cause for celebration...

Gorgeous.

..and a time to reflect.

I feel sad that I haven't provided the next generation

to carry on here.

But it's never dull.

-Not letting go!

-LAUGHTER

It's not a job, it's a way of life.

It's September on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides...

..a chain of islands 30 miles off the northwest coast of Scotland.

The seasons are changing and the autumn schedule of sheep work

is about to begin for crofter Sandy Granville.

No-one enjoys going from summer into autumn.

In the summer, we have daylight at midnight,

and it's just a joy to be...to be out and about,

and then the year turns and the nights start drawing in very fast,

and we know where we're going - we're going into the pit of winter.

Autumn is one of the busiest times of the year.

There's plenty going on, there's plenty going on on the croft,

gathering and sorting of animals.

It's a time for plenty of death.

We spend most of our life looking after animals

and keeping them alive.

Er...

And when one's successful at that,

there's a great deal of pleasure in it.

There's no pleasure in the killing.

So there's a sadness to this time of the year.

I do sometimes think about being a vegetarian, but not for very long.

Today, Sandy's travelling with seven other crofters to an

uninhabited island less than half a mile off the coast,

in search of his sheep.

SHEEP BLEAT, MEN SHOUT

As dictated by tradition, the flock are all owned by different crofters,

but have been grazing together on common land.

-Come here!

-That'll do, boy. Come here.

Crofting is a tradition that's unique

to the Highlands and islands of Scotland.

MAN WHISTLES AND CALLS

Dating back to the late 19th century,

crofts are small plots of poor-quality land

with common grazing rights that are part of a community

where much of the work is shared.

I love this. I just, I can think of nothing better to be doing

than being on the hills of the islands.

It's one of the greatest ways to spend your life,

being on a hill with a trained dog or two, working these wild sheep.

But it's a tradition that's disappearing.

These hills and islands used to be full of sheep

and now there's very few, just people from a few villages

and mostly we're pretty old. It's been said that

if you come to one of our sheep gatherings, it's like a Saga outing.

The group are trying to drive the flock of 60 sheep

into the handling pens by the shore for sorting.

But the sheep, who've been living wild here for the last year,

have other ideas.

At the pens, they need to weed out the male sheep

destined for slaughter from the ewes that need to be sheared.

They're bad buggers, aren't they? Come on.

The ewes aren't Sandy's, but everyone chips in with

the shearing, using traditional tools

that have been around for centuries.

Most people here use the shears, or they call it the deamhas.

It's not as fast as using mechanical shears, but you can shove them

in your pocket and take them anywhere.

With flocks scattered across different islands,

shearing happens all year round whenever visits are made.

Be still there, my love.

Nearly there, and you'll be feeling much better when this is off you.

Blackface sheep are a hardy breed, so can happily withstand

the harsh Hebridean winters with a shorter coat.

Well, you're an old woolly.

Sandy hasn't been wrangling sheep all his life.

He was once a criminal barrister in London,

but gave it up for a more traditional life

when he moved to Lewis with his wife 12 years ago.

I've known this island all my life because my mother came from here

and the croft we now have is next door

to one that was my grandfather's.

He...he died about 1938

so it was a long time ago that it was his.

Cup of tea, chaps.

Sandy's now on a mission to try

and preserve this traditional way of life.

Who's not got a cup of tea?

The one with the midge, which one's that?

He's set up a cooperative, selling wedder mutton -

the meat of two-year-old, castrated male sheep -

to customers across the UK.

If we can sell enough mutton to the English,

we'll keep it going for another generation.

It's strange that I, who have come here fairly lately from London,

should be such a traditionalist, but there's no doubt that I am.

To get his precious mutton to his customers,

Sandy first has to get the wedders off this island and over to Lewis.

MEN CHATTER

-Do you want me to come back or stay over?

-No, no, stay over...

The only way is by boat...

..six at a time...

..so they must ferry them across in shifts.

All aboard, they set off for Lewis, a ten-minute boat ride away.

Sea shepherding, moving livestock between islands,

has been a common practice in the Scottish Isles for centuries

and if crofting were to die out, so would this unique tradition.

'I have a role in what is a dying way of life.'

And I would love to think that we could get another generation

doing this, producing this great meat.

If we are the last, we're having a great time doing it.

On the mainland, north of Aberdeen, in the North East

of Scotland, Martin Irvine and his family rent a 240-acre farm

where they rear pedigree Limousin bulls.

His family have been tenant far for five generations.

His father started breeding bulls 30 years ago

and it's now their biggest source of income.

Our business is the bull job and it all starts with

a bull and a cow. What we're trying to produce

is bulls other far buy from us to use on their cows to

breed calves to sell for burgers, steaks, all that kind of things.

Limousins were imported from France in the 1970s.

Renowned for the quality of their meat,

they're the most popular breed of beef cattle in the UK.

