Episode 8 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 farmers 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 onto 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 with this?

-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.

-I'm not letting go!

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

It's spring in Scotland.

Bringing welcome signs of growth.

And there's new life on the farms as lambing

and calving gets underway.

In the north of Scotland near Inverness,

large scale farmer John Scott runs a successful business with over

4,000 acres and 4,000 sheep.

As a farmer being out and about every day and,

you're always looking for the first signs of spring.

There are signs and there are smells.

It's a great time of year. That's when the farm looks its best.

Everything's growing and the crops are through the ground.

But I suppose, for us, as sheep farmers,

the real sign of spring is lambs.

Lambing here is on an industrial scale...

and John's huge barns are now full of pregnant ewes.

Up to 300 lambs will be born here every day.

Those three.

It's a hectic time, two months of round-the-clock lambing

so John brings in extra staff.

Emma from New Zealand is studying

agriculture in England.

She's a farmer's daughter so is well practised at handling sheep.

I grew up on a sheep and beef farm so I've been around sheep

my whole life and I've always wanted to come to the UK

to do a lambing indoors because it's totally different to what we do.

And here I am for two months over lambing.

Emma's well versed in the signs of a ewe in labour.

You're looking for ones that are panting

and getting up and down and sort of walking around like that,

like... But the obvious sign is the water bag hanging out.

The ewes carrying just one lamb are marked with a blue dot.

One in particular is giving Emma cause for concern.

She's been lambing for probably... Since before I got here

so at least two hours so I just want to stick my hand in

and have a feel to see if the lamb is sitting in the right position.

The perfect position for a lamb to be born is feet forwards with

head resting in between.

If it's not in the right position we've got to help it but

this lamb is in the right position, and it's just about there so,

we'll give it a little help.

It's quite a big lamb so, even though

it's in the right position and it's just about out we'll just give her

a little help, because she does have... Well, she's just got one.

Normally if they are single they are quite big

so they sometimes, often need a little helping hand.

Another tug and at last, it's out.

There we go. And it's alive. Yay!

Good lamby.

It's a textbook delivery.

It's good. I've learned a lot cos it's just totally different

to anything I've ever done.

The principles are still the same, you know,

looking after the sheep and stuff

but, it's a lot more hands on, quite intensive, but it's good.

It's good learning.

LAMB BAAS

After three days,

the lambs are strong enough to be turned out into the fields.

They are marked with the same numbers as their mothers

so John can make sure each ewe is taking care of her lambs.

That's quite satisfying to see them out to grass.

Quite often if you've got something that's maybe not

100% or struggling a little bit, if you get it out to grass,

and, they just improve, they just take off then.

They're fine, delighted with them.

We'll go and get some more.

In the west of Scotland, hill farmers Sybil

and George Macpherson are also welcoming the change in the seasons.

We've been waiting and waiting and waiting for spring to come

and today we heard the first curlew, which is a big lift.

It's about ten days late, I think, but the noise of the curlew

on a spring morning is just music to my ears. I just love it.

So many signs that we look out for every year, it may seem

totally daft, but they're big tickoffs in our springtime diary.

The bumble bee, the first frog spawn. We actually never, ever

change our own timepieces.

They sit and so next week we'll be at the right time again.

Neither of us wear a watch and the darkness tells you

when it's time to go home.

Because winter lasts longer here,

Sybil and George's lambing is yet to begin.

Their ewes are tupped later to ensure their lambs are born

when the weather is kinder.

It quite amazes me to see

how many people are already lambing too in the sheep world.

It just shows you the complete difference

in the different types of sheep farming within Scotland.

While lambing is yet to start...

COW MOOS

..calving happens all year round.

The heifer we call Eccentric had her first calf last night.

She couldn't have picked a worse night with wind and rain

but there she has it with her just sitting below her.

She had it no bother herself which is a relief.

Eccentric was named after her previous owner,

not her behaviour, but Sybil's being cautious.

Protective heifers with young calves can be unpredictable.

You're all right, girl. I do not wish to be attacked.

The quietest of cows, the day after it calves can be quite a fearsome

beast. Just the maternal instincts and I don't think people understand

that when you're going into a field with cows with newly

born calves that you are taking your life in your hand because they

want to protect their calf and they see anything as a big threat and

they will chase them.

