Farming Families Lambing Live

It's spring, and right across Britain our fields are full

of expectant mothers.

These sheep, like so many sheep all over the country,

are just about ready to lamb.

It's all about new life. And what's not to like about that?

You're a real cheeky one.

Ahead of the new series of Lambing Live, we're seeing what life

is really like for farming families,

as they gear up for the busiest event in their year.

Beltex!

We'll revisit our Lambing Live families - the Marstons...

Give it a good push.

..and the Beavans.

Come on, girls.

We'll introduce new faces.

-This is Pam.

-Come on, girls.

-And we meet the Dykes...

-Cheese!

..this year's Lambing Live family.

I'm glad I had my porridge this morning!

As they prepare not just for lambing,

but for a week of live broadcasts.

Four years ago, I knew very little about farming or sheep.

But all that changed when I started filming Lambing Live.

One September morning, farmer Jim Beavan took me

on the strangest first date of my life.

The most important thing about a tup is you want two good balls.

Is a girl allowed to do this?

'It was an eye-opening introduction to the world of sheep farming.

'And I couldn't get enough, soaking up everything that our two

'Lambing Live families - the Beavans and the Marstons - could teach me.'

Oh, missed it!

THEY LAUGH

One memorable morning, I delivered my first lamb.

I was hooked. Suddenly I knew this was the lifestyle for me.

'Four years on, my husband, Ludo, and I

live on a smallholding in Wales.

'We've got ten sheep...' Girls.

'..lots of chickens, geese and ducks,

'as well as our beloved mongrels, Badger and Bella.'

I've also invested in a farm seven miles up the road.

-It had a busy night, then?

-It was a little bit busy, yeah.

'It's run by farmer Tim Stephens...'

I've made this little area here to loose the lambs out of their pens.

And then they can get used to being with other ewes.

'..who has another 120 ewes and a growing herd of cattle.'

I don't think I'd dare describe myself as a farmer,

but I have discovered over the last few years that there is

something about this way of life that feels absolutely right.

-These are new.

-Yep.

-Proud of them, aren't you?

This tremendous feeling of connection,

of being part of the countryside and part of the seasons

that I absolutely love.

Living by these ancient rhythms,

many farming families feel a deep connection to the land they've

farmed for generations...

..and the stock they care for, day in and day out.

The Cumbrian fells are home to one of these families

that were featured in our 2011 series of Lambing Live,

the Marstons.

I'm Andrew Marston and that's my dad and my mum,

-Donald and Christine.

-I'm Rachel and I'm Andrew's wife,

and these are our girls. We've got Catherine, Abigail and Olivia.

This family's connection to this corner of Cumbria goes back

four generations, to 1911.

Andrew's love of his farm began at birth.

I've lived here all my life.

As children, we got up to all sorts of mischief.

Running up and down trees, making tree houses.

There was always loads to do. Sledging was great fun.

There are always really big hills round here to sledge down.

It was walking to the top that was the trouble.

Yeah, just really happy times.

Andrew's father Donald works alongside the rest of the family.

And the children begin farming early.

When the kids are born and they come back home,

that's when they're introduced to farming.

I can remember running around the lambing fields chasing sheep

with Catherine in a pouch like this and thinking, "This is good fun."

Mummy, I don't like it.

-What don't you like?

-The cows.

-What are they doing?

-Mmm...

Catherine's getting to the age now she's really useful.

That's my sheep there. I've only got about five or something.

But I enjoy having a few of my own.

She's quite strong. She can hold the sheep, she can turn them up

and she is even sometimes telling me what to do,

so it's going the full circle.

Abigail's happiest when she's mucky.

Loves being outside, got a boiler suit for Christmas of all things.

A flat cap the year before

and a walking stick, so what more do you want?

Olivia, she's just coming into her own at the moment,

loves being outside.

SHE GIGGLES

The Marstons live side-by-side with a flock of 1,000 sheep.

These tough Swaledales live out on the high hill ground

of the fell year round, even when pregnant.

And like the Marstons themselves, these sheep have a deep connection

to the land they live on.

Each farmer's flock has an area of this unfenced land

that they consider their own.

This instinctive knowledge of their place on the fell

is known as hefting.

Hefting's a fascinating subject.

It's something unique because there are no walls,

so there are unseen boundaries known only to the sheep.

But it's quite simple really, a lamb goes onto the fell with its

mother, so the following year when it goes onto the fell it'll think,

"Ah, this was my plot of ground last year, it's my plot of ground

"this year." And the following year it takes its lambs, or lamb, with it

and so it goes on for generation and generation.

SHE GROANS

Come on.

Like their sheep, the Marstons are also hefted to this fell.

It's passing your knowledge down from generation to generation.