Martin has one breeding bull in his herd.

When we bought Irish, we were looking for muscle,

we were looking for the Arnold Schwarzenegger of bulls,

and he is the Arnold Schwarzenegger of bulls.

He's full of muscle, meat in all the right places,

rippling, looks the part.

He's a good worker and we give him a bit of his breakfast

every morning, that just keeps him in good condition.

Irish needs all the sustenance he can get...

..because his job is to service Martin's entire herd of 70 cows.

Come on, girls.

Our cows, most of our cows are big, framey cows, big pens,

big fleshy girls. That's how we like them.

The females are going to, hopefully, throw in the genetics for the size

and power, and Irish, with all his extreme muscle and ripness to him,

he's going to mix it and hopefully the calves off of this

will be a bit of both.

Martin aims to produce a new batch of around 35 male calves

every year from which he cherry-picks the best

to nurture for sale.

So we've got the bull pens here.

This is the cream of the crop.

What you look for in a bull, a nice big dock.

Nice and wide across here and nice down here.

All the expensive cuts come in there

and all your steak is in here.

This bits here is his balls. This is the most important bit of the bull

and that's where all the genetics come from

and breed you all this muscle.

Martin knows the exact measurements of the perfect pair.

35 centimetres to 40 centimetres in diameter.

Bulls were Martin's life and then farmer's daughter Mel came along.

We met through Young Far. I always knew who he was.

It most definitely was not love at first sight

because when I...heard of Martin Irvine, you know,

he was very... I thought he was quite up himself!

Mel had come across. She was standing behind my pen of bulls

and the first thing she says to me, she likes Aberdeen Angus.

So right from the start I didn't like Mel, actually!

It was one of our Young Far dances,

barn dances, that we went to and then he asked me to dance,

and we danced, and the rest of it is, basically, history.

We never actually went for a meal or the cinema for about two months

when we were going out, it was all kind of, just, er,

up to the farm and showed her the bulls, like you do, and...

run about the park on the quad bike

and, er, just kind of worked our way from there.

We've so much in common. When we first got together,

I remember we sat on the phone for about two hours

and it was all about cows and farming and how his day had went,

combining and things, so we just haven't looked back since.

They're getting married in eight months

and together they have big plans for the future.

SHEEP BLEAT

Mel's an enterprising shepherdess, and last year made over £2,000

rearing her first flock of 34 sheep.

I doubled my money on them

and that was then put into my wedding fund and Martin,

being a sheep hater - and he hated sheep, totally, he just couldn't

stand sheep - went on to thinking,

"Oh, this is actually quite a good idea."

Having opened up Martin's heart to sheep,

she then persuaded him to take on a contract to manage

a flock of 550 ewes for the local estate.

Come on!

To increase their profits, she wants to grow the flock even more.

So tomorrow, they're going to the first ram or tup sale of the season

in search of some virile males to service the estate's ewes.

The first sale's maybe the cheapest of the year,

but we'll be there and we'll see what happens, like, so...

But we're looking for Texels.

Well, we're open to negotiating which breeds.

Yeah, but we're looking for Texels, Texels would be the gold,

but they'd be a bit more expensive.

I'm not needing superstars, but I'm just needing good tups

to improve them so that's what we need.

-Good tups that are going to leave good lambs with plenty of meat.

-Yeah.

-That's what we're looking for.

Early the next morning,

they head to the sale 30 miles away in Thainstone near Aberdeen.

A farmer's day out is going to the mart and seeing everybody

and looking at livestock, which may be sad to some, like,

but it's a day out for us and we'll enjoy it.

This pedigree tup sale is held once a year

and attracts buyers from across Scotland.

Today, six different breeds will be auctioned off for sale

to the highest bidder.

-Brilliant, thank you very much.

-Nae bother.

The most popular breeding tups in the UK are Texels,

and Martin and Mel want to buy as many as they can

within their budget.

That's a pen that we need to go have a look at.

These are all ram lambs, aren't they?

Originally from the Netherlands, the breed are heavily muscled

and known for their superior meat quality.

We're looking for a big, strong manly tup with a nice, round bum,

a long back and the head, hmm...

-Yeah. Something that's pleasing to the eye.

-Yeah.

Ken, something with plenty of meat on it,

something to produce plenty of lamb, should I say?

It's the first sale of the season

so it's Mel's best chance of bagging a bargain.

I'll let the professional at it now.

We'll pretty much go through every pen,

have a feel, have a look at everything, really.

The tups' coats are dyed a darker colour to help show off their shape.

Just dressing, pretty much. Poofing them up.

Yeah, Mel knows her Texels.

Mel used to have some Texels when she was younger.

I'll let her go at it first and then I'll pass my view on it.

Mel wants to buy eight,

but she needs to size up over 200 before making her choice.

Aye, he's got a good head on him.

-241.