And despite the fact the cows look big cumbersome animals

they can run extremely fast, much faster than I can.

He looks a wee bit cold and shivery but

I'm sure in no time he'll be up like his... Here he is.

Good girl. Good girl.

We always like to name the calves, so that we remember

who they are and today's calf, where is he?

Come on, Rosie. There he is, the newborn calf, that's Mr Muscardini.

Can see just how quickly they get to their feet and start to grow.

He'll soon catch up with the other two.

Just check that he's... His tummy feels quite full so...

And her udder looks sucked so we try not to interfere with them.

COW MOOS

You're a very clever girl, Eccentric.

I never cease to be amazed just how wonderful nature is, that this

small newborn thing pops out and gets it feet almost immediately.

And then the instinct to find the udder and get that first

vital suck of colostrum.

First milk, is just amazing how animals know.

On Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, 30 miles

off the West Coast of Scotland, spring is also yet to arrive.

Ex-barrister turned crofter, Sandy Granville, left London

12 years ago.

He's bracing himself for another storm

and has learned to read the weather well.

Well, it's quite wild really,

I suppose this is...

kind of Force 8-ish, pretty wild.

Sandy keeps livestock that can also handle a gale.

They are hardy breeds that live outdoors all year round.

Feeding the cattle here doesn't mean just walking across the yard,

it means taking a bale up a steep hill...

..in all sorts of weather.

Today is Sandy's birthday. Wife Ali is planning a breakfast celebration.

I don't think we're going to do anything very special

because the weather's just so awful but I've got

a birthday cake and so we'll have that after breakfast.

So that'll be nice and some presents and things so that's...

I like birthdays.

First, she must also brave the weather to feed their

one-year-old blackface lambs.

It's a difficult time for young ones.

It's been an awful winter, this is the worst winter for them. It's

just, the wind and the rain have never stopped and there's nothing

to eat and they've been constantly wet but so far these have survived.

Two of their herd of 12 Highland cattle, Kirsty and Morag,

are due to give birth soon.

A quick check to see how full their udders are,

-indicates how far off calving will be.

-Nothing happening today.

The animals fed, it's a fast retreat indoors.

-Wey!

-Not going to sing to you today.

Oh, you've got to sing.

No, I don't think so. OK, ready?

-Look at that 61, it's an outrage.

-61.

I'll just cut out that one.

Yes. Happy birthday.

-That's...

-Ah, yes.

Just hope the cattle don't have any...

..foolishly young calves today.

Cos it's a bit tough being born on a day like this.

At the Scotts' on the mainland,

student Emma has spotted another ewe in trouble.

This ewe's been in labour for nearly two hours.

If left any longer, both she and her lambs could suffer.

Emma decides to intervene. She relies on feel alone.

She's having triplets, so there's not a lot of room in there.

Carrying three lambs significantly increases

the chances of a difficult birth.

The triplets and mother at risk,

a safe delivery is now in Emma's hands.

They do have a lower chance of survival but that's why we scan

them so we know that a ewe's going

to have triplets and then we can take

extra care to ensure that they'll have a good chance of survival.

And we don't break the umbilical cord until we hear the lamb

breathing, just to give it a bit of extra energy from its mother.

The lamb is helped along with some recently acquired local knowledge.

That's a little trick that I learnt off the Scottish is you just

stick a little bit of straw up its nose,

it helps clear the airways and wakes it up a bit.

The second lamb needs more of a helping hand.

Emma pats its chest to try and get any fluid out of its lungs...

..and then it starts to breathe.

So these are pretty good sized triplets,

they're quite large lambs for triplets.

The third is in trouble, it's in the wrong position.

So this lamb's kind of upside down, because its siblings have

taken up lots of room, so just have to turn it round a bit.

The ewe's now been in labour for over two hours.

It's a crucial time.

The longer the lamb now stays inside,

the more chances it could get stressed and die.

There are always going to be deaths.

Yeah. You try and keep them to the minimum.

This one's a bit more difficult.

These are pedigree sheep so we've got to be quite careful

with them because we want them to carry on breeding for a while.

So you don't want to do too much poking and prodding.

It's got its front feet forward

and the right way cos I've pulled them... It was a bit upside down

so I've just turned it round a bit, to get it more

streamlined to come out and I'm just finding where the head is.

Why is that funny?

There it is.

Did have it right.