I suppose we take the sheep up and they teach their lambs

and we're taking our children up and so in that we're teaching them,

I suppose.

We're nearly there.

Yeah, they're hill sheep so this is their home.

If I was a sheep, I'd probably want to be where I belonged.

This is my favourite place on the farm.

Couldn't be anywhere better, I don't think.

Me and you can take a bag of cake out and they can put the hay out.

Yeah.

Cumbrian shepherds have grazed their animals here for hundreds of years.

It's vital to feed them, there's not a lot of goodness

in the grass at this time of year, so this gives them everything they need, really.

And when they're in lamb as well.

I think some people that don't know much about farming don't

understand they're not just things, they're animals that you've reared

and brought into this world. Yes, we are passionate about our animals

and want to do what's best for them.

Good evening. Britain's farms have been brought

to a standstill as the foot-and-mouth crisis deepens.

In 2001, like thousands of British farmers,

the Marstons watched helplessly as their animals

and their whole way of life was threatened.

Food-and-mouth itself was terrible because, in a sense,

you were waiting on it. Because as you listened to the news every day,

it was gradually getting nearer and nearer.

Cases could rise to 70 a day, reaching more than 4,000 by June.

That's nearly ten times the number now.

It was really hard, it was, you were lambing the sheep and thinking,

"What's the point of lambing if they're going to go in a cull?"

We could walk up onto one of the other hills and you could see

the fires down the Eden Valley where they were burning animals.

Here at Heddon in Northumberland, the diseased, slaughtered animals

are being destroyed on the farms where they were discovered.

The emotional stress, you can't really put into words.

We all struggled. The thought of losing your stock

and all you'd worked your life for

could be gone in a matter of seconds.

The cull of healthy animals within two miles of infected farms

will now be extended to the whole of the country.

Those who farm neighbouring land are resigned to the worst.

Eventually in about September, I think,

we did actually get food-and-mouth.

And they said if we would allow some of our animals to be slaughtered,

then they wouldn't go with the whole farm.

At four o'clock that afternoon they came

and...slaughtered them.

It was really hard losing your stock that you'd bred up for years,

I think particularly for Donald and Andrew.

The joy had gone,

you just wondered how long you were going to keep the animals.

You'd had those bloodlines for generations,

just to be wiped out like that.

Yeah, there wasn't really a dry eye around, I don't think.

Many farmers gave up after foot-and-mouth.

But Donald and Andrew were determined to rebuild.

We knew we'd carry on,

but it certainly left its scars.

Gradually, the Marstons restocked their Swaledale herd.

And as the scars of foot-and-mouth slowly fade,

it looks as though they're set to stay for many generations more.

I hope our family have a connection to the land, and I hope the kids

have the same understanding of the land and how to work it.

I wouldn't want to go anywhere else.

The passion and the joy the Marstons take in their land

and their animals motivated me to start my own flock.

Back in 2011, my husband, Ludo, and I decided we were ready

to take the plunge and buy our first sheep.

Welcome to Llanvetherine. Hi, Kate.

Lovely to see you. Thank you very much for seeing us today.

Come on, Mary!

-Are they in here? Oh, yes.

-Here they are.

-Aw!

So, on a sunny day in July, we went sheep shopping with Peter Beale.

Peter breeds badger face Welsh mountain sheep.

These are small sheep, not too heavy for me to handle,

and ideally suited to the hilly landscape of my Welsh smallholding.

He agreed to sell us six of his flock.

It's going to be so difficult to choose. Did you want to sell all 23?

If the price was right!

-So we're trying to get them into the bottom pen?

-Yep.

-Good girls.

-There's always one.

-Where are you going?

-Go on.

-Go on. There you go.

-This is where we can get up close and personal.

'Peter has a keen eye for a good sheep.'

Steady, steady, steady.

OK, well, what we're looking for, Kate, is fairly small ears

and a good way of doing that is to hold the two ears.

-Like a handlebar?

-Absolutely.

-And make sure that it doesn't protrude.

-OK.

Her ears are definitely sticking out.

So she should be a rejected one. I'm sorry! OK.

Then we need a nice black stripe or a pipe down the front,

right from underneath, right down along the belly and then

down the tail, but not to the very end.

-Lovely brown belly, yep.

-No grey whatsoever.

-OK.

So that's what we're looking for.

'These exacting standards only really matter in the show ring,

'but I wanted to start my flock with some high quality animals.'

She's got nice little ears, look at those.

-OK.

-Look at the tail. Ah, now, you see?

-Bit of black in there.

-Yeah, wouldn't advise that one.

-OK, OK.

It's quite difficult, isn't it? It's like Miss World for sheep.

All right, all right!

'Although not all the sheep wanted to take part in our beauty pageant