-I've already marked him down.

There's a big lad at the corner, there.

He's smaller, but he's...got a nice bum.

He's a bit open-coated. I don't know.

We're looking for ones with nice, tight skins.

This is a nice, tight skin here.

The wool's all cut close, compacted together, it's not open,

like that, naturally.

You know, you're wanting, you want, like...you want neat.

But it's their most important asset that she's focused on.

They feel fine.

So when we're looking at tups, the main part is their testicles

because that is where all the semen's made.

So, when we're looking at tups, we always have a feel...

and see that they're not soft or spongy, they're quite firm,

and feel the same sort of size.

If we buy this tup, this tup could be serving

-anything up to between 50 and 90.

-You come in here and you see that.

Hell of a size of nuts on him.

She should be used to big testicles, really.

HE LAUGHS

Having done the rounds, Mel wants to narrow down the field over lunch.

This is the best bit of the day.

I love a Mart lunch.

This is the only time you take me out.

True, it is, actually!

-How many have you picked?

-Erm...

Seven, eight, nine...

-19.

-19.

That's enough. That should be enough.

One o'clock and the auction is under way.

-AUCTIONEER SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY

-200... 200 in the lead...

Of her select 19, Mel wants to walk away with eight

and is hoping at least half will be Texels.

OK, good afternoon, ladies and gentleman.

We'll now start the Texel section.

She has £4,500 of the estate's money to spend.

We've got a budget so we can't go past it.

If I can average our tups about five, 550, be quite happy.

-Cos it's very easy to get carried away.

-Yeah.

-Very easy.

You see something that you like, and you think,

"Right, I want it," but it can go crazy money

so you've just got to learn to sit on your hands.

The Texel section lasts for about an hour

and the first tup is in.

At auctions, the bidding is in guineas -

one guinea is the equivalent of £1.05.

700 guineas, 700...

That's way out of our price range.

750, 750, 800, 800...

800 away, then.

-This'll go crazy.

-See what happens.

250, 280, 300, 20...

50, 420, 420...

-450...

-Nuh.

15 minutes in and they still haven't managed to buy one.

480...

-Next one.

-This one?

Then it's the turn of one of her favourites.

380, 380 guin... 380...

400, 420...

Got a good skin.

450, 480, 500...

500, 500, 500...

Drummuir Home Farm.

Mel's finally got herself a Texel.

And it's not long before she's in with a chance on another.

580, 580 guineas, 580...

She gets him, too, and goes on to close the deal on another four.

To balance the books, she also buys two cross-bred bargains.

She walks away on-target and within budget.

Really happy with them, seeing them all in the pen

and comparing them to each other so, yeah, really happy

and they're going to go home and make lots of babies.

Yep, that's the plan.

Come on, boys.

THEY WHISTLE

Further north, in the Highlands near Inverness,

John Scott runs a large farming business rearing sheep,

beef cattle and growing crops.

He owns his farm, which stretches across 1,000 acres,

and he rents another 3,000 nearby.

We've got a fairly large sheep enterprise with

just around about 4,000 ewes.

We've got 180 beef cows, we've got 400 acres of cereals,

and we've got land rented out for potatoes as well.

The farm's been in the family for four generations.

He started working on the farm aged 17 and has since

expanded the business and increased the profits.

Success is important to me.

I suppose you're measured by your success

and it is important to be doing well in life.

Farming well and farming profitably is very important to me.

PIGS SQUEAL

Running the venture alongside him is wife Fiona.

These guys are all going to be sausages at some point.

Like bull breeder Martin, John fell for a farmer's daughter.

They've been married for 15 years and have four children.

John and I met at Young Far.

There was a wellie-boot-throwing competition

and I threw the wellie boot and just about knocked him out!

Izz! You nearly ready?

My mum kept saying to me, "Don't marry a farmer.

"They put in really long hours."

But I didn't feel I wanted to be away from it and then I think

the kids are very lucky to be growing up in amongst it as well.

John has high hopes his children will follow in their footsteps.

Farming is a family business and

it's important to ensure the farm is kept in good heart.

Hopefully James and maybe a couple of the others will take

things on and that would be fantastic,

that drives us on, really.

Oh, come on. Pat's waiting.

Today, John's also starting to lay the groundwork for the

tupping season with one of his two permanent members of staff.

We're going to go through the ewes and just check everything,

make sure they're OK for mating time, for tupping time.

So, traditionally, we would have caught each sheep

and turned them over, but this crate makes life a lot easier.

We clamp them in first of all, I flick this lever here

and it's a very quick spin over.

It means we can do a lot of sheep quickly without hurting our backs.

It's a very handy machine, as John's got 4,200 ewes

to check over the next week.

It's just like having your nails trimmed, they're not feeling that.

We just want to expose any problems

and try and reduce the risk of there being problems

cos you really don't want this girl going lame during that

breeding cycle, you want to her just to be out there eating grass

and thinking about, er...