Now she must get the lamb breathing.

You had a bit of a rough time in there, didn't you, mate?

Come on, lamby!

Emma's newly learned trick with the straw helps it along.

It's been a real test but she's delivered all three lambs safely.

I love having a live lamb, that is the best feeling when you

pull one out and it takes that first breath, it's just like,

"Yes, success!"

As the smallest and weakest of the three,

this lamb's survival chances are not high.

The next few hours will be critical.

LAMB BLEATS

In the north-east of Scotland, near Aberdeen,

pedigree cattle breeder Martin Irvine

and his father Stevie are preparing for their main calving season.

We start calving in about three weeks.

The first week to the second week of March start calving again.

These girls here. And it can be quite exciting

because it's the first calves off the new stock bull, Irish.

Spring is a busy time of year,

with the majority of their calves due over the next two months.

As calving can happen any time, day or night,

Martin and Stevie are on call 24 hours a day.

Martin's hoping a new bit of kit will put an end

to their sleepless nights.

The technology in farming's changed a lot in this last, five, ten years,

since the last couple of years,

they've come out with this new calving aid.

And what it is, got a cow here, a heifer here due to calf in two

weeks, I put this probe inside her and I'll get a text message prior

to calving saying the temperature's dropped in the cow, calving in the

next 48 hours so you'll know to look at that cow really hard.

The idea of is, it is a bit far-fetched but everybody

we speak to say it's working really well,

so I'm keen as beans to get my hands on it.

Martin's dad Stevie is less convinced.

It's still just a bit of machinery with a battery so,

battery might go flat, I don't know.

Do you trust them?

But we might give them a bash yet, so I can get my beauty sleep!

HE LAUGHS

Today, salesman John Maher has come to demonstrate the new kit.

So these are your calving probes.

The probes then communicate with this radio base up here.

So that box is placed anywhere in the shed,

it communicates with the sensors within a 200 metres radius.

It can be used both outdoors and indoors as

the system is battery operated.

So, you fold up the probe very easily.

Fold up like that, and you have your applicator to put them into the cow.

So put it into the applicator, and that's it.

So you have your bit of lube, put a bit of lube on the applicator,

and go in through the vulva of the cow so nice and easily

into the vulva of the cow, and you go in as far as the cervix.

So you can't actually go in any further

when you get as far as the cervix.

You then hold your chest in as a lever, against the applicator

because we want to pull back the sleeve.

So we pull back the sleeve, that means we release the probe then

exactly where we want it inside the animal.

Put your chest against the applicator.

Pull back the sleeve, and that's you done.

That's her inserted now.

Each probe is numbered

so Martin can match its unique signal to the individual cow.

OK, just got to remember which probe in which cow so...

One, two, zero...

Martin's turn next.

-Simple.

-Lot easier on the cows. Right, Dad, your turn.

Your turn. Come on and I'll show you.

No, I'll just leave him to do it. It's his gimmick.

-Come on, Dad.

-No, go on.

No, on you go.

The probes in place, the new kit is now up and running.

But it remains to be seen if the text system works.

Further north at the Scotts', Emma's little triplet is not

progressing well.

It's over an hour since he was born

and he has still not fed from his mother.

Emma decides to intervene and discovers a problem.

The ewe isn't producing any milk.

There's just a bit of a delay in her milk coming just cos of

the, you know, the stress of lambing they just kind of need a breather.

But this first rich milk, colostrum,

could take several days to come through.

So to give her triplet the best chance of surviving,

Emma has a plan.

We are just going to top them up with some colostrum from

another ewe, just to keep them going energy-wise until her milk drops.

If the triplet is too weak to suck he will have to be fed with a tube.

A couple of attempts and he latches straight on.

I love it when they're like this.

It's just nice when they're good and strong and they suck.

It's so frustrating when you're trying to save a lamb

and it won't suck.

The other two triplets are keen to get their share too.

I'm so happy, so happy that these are all good.

-Look at this cheeky one.

-He wants more.

Look at my little pets.

Had a pretty successful day today, I think.

These being the highlight.

I lambed these this morning and I was a bit worried about

one of them. And now I can't even tell which one I was worried about

because they all just... Look at them, they're climbing all over me

and great, very happy with them.

Well done.

I just wish they stayed this size, they're so cool.