Well, thinking about sex, really, and getting pregnant.

If any of our breeding ewes are not good on their feet and able

to move around freely, we really need to cull them from the flock.

John keeps on only the fittest to breed

and every year, one in five ewes are culled.

Oh, this is a dodgy one, Martin.

Erm, this is a young sheep, but not happy with her foot, feet.

Martin's got a bad foot there at the back as well

so she will be marked as a cull.

We haven't got space to carry passengers. These sheep have to be

able to do the job we need them to do

and if they're not up to it, they go.

Anything that we don't, erm, retain for breeding will be fattened up

and sent to slaughter.

I'll just mark her up. That's it, that's the, the dot of death.

Red is fairly terminal around here.

Sold on as meat, ewes can fetch up to £80 per animal.

But foot inspection is just one of the jobs John must attend to today.

Where did Granny find you, James?

-School.

-Loitering!

Eldest son 12-year-old James is back from school

and itching to help with the rest of the chores.

-Slave labour's great!

-LAUGHTER

No, he's quite useful, seems quite keen, which we want to encourage.

He's got a good eye for sheep.

The weather's been mild so John's on high alert

for a dangerous condition called flystrike.

So this ewe here, you can see, she's itching herself, she's dark.

If I look in there, I'll probably find maggots. There, look.

That's blowfly. They've laid their eggs there and those maggots

are eating the sheep, basically, which is pretty bloody horrible.

That's what... Blowfly lays eggs and it's a maggot

and they'll lay that, even on clean wool.

That'll start eating the sheep alive, which is

a common problem that we get and this year's been particularly bad

and there's been a lot of problems, both in ewes and lambs.

80% of flocks in the UK are affected by flystrike each year.

So what we're going to do is,

we're going to trim all this area away and get them away from it.

The infestation on the sheep is easily treated...

by removing the infected wool and maggots...

and using spray-on antibiotics.

I quite often put a bit of fly repellent-type spray

on that as well, but it should be fine now,

but we'll watch it, we'll monitor the, the recovery.

It's annoying. If that was to be left untreated, it would be terminal

eventually, or could be terminal, eventually, so it's

important we try and get on top of these things as quickly as possible.

Farming means a mass of paperwork to attend to as well

and at the end of most days,

John and Fiona work through this together.

We don't talk much. I've got my phone over here, I just...

We actually communicate by e-mail sometimes.

-I'm not joking.

-Sometimes more civil that way.

SHE LAUGHS

Sometimes you know you'll get an answer if you e-mail him!

If our kids decided that they didn't want to farm,

I would struggle with it.

It's quite a family-orientated business

and that's what drives me on.

I'd like to build something for the kids to,

to take on and follow in our footsteps

and if they suddenly turned round and said,

"Well, we don't want the farm,"

we'd have to go to plan B and, at the moment, there isn't a plan B.

To think that nobody was going to be, none of our family were going

to be here and carry it on...

Yeah, actually, it would be quite a thought.

But, yeah, if they don't want to, as long as they're happy.

You've got to be happy for your kids, but, no, it'll be...

I'll just keep farming till I drop dead.

LAUGHTER

Much further south, on the other side of Scotland,

and just a stone's throw from Loch Lomond, Bobby and Anne Lennox

rent two hill farms from a big estate.

Their land stretches for 5,000 acres.

And one of the farms has been in Bobby's family for over 200 years.

We have been tenants on this farm here since 1750.

I've not actually counted the number of generations that goes back,

but it's quite a lot.

HE CALLS OUT, SHEEP BLEAT

Like crofter Sandy in Lewis, they rear hardy blackface sheep

that can thrive in the rough, hilly terrain.

We're not going to get rich farming on this type of land.

It's hard work.

But the lifestyle is good.

If you're a farmer, it's bred into you.

You don't want to do anything else. It's what you love doing.

You've produced good stock.

The satisfaction in that is immense.

Today, they're beginning the process of sorting out their 1,100 lambs

born in the spring, now five months old.

They've gathered them in from the hills and Anne's waiting to

get them into pens close to the farm to begin their work.

We do a lot of hanging about and waiting.

-INTERVIEWER: Are you a patient person?

-No.

I wasn't around when they were handing out patience and diplomacy.

-You were in the pub.

-I was in the pub!

The lambs were separated from their mothers two weeks ago

and need to be tagged so they can be easily identified.

Each lot of lambs have got to be tagged...

er, with...basically within their first six months of life.

Two, each lamb gets two tags in it, a yellow one,

which is electronic, and a year-identifying colour.

They'll feel it, but no more than

somebody getting an ear pierced. There's a nip at the time.

Bobby and Anne have three grown-up children,

but so far, none have followed them into farming.

Come here.

They're both in their 60s and do most of the work on the farm

themselves, but often take on exchange students to help.

This year, it's Shenae from Canada.

It's through an agricultural programme and they match you up

with a host family that... with the personalities and whatnot.

It's not all work.

-She goes out with the local Young Far' Club...

-Yup!

..has a very active social life.

-Just ask me, I'll tell you all about it.

-Oh, no!

In this part of the world,

it isn't easy to make a living farming sheep.

We've shrunk the cost structure down about as low as we can get it.

If you, you know, if you're on a better land, more options

that you've got other crops, you can chop and change into other livestock

or something like that, but the only thing we can do is sheep here.

To make the most of his flock, one of the crucial decisions Bobby

faces every year is which of his new lambs to keep on for breeding.

Basically, we're only looking to keep the females

to replace the stock.

We're looking to... Really about 500 females a year.

Most of the male lambs are for selling

and we keep about 20. So, really, I'm trying to keep the best.

For the last 24 years,

Bobby's adopted a cutting-edge approach to making his choice.

He invests £200 to employ the services

of veterinary sonographer Will Wilson.

It's an ultrasound image of...basically a lamb chop.

That's what we're looking at, if you want to put it in very simple terms.

Most of Bobby's farming income comes from selling his lamb meat

to supermarkets and his entire operation centres around

detailed knowledge that helps to produce animals of the right size.

What we're taking is three fat measurements

and a muscle depth measurement from in below the fat interface,

down to the top of the lumbar vertebrae.

Bobby was one of the first far in Scotland to pioneer

the use of ultrasound to identify the best blackface ewes and tups.

31 kilos.

And he keeps meticulous records of their weight.

We're looking at trying to match up the best genetics in both

the male and the female side, and to make some genetic improvement.

It's trying to produce lambs to the spec that a supermarket wants.

So they fit in the nice, wee plastic boxes.

31kg.

Supermarkets will only accept lambs between 16 and 21 kilos,

and Bobby gets paid for his meat by the weight.

The big improvement that I've seen is

when the lambs go to the abattoir,

they're now weighing 4.5 kilo heavier...meat on them

than there was 20 years ago.

Bobby will put his precious ewes and tups to good use

in eight weeks' time when the tupping season begins.

SHEEP BLEAT

North of Inverness, John Scott's taking a break from his

busy farming schedule to host a very special event on his farm.

He's set aside 240 acres of barley fields

to host the 2014 World Sheep Dog Trials.

Held every three years, it's the Olympics of the sheep dog world.

You know, as a farmer, it's important that we don't just...

just farm.

We have to be out there and we have to promote what we're doing.

We're trying to sell a lot of bulls and rams each year

so having the events like the World Sheep Dog Trials does give us

a chance to showcase what we're doing here.

Being able to share the Highlands, which is such a special place,

with the rest of the world is, it's really just tremendous.

It was John's late father-in-law, who died seven years ago,

who paved the way for the competition to be held on the farm.

My dad was, er... He was really into his dog trials

and he'd suggested that we have the Scottish National here.

He wasn't...he wasn't fit to run his dogs by that stage,

but he was just chuffed to bits that it was here.

And then, after the Scottish National,

they said, "How about having the International?"

So it just all kind of snowballed.

In the next few days, thousands of people from all over the world will

come to John's farm to see very best handlers and their dogs compete.

If you can imagine, you're walking across here, you've

got your best mate with you, you've got your dog by your side,

you've got a grandstand to your left

with several hundred people in it.

Pressure's on.

Far away in the distance, that's where the sheep will get

released and they've got to bring the sheep down

and through the course, through the gate and eventually pen them

in this pen we see here.

I haven't ever done this so I'm talking

without the relevant knowledge.

My Pip is fine for farm use, but she's not really a trials dog.

But this is a different level.

Tonight, there's an opening ceremony in Tain, the local town five miles

from the farm and John's one of the guests of honour.

We're going in there for the parade of competitors.

They're all going to parade up the main street with pipe band in front

of them and they'll be carrying their national flag, a bit like

the opening ceremony of the Olympics really, but for the sheep dog world.

Not only are the World Trials a PR coup for John,

but with visitors from across the world descending on the town,

it's one of the biggest events the area has ever seen.

THEY LAUGH

-Good to see you.

-Same here. Good to see you.

-Yeah, it's going to be good.

-Well done.

Good on you.

BAGPIPES

-ANNOUNCER:

-All the way from Brazil...

CHEERING

It's taken two years of meticulous planning to get to this point.

-Denmark.

-CHEERING

I'm looking along the street there

and there's loads of people here. A real buzz.

So many friendly people that we've met before

and great to see them back here again. Great.

Tomorrow, the serious business of the competition will begin.

Across the sea on the Isle of Lewis,

barrister-turned-crofter Sandy is at home with wife Ali.

Having sent their wedders to the abattoir,

they need to attend to their other livestock.