At the Irvines' family farm, Martin is taking

advantage of the warmer weather to get out into the fields.

It's several weeks since the calving probes were fitted

and his cows are due any day.

He's relying on the new text message system to alert him

when a calf is on the way.

Dad, he criticised it at the start, saying, "Oh, it's not this,

"can I trust it?" But the more calves we have

the more times it works, the more we'll trust it.

I've seen this before.

I'm busying sowing, Dad - he's busy doing something else,

you're not paying attention at home properly, you think,

"Oh, she'll be all right, I'll check on her in half an hour."

Come back in half an hour and you've got a dead calf.

So with this system here, it's just an early warning system,

there's something calving, go home and check it.

Martin is using the opportunity to plant out barley to

feed his cows while the weather is dry.

The weather's kind of picked up,

we've had some temperatures about 15, 18, 20 degrees,

and you can see this last two weeks the whole valley's just changed.

Grass is starting to green up.

It's maybe not growing, but it's definitely greened up,

things are starting to look promising.

It doesn't matter what you're doing, nothing nicer than

the sun on your back, feeling that warmth of the sun.

A few hours later, no texts have arrived,

and Martin decides to take a break.

Mmm, fancy pieces.

Morning.

Juice. Bit of health. It's a nice day now.

Rain stopped, wind's got up. Sun's trying to come out.

Not seen my dad for a while so I imagine he'll be up at the sheep.

I'll go up at lunchtime on him. OK, bye.

See you later.

At the Scotts' family farm, lambing shows no sign of slowing down.

John's team are on shift seven days a week.

It's been a successful season so far,

with the delivery of hundreds of healthy lambs.

But every year, John can lose over 15% of his lamb crop.

This morning there's one ewe whose progress John is particularly

worried about.

Rotten. So these lambs are rotten. Most likely dead.

Don't know why. One of these things.

This isn't going to smell very good.

But, all we've got to do now is get them out of there

cos it's bad for the ewe to have them in there, obviously.

If a lamb dies inside the womb it can cause a fatal

infection for the mother, so John must act quickly.

The problem is, if the belly is swollen behind it,

I won't get this out of here.

John's suspicion is confirmed.

Unfortunately, the first lamb is dead.

This lamb's alive.

I don't know how long it will be alive for.

Never ceases to amaze me how this lamb can be in there

next to that rotten lamb and it's... Well, it's alive at the moment

so, sometimes a live lamb in a situation like this will

give the ewe the encouragement she needs to get up and try and live.

So we'll, pop it there.

There's an outside chance that this lamb might live.

It's not a great result having dead lambs

but on the plus side you've got one live one and that's what

keeps you going, that's what, you know, gives you a bit of a boost.

Hopefully, that lamb will make it.

It just gives you a bit of a lift, if that lamb will make it

and you come out tomorrow morning and it's up and sucking,

that's what keeps us going.

Martin's been out planting barley two days in a row.

He's been relying on his new text alert system to warn him

of any imminent calvings back at the farm,

but so far no messages have come through.

He's in a reflective mood.

If I wasn't a farmer I have no idea what I would be doing.

Might not be rich, might be skint most of the time, but I'm really

happy at what I do and that's the most important thing to me, like.

Ah, the final stretch. Another 50 yards and that's us finished.

There's news from the farm.

The text reports that a probe has come out of one of the cows

which means a calving could be imminent.

COW MOOS

Stevie's also received a message

and is at the cattle shed ahead of Martin.

She's got a sorry looking face, hasn't she?

She's feeling it, look.

It's kicking.

The day I don't have my leggings on and she pees on me.

Wore my leggings, waterproofs for the last eight months solid

and the day I didn't put them on.

This calf is larger than usual and the heifer needs assistance.

-How long has she been at it?

-Couple of hours.

Just seemed to have stopped since we moved her about.

OK, give me jacks.

CALF GASPS

The calf has started breathing in the birth canal.

It could suffocate or drown if Martin

and Stevie can't get it out quickly.

Go.

This is just a jack, and it's a lot of power and lot of pressure.

So just take our time, head and everything's there,

so, the head will just pop, there we go.

Just take our time and she'll push and he'll pull and she'll push.

OK. OK.

That seems to be there.

One more.

There it is. All right? Go and let him have it. Aye, watch yourself.

A blast of water helps to revive the calf.