They have a dozen Highland cattle.

Native to Scotland,

on average, female cows weigh about half a tonne.

To make them easier to work with as adults,

Sandy and Ali start to handle them when they're young.

They were taken from their mothers probably not quite a week ago.

We like to put them in here when they're weaned

and the mothers come and go outside the, just by the, outside the bars,

so it's quite a... It's a gentler sort of weaning.

Every morning, they harness up their two ten month-old calves

to take them for a walk outside.

This is Caitlin and that's Christian.

They don't come when called by name!

Come on, let's get this on nicely.

She's actually better, she's much better in the halter.

He tends to be a bit wild. That's why Sandy's got him.

When you first put their halter on over their neck,

it's like a rodeo. They just go wild, they're climbing the walls

and their eyes are rolling and they throw themselves to the ground.

They like just getting little bits of food in their mouths.

They can be...they can be persuaded to...

quite get to like people.

By the time the calves go back out into the world,

they'll eat from your hand and they'll walk on a halter.

Without this training, there can be painful consequences.

I broke a rib last week in a bit of a cattle crush in a gateway.

That sort of thing happens much less often

when you've got nice, tame cattle like these.

Well, you're a couple of good calves, really, aren't you?

Not such bad calves, are you, at all?

This routine is a world away from their old life down South.

Like Sandy, Ali was a lawyer...

..and when the youngest of their two sons went off to university,

they decided to make a change.

We were just coming up to 50, then,

so if we were going to do something different, it had to be

then, before we got too old and we've always loved coming here.

There's always been a sort of call of the far north this...

Something about this place, it's very beautiful

and, er, we just thought this was, this was just the chance

for us to come here and be crofters.

Come on, old fella.

'We had a phone call one night from a cousin who lived in the village,

'to tell us that this croft and its house were for sale.

'Well, we, erm...'

..bought the place over the telephone that night.

They sold their family home, moved up to Lewis

and reinvented themselves as crofters.

I think a lot of people thought it was a really exciting thing

to do, some people thought we were completely mad.

Others, including my father, were disappointed.

He felt that I was throwing away a valuable career.

Sometimes it's HARD fun. It's always exciting

and it's a very satisfying way to spend your life.

I think you have to make a change now and again. If you've only

got one life, it's a shame to spend it doing only one thing, isn't it?

After a few laps around the yard, Sandy and Ali bring the calves in.

When they're grown-up, great big cows with big horns,

er, they're really...

..always, gentle and easy.

There we are. Leading in the winner.

On the mainland near Inverness,

it's the start of the World Sheep Dog Trials on John Scott's farm.

Over the next four days, 213 competitors and their dogs

from around the globe

will fight it out to be the Sheep Dog Trial Champion of the World.

We're registering all the handlers and dogs for the trial,

and I think the furthest away is probably Brazil.

Obviously, lots of European competitors

and obviously the home nations as well.

So we're just getting them to sign in

and say which dog that they're running.

'All of the guys here will be really good, you know,'

they've qualified to get here, they've had to go through

competitions at home to get here. Now they're here,

they're here to win. They're not here to make up numbers.

25 countries are taking part.

We are from Norway. Yes.

-North of Norway.

-North of Norway and we was coming with plane.

I'm from a little village in Vermont in New England.

We've come from Holland, yeah.

This is the second time we've been competing in the World Trials.

There's also a large Scottish contingent of 17

including local and close family friend of the Scotts,

Michael Shearer.

He's one of the favourites

and lived next door to John's late father-in-law.

He got me, encouraged me to start trialling so that's how

I got going. He was just a neighbour along the road and it was handy

for, when practising, he could put sheep out for me and I could put

sheep out for him so, it's better,

easier than trying to do it yourself.

Really keeping our fingers crossed for him.

He was a good friend of my late father-in-law

and I'd just be delighted if he can just pull something off here.

The first two days are the qualifying rounds.

HE CALLS AND WHISTLES

All the competitors and their dogs must navigate a flock of five sheep

around a specially designed obstacle course,

through gates and into pens, in just 15 minutes.

APPLAUSE

Two judges mark each round.

They assess the quality of the working relationship

between man and dog...

Stay there! Stay there!

..and how skilfully they herd the flock.

But, even for the best in the world, it's not always easy.

APPLAUSE

-ANNOUNCER:

-And that's time up for Johan de Jonge.

Our next competitor's Michael Shearer from Scotland.

Michael and his dog Bob did well in the qualifying rounds

and have now made it into the semifinals.

He has to make his way round the same course

and follow the same rules as before.

HE WHISTLES

But only the highest 16 scores will make it through to the final.

HE SHOUTS

APPLAUSE

It's been a good round.

He's made very few mistakes.

And, for the first time in his career,

Michael wins a place in the finals

of an international competition.

Further south...

..bull breeder Martin has torn himself away from his herd

and is in a race to harvest his barley.

I was up at 6:30 this morning.

Getting the combine ready.

When conditions are ready, you go for it.

Every year, he plants 50 acres of crops

to help feed the cattle

and give the fields a break from grazing.

He needs to harvest the barley while the sun is shining.

The weather is due to break tomorrow.

It's forecast rain for another five days,

so this is probably as dry a chance as we're going to get

to combine this field.

When there's work to be done, you do it and that's it.

It could be 24 hours a day, it could be four days solid.

When you're in harvest season, you don't get much sleep.

It's 12 o'clock

and they've another 27 acres to get through,

so brother Darren and dad Stevie are lending a hand.

In their newly acquired combine,

that separates the barley seeds from the straw,

they are hoping to get it all done by sunset at 8pm.

So it's a new toy for us.

-It's a very capable machine...

-WHIRRING

a good combine.

Martin and Stevie decided to invest in this second-hand combine

to do their own fields

and also bring in extra income,

doing contract work for other farms.

They got it cheap for £23,000.

New models can cost around six times that.

WHIRRING

BEEPING

But sometimes...

..bargains come at a cost.

Oh!

WHIRRING

They quickly identify the problem.

The wee washer in here...

it's bent.

So we have to take this bolt off, drop this bar,

take the washer out, strain it off,

then, hopefully, put it back in.

And it's fixed.

Stevie has to use all his mechanical know-how to take it apart.

THEY TALK

Pull it, just pull it. That's it.

Oh, here it comes. Go on, Darren.

Get your fingers in.

All that little problem.

-Do you want to strain it?

-Yep.

And, having fixed it,

they need to put it back together.

OK.

There you go. Job done.

See if it works now.

WHIRRING, THEY TALK

OK.

The breakdown has cost them an hour.

It's now after two

and they've still got most of the work to get through.

I gave Dad a high five for that.

He's quite mechanically minded and...

having been quite a tinkerer...

..when you're stuck in the middle of a field,

you just have to get on with it and use your own initiative, really.

Especially when you've not enough time

in the day, really.

We're going to struggle.

We're going to struggle for time to get things finished tonight.

Martin stands to make nearly £6,000

selling his barley as animal feed to other farmers.

And the straw will save him a fortune

on bedding and food for his cattle over the winter.

But if he doesn't beat the rain,

the lion's share of his harvest could be wiped out.

This barley is ready to be cut now.

If we'd waited another week...

the rain could damage it, heads would start falling off,

so you start losing yield, start losing quality.

Two hours later...

RAIN TRICKLES ..the rain arrives early

and they have to stop.

Wet barley is difficult to harvest in the combine.

We've just finished that field there.

We were hoping to go on and...

start a 19-acre field down there, but the weather's beat us.

It was forecast to come in in the early hours of the morning,

but a light shower of rain came across us.

Hopefully, this rain shower will pass by. It's nae heavy.

But it's just a pest, really.

It passes in half an hour

and Martin is straight back in the saddle.

WHIRRING

Yeah, it's going to get real noisy.

But the rain has had an impact.

And the combine is struggling.

WHIRRING

ENGINE STOPS

I think it's too damp.

It's choking on one side.

The way it is just now, it's going underneath the combine,

he's tramping it and he cannae cut it.

So he's dragging it, dragging the barley.

WHIRRING

So, you can see, as we come across here,

if it's flat like this, it just makes the job harder

to lift it off the ground.

It's liable to jam and choke on the knife.

Martin ploughs on.

But just ten acres

and over three painful hours later...

BEEPING

BEEPING STOPS

Come on.

-Come on, come on, come on.

-QUIET WHIRRING

QUIET WHIRRING

With this new combine, the...

..diesel gauge is a bit wonky.

So it's telling me I had a quarter tank,

but, obviously, it hasn't got a quarter of a tank, so...

Running out of diesel's nae the best thing to do

at this time of night, like, but...

hopefully, we'll bleed her

and she can go in the next five minutes, if that.

Dad, he's on the case right now.

-CLATTERING

-You all right, Dad?

Once again, it's Stevie to the rescue.

It's frustrating, just cos you know there's only

another hour, an hour and a half left of the night.

But we havenae got it started yet.

30 minutes later,

and topped up with diesel,

it's time to try again.

QUIET WHIRRING

BEEPING

-INTERMITTENT BEEPING

-Here it goes.

LOUDER WHIRRING

Ah, it's really teasing us.

But now, they're losing the light.

They've eight acres to go.

It's eight o'clock

and, with the sun down,

conditions are getting worse.

The dew will start coming down pretty shortly.

The grass starts to get a bit of dampness to it,

starts getting sticky and doesn't flow the same through the combine.

The combine will start telling you.

She'll start making noises and she'll grumble and groan.