There you go. A girl.

It's a great result. A healthy female calf.

Ideal. Nice face. Welcome.

This is another calf off a new stock bull Irish,

so started calving to him a month ago.

So this will be calf number ten now.

So popping out quick.

If they keep coming like that, be perfect.

Oh, Christ, it's here, another. Oh, Jesus.

THEY LAUGH

If it wasn't for the system being in, I'd have been coming home

every hour or Dad would have been home every hour just to check the

cow's calving, just cos you don't want to miss anything. But with this

system we can spend our time, Dad's up at sheep, I'm out in the field,

don't have to come home all the time to check and see who's calving.

So this system just kind of gives us a bit of peace of mind,

lets us go away and do our work. So, it's worked well there.

I think it's worth its money, yeah.

It's 3,500, it's a lot of money to invest,

but we only need to save one calf and that's it justified for me.

That could be the calf that wins you a show, gets you a big prize,

gives you a lot of money.

The probe's worked on this occasion, but for Stevie there's still

something to be said for doing things the traditional way.

They're a good thing, but once you start using them, you don't look

at the cows, because you wait for your phone to ring, so you get lazy.

You lose your natural instinct of looking at cows saying,

"Oh, she's going to calf tonight."

They've gotta be told the cow's calving,

where you see the cow's coming to calf.

On the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles, Sandy

and Ali are also welcoming a new arrival.

I think we've just had our first calf.

When we fed Kirsty and Morag this morning,

Kirsty was looking as though she might be thinking of calving,

and I think the calf has been born.

We're just going down to have a look

and offer our congratulations to the mother.

We think we know Kirsty well enough that she'll trust us.

There it is, just been born.

It's a little bull calf. There it is.

Shivering away but it will soon stop that once it gets its first

dose of milk in her.

Hello, Morag. You come to offer your congratulations.

Quite solid on its legs for a calf that's only just been born

so, Highlanders are quite like deer in the way the calves were up

quickly, and Morag, how close are you, Morag, to calving time?

Well, not much of an udder on you yet.

Got a big bottom.

Yeah, she's got a big bottom but not much udder.

The calf isn't the only new arrival on the croft.

HORSE NEIGHS

Ali has recently received her overdue birthday present.

A thoroughbred ex-race horse called Fleur.

She's the most beautiful, beautiful thing in the whole world.

Not for now, sweet bug.

And, oh, she's lovely, and the thing is, I'm 60 now so this could be

my last horse and Samson's just a little bit bored with everything.

She is just lovely and she loves Samson

and he's really enjoying having her here.

Just beautiful.

But she's just so unlike him, he's like a... He's so chunky

and big and she's just like, she's like a gazelle.

She's got tiny little legs and a long, long neck and she's a very,

very good communicator.

Like her owners, Fleur seems to be taking to her new northern life.

But she hasn't yet been for a run on the beach.

She's just delightful, she's just beautifully, beautifully schooled.

She's full of go but she's just totally light to ride and

just such fun.

These sands are just wonderful.

They're just made for setting speed records.

We're just waiting to see what happens when she

stretches her out on the sands because this is,

I suspect, the fastest horse she's ever had.

It's the Lone Ranger.

It's actually, she's really moving.

Isn't that a beautiful sight? Isn't it just lovely?

Is it quite good?

I'm worn out now.

Great outing today.

Dogs have a lovely time here as well. It's just this beach is

so huge, we can have our coffee and ginger cake and set off gently home.

It's three weeks into the busy period of spring

lambing at the Scotts' farm in Scotland, and there's no let up.

It's 5:00am and John's up to cover the early shift on his own.

His first job is to check for any problems in the lambing shed.

This is the sort of thing I've got to pick up in the morning.

She doesn't like that lamb, and that,

that was my worry when I came in, it was outside the pen.

If a lamb is rejected,

its mother will often behave aggressively towards it.

John needs to separate the two of them as soon as possible.

She hasn't got enough milk for two.

Sometimes you wonder if sheep actually realise,

quite a fully tummy, but sometimes you wonder if sheep realise

that they haven't got enough milk for two, so they reject one lamb.

But she definitely hasn't got enough milk.

So, pet pen.

You can feel it stressed, its little heart's going.

Hello, heroes, how are you all this morning?

John has a soft spot for his orphan lambs.

-They're put in their own pen and fed by hand.