It can change. In a matter of 15 minutes,

it can go from being perfect cutting conditions

to time to stop and go home.

It's a risk to keep going.

They can't afford to damage such an expensive bit of machinery.

COMBINE WHIRS LOUDLY

The combine is telling me it's time to stop.

All that grumbling and groaning, just a bit sore on it.

That'll do. She's telling me. She's grumbling and groaning.

THEY TALK

Just stick her in the shed.

Martin must admit defeat.

We'll wait to see what the weather does for the next couple of days.

Hopefully, this rain'll nae linger too long

and we'll get fine and dry weather.

'Farming depends on the weather so much.

'It's just nae fun when the weather's nae right.'

But at least he's made it home

with 80% of his harvest.

Oh, well. That's her in bed for the night.

And that's me going away for a cup of tea.

SEAGULL CALLS

North of Inverness...

BIRDS CHEEP

..on John Scott's farm,

it's the final day of the World Sheep Dog Trials.

How we doing?

How've you been today? Have you been busy?

'I am exhausted.

'With the culmination of the event,'

and being the final day and we will announce the winner.

Really looking forward to seeing who that will be.

Fingers crossed it's a Scotsman.

Out of 213 entrants,

and 240 dogs,

they're down to the last 16 finalists

and today they'll battle it out

to decide who will be the Sheep Dog Champion of the World.

The event is being broadcast on Gaelic TV across Scotland.

And, in addition to the kudos of the title,

the winner will also get a £3,000 cash prize.

The Scotts' family friend, Michael Shearer,

is one of the front runners.

-INTERVIEWER:

-The last 16,

you must be tremendously proud of that achievement.

Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Getting through to the finals.

I've got to the semifinals a couple of times,

but it's the first time I've been in the finals.

How will you feel if you walk off with that world title?

Oh, I'd be delighted. But so would every other.

Yeah, and they'll all be trying for it.

APPLAUSE

-TANNOY:

-The next competitor, 264, Michael Shearer.

APPLAUSE

Michael and nine-year old Bob are first up.

At this stage,

they are in third place.

Five points behind the leader,

Kevin Evans from Wales.

The finalists face a more

WHISTLING complex and difficult course

than in the qualifying rounds and semifinals.

WHISTLING

This time, they must herd

two flocks of ten sheep around an area twice the size.

And, instead of two judges to impress,

this time...

there are five.

Points are deducted for mistakes.

WHISTLING

If Michael is to overtake the leader,

he can't afford to make too many.

WHISTLING

The trickiest section is separating, or shedding,

five sheep with red collars

from the rest of the flock.

That's it, that's it.

That's it, that's it.

MICHAEL TALKS

And then the final test

is herding these five into the pen.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Michael finishes within time,

and with a high score

of 691 out of 850,

which pushes him into the lead.

Oh, I'm delighted. Yeah, yeah.

Just really happy at the time.

But there's a lot of good dogs to come,

so, at the moment, it's looking good.

But we will wait and see.

Now it's the turn of Michael's biggest rival,

Kevin Evans from Wales,

and his dog, Greg.

COMMENTATOR SPEAKS GAELIC:

He's been performing consistently well.

And, if he has a good run,

Michael won't stand a chance.

COMMENTATOR SPEAKS GAELIC:

WHISTLING, KEVIN SHOUTS

The sheep have hesitated.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING And have cost his rival ten points.

APPLAUSE

But will it be enough for Michael to hold on to the lead?

-KEVIN:

-Lie down, lie down!

APPLAUSE, DOG BARKS

-TANNOY:

-Now, the winner of the World Championship 2014...

..Michael Shearer...

APPLAUSE DROWNS SPEECH

CHEERING AND WHISTLING

For John and his wife Fiona,

it's the culmination of two years' hard work.

And Michael's win a poignant reminder

of John's father-in-law.

APPLAUSE AND WHISTLING

Brilliant. Just fantastic.

I'm just wrapped. Just...

..yeah.

LAUGHTER

-Well-deserved.

-Michael.

Very happy.

Very happy. Holding back tears.

Fiona's crying for me.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

-FIONA:

-'It was just the icing on the cake when Michael won.

'Dad would have been...

'probably in tears, as well.

'It would have meant a huge amount to him.'

DOG BARKS

'These memories that we have today

'will live with me for a long time. Forever.'

APPLAUSE

It means an awful lot to us.

An awful lot.

APPLAUSE

Next time...

WOMAN SHOUTS

..Martin and Mel put their new tups to the test...

-SHEEP BLEAT

-He knows what he's doing.

'The only thing that they need to do'

-is stay alive and make babies.

-Yeah.

..Sandy heads south

to hand-deliver his prized mutton...

We always give warning.

Danger - eating this meat

could spoil your palate for the ordinary stuff.

..and John attends the Oscars of the farming world.

The winner of the Sheep Farmer of the Year is...