-Good lad.

It's a rare opportunity for him to spend time alone with the animals.

The good thing about being up this time of day is it's peaceful.

No-one else around, just me, sheep, and I can get on with things myself.

Sometimes it's good just to have a bit of time on your own

and you don't have to think too much. You can just...

Just be a shepherd. Just do what I love doing, really.

Also up early on the other side of the farm is John's

13-year-old son James.

He has his own brood of chickens and ducks.

It's a bit of a mixture.

I've got Speckled, Sussex, Cream Legbars, Marans...

..Light Sussex. And a couple of other breeds.

Every morning, James feeds them and checks for any problems.

Most people my age don't get up at the time I do.

As long as I'm out here with my animals and it's a nice day,

it's great.

Even if it's snowing or raining.

As long as the animals are happy I'm happy.

Just hopping about a bit, think she's got a sore leg.

I'll see if it recovers

but if it doesn't I'll probably have to get rid of her, ie kill her.

James breeds his birds to sell

and anything he earns is his pocket money.

Today, there's a local bird auction.

Dad John is giving him a hand.

It's filthy! Are they all like that?

James left the duck coop door open the night before

and his ducks have been playing in the mud.

And his transportation choices don't look too promising either.

I'll be very surprised if we get there

and there's not something escaped in the back of the pick-up.

In the north-east of Scotland, Martin's keen to

build on the success of his latest batch of calves.

Some of them have been fathered by a new stock bull called

Powerful Irish, who Martin bought a year ago.

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

big fleshy girls, that's the way we like them.

And the bull Irish, he is a meat machine.

So he's full of muscle and with him going onto our cows we're

going to try and get a balance of

both and the females are going to hopefully

throw in the genetics, with the size and power and Irish, with all

his extreme muscle and ripedness to

him, he's going to mix it and hopefully

the calves from this will be a bit of both, so we'll get a bit of

size and a bit of muscle and that's what the market wants right now.

Today, the plan is to capitalise on Irish's excellent

genes by collecting some of his semen.

When we're taking the semen off the bull, mainly for insurance

purposes, if something goes wrong with the bull we'll still have the

semen off him so we can still, even if he's not on the go and he's

dead or whatnot, we can still use his DNA and stuff like that.

It's a safety thing. If anything goes wrong.

It's a safety thing.

Primarily it's a safety thing, so if anything does go wrong,

we've got semen off him,

and we can use that in the future, in case anything goes wrong.

Second thing is semen sells.

So we've got a bull that we think is pretty special,

he's different and anything that's special or different, people want.

So if we can sell some semen off him

it's an extra income for us really.

But it's quite an interesting procedure, I think.

To assist with the semen collection,

Martin calls on bull breeding consultant David Fleming.

Yeah, you need a good sense of humour for this job, I think,

and David has got a good sense of humour.

Broad shoulders and thick skin I'll tell you goes a long way.

HE LAUGHS

Martin's haltered up a heifer, Eye Candy,

to try and tease Irish into mating, but will she live up to her name?

If she does, it's up to David to intervene

and collect the semen sample using an artificial vagina.

Given Irish weighs close to one tonne,

it's not a job for the faint hearted.

Come here.

Come on.

Between the time the bull approaches the heifer

and he serves the heifer naturally it's seconds.

There's no foreplay, there's no

foreplay at all to the bull, he's quick, so David's got to be

extra quick to intervene to trick him and get the sample.

Irish has been kept away from the ladies for five weeks

and Martin's hoping it will have put him in a romantic mood.

David is on high alert.

That's why we have the two bales there, it just adds safety

and security so the cow can't move around too much.

That's a good boy, that's it good boy.

Good boy. Right, Martin pull him down.

Down you come.

That's fine, we'll have a look at that.

That's my boy! That's my boy!

The semen sample is off for analysis.

What Eye Candy makes of it is anyone's guess.

This measures the sperm count.

That's got a saline solution in there,

and there's a light goes through and obviously the thicker

the semen is then the better quality it is, like, you know?

Irish's semen goes through several test processes.

Movement and density are measured which will add up to give

a quality rating.

Yeah, that's good. That's a four on motility on a scale of

zero to five.

And it's five mil, so it's a fair old amount he's

given for such a youngster but he's a good producing bull.

Which is ideally what you want.

Yeah, I'm happy with that.

In Irish you can see he was wound up, he's in the mood.

he knew exactly what was going on and he knew what was happening.

So just need a bit of time to tease him

and cool him down a bit cos he was a bit too excited at the start.

And then good on David for doing what he did cos

he had to be quick, really quick there.

So, it's a good sample, so we're happy, like.

Spring has definitely sprung as far as Irish is concerned.

David and Martin manage to harvest another three

samples before standing the young bull down.

Good, boy that's it! That's it.

The semen will be sent to a lab where it's frozen

and stored in small units called straws.

After a few sums Martin can see how much was harvested from Irish today.

So we did four jumps today.

Normally we'll do three jumps but the third jump was quite good,

so we went and tried a fourth jump and it looks like it was worth it.

It was definitely worth it, in fact.

So the first jump, 240 straws.

Second jump, 170 straws.

Third jump, 195 straws

and the fourth jump, 240 straws.

So delighted, really delighted.

Martin has ended up with a bumper crop of over 1,200 straws.

As each can sell for £25, Irish's efforts this

afternoon could bring in more than £30,000.

It's a lucrative income

and a way of future proofing the bloodline of his pedigree herd.

We'll check out those two legbar chicks because...

James and John are checking out the competition at the chicken

auction near Inverness.

-I'm looking at these ones here.

-I quite like them.

They're cream legbars and I have a few legbars at home.

A top chicken can fetch over £100,

so James knows there's good money to be made.

I'm always too excited to sleep before chicken sales.

I've been coming to auctions from the same age as James,

when he came, and started coming to the auctions.

He probably came along when he was a baby - as soon as

he could walk he was following me around and I was the same with Dad

so, yeah, it's a good tradition and it goes on from one generation to the next.

The chickens are sold in pairs.

James has high hopes for a good price.

I think my chickens will make about 50 quid each. I'm just hoping

they'll make lots of money.

£10. At £10.

James's chickens are next up.

He's hopeful for £50 a cage so £25 a bird.

20 bid.

Now at 22.

5, 8, 30.

All done at £30?

Number 209.

That's the hens sold. Happy?

Quite happy, it's quite good. £15 each.

So that was £15 a bird there for the eight we sold.

I don't think it'll maybe work so well with the ducks, what you think?

-Sorry?

-Will it work so well with the ducks?

-Don't know.

The mucky ducks fail to sell at all.

Still, James gets to pick up a cheque for all his hard work.

I made £111.60.

It goes in my bank account to probably spend on more chickens.

In the highlands of Argyll, spring is now in full bloom.

Hill farmer George is on his way to check

up on his flock of Shetland sheep.

This hardy breed give birth on their own up in the hills.

There's hopefully no problems it doesn't... Shetlands are pretty,

more like a native deer than a sheep.

They don't tend to have the same lambing problems as anybody else.

This flock started off from a birthday present ten years ago.

It's just a hobby I started on my 40th.

Sybil bought me, was it three ewe lambs?

Now I've got 86 in 10 years. Quite amazing.

But they're productive little animals,

they don't take an awful lot of looking after.

Sometimes usual problem,

you hardly ever get a lambing problem with them.

They basically pretty well get on with their life themselves

and they're just characters, they're nosy little sheep.

They're just different. And they always make you smile.

They're just different, aren't they?

-HE LAUGHS

-They're cheekier.

I mean, lambs, if you were in a field at home the lambs would come

and sniff you or behind the shed and that,

but they wouldn't be the same, kind of attitude.

The other thing is the mutton is absolutely delicious.

I kid you not.

They're hardier than a lot of breeds.

They're just a more kind of...

I don't know, they're more... They're not so pampered,

they've been bred in Shetland to do a job.

You know what I mean? They are not a super hybrid

or nothing, it's just a sheep that tends to look after itself better.

And that's why I like it.

And there are some days at lambing, you know,

it gives you a huge lift just to come along

and see your wee pals with a set of twins or something,

when other disasters happen, and these guys make you laugh.

LAMBS BLEAT

The arrival of warmer weather also puts

Sybil in the mood for an annual spring clean.

I think George is an incredibly handsome person

with the most fantastic smile.

George quite often has a beard. I personally don't

like his beard at all, when it gets so big that I can't see his smile.

When it's hidden by vast amounts of beard

and I can't see it any more, it's not George.

So I'm always really delighted when he decides to cut it off or

when he allows me to cut it off and I can see his handsome face

and his fantastic smile.

Now, be brave. Oh, gosh, it's struggling.

The good thing about taking it off now is that,

quite possibly, birds might use it for nesting material.

Oh.

Perhaps we should just leave a bit on the...

Now I know what the poor sheep feel like

when you're trying to clip them!

THEY LAUGH

You're just loving it, aren't you?

I tell you what, the sheep are a lot easier clipped than you.

It's great fun.

Let's see you.

-That feels worse.

-Does it?

Yeah, it definitely does, please....

You want that bit off as well, OK. Bye-bye, beard.

HE LAUGHS

-I'll phone up and say... Oh!

-Sorry!

Still got my lips left?

Yes. I'll tell you what, you look fantastic.

You look just like Georgie.

-Feels good.

-Can't tell you how different you look.

Takes years off me.

-It does.

-Good-oh.

-You happy?

-Yeah.

-Are you?

-I think so.

-Now the barber for the haircut,

I'm just really sorry you won't let me...

Fantastic, George, I can't believe how good...

I think if it was the summer I would honestly let you just take

one of the big numbers.

You know? But I think it's just a wee bit wintry yet.

Well, well done, thank you for letting me do that.

No problem.

Excellent.

Right, won't be so long before we have you out again, wee machine.

Near Aberdeen, Martin and Mel have an auction to attend

where Mel is hoping to sell Martin's ten-month-old heifer, Gem.

It'll be worth probably about £1,000. If I get a bit

more than that then I'll be happy, so I'm hoping to get about 1,200.

With calving in full swing back at the farm, they're short on space.

The problem we've got - if I never sold Gem today,

we'd have to take her home, isolate her,

test her, and bring her back in the herd, and all my pens are

all used up with calves right now so, pretty much, have to sell her.

It's also a significant day for another reason. It's Mel's birthday.

Mel's not fussed about fancy presents and all that kind of stuff.

Just give her a big kiss and a cuddle and she'll be happy.

That right, Mel?

I would rather have a sheep for my birthday present.

Yeah, she's getting old isn't she, Mel?

I'm not as old as him, though.

No. Like I say, you're only as old as the girl

-that you squeeze, that right?

-Yes!

While Mel is passionate about sheep, Martin's the cattle expert,

especially when it comes to a little heifer titivation to make

the cow look its best for the sale.

Martin doesn't let me have the clippers, says I do a rubbish job.

But Mel raised Gem from a calf

and is determined to prove herself with or without Martin's advice.

Oh, made a mess!

Can I not just take that bit off as well?

Just do what you want. It's your birthday.

See what I mean? He can't teach me say Mel you do this and that,

-not actually.

-It's a trick, it's a girl trick!

No party frocks for Mel today.

Instead, she's getting dressed up to sell a cow.

I think you've always got to be presentable and that probably

would make a difference, because you want to show your beast

at its best, but you've got to look your best. There's no point

going in with a tatty shirt and no white coat and an open white coat.

And I like to smell nice as well.

1,250.

1,250.

The minimum Mel will accept for Gem is £1,100, just over

what she cost to raise but today no-one seems to be making high bids.

Very sticky. The trade. Slow.

I've seen it a lot busier.

It's Mel's turn next.

Bidding starts at £800.

1,000.

1,200.

1,200. 1,200. 1,200.

1,250. 1,300. 1,300. 1,300.

It's more than they had hoped for and a reasonable profit.

Gem will start her new career as a breeding heifer,

producing the next generation of calves.

Mel's efforts have raised it £300.

So she's worth about £1,000

in an ordinary flat ring and just with a bit of extra titivating

and feeding and showing, Mel's raised it £300.

She'll get a bonus now.

Next time, Mel and Martin get stuck in to lambing...

We're just going to lamb this one.

Mel's too light for this, you see.

I'm not letting go.

An important decision is made about the future of the Lennox

family farm.

Things might need to change a little bit to make it work

but we will all be together with it and we'll work it through.

And Stevie needs to be coaxed out of his work clothes for Martin's

-upcoming wedding.

-Try it on.

I'll look stupid with a kilt on.

-No, you'll be fine, trust me.

-Get out.

Can you see the panic in his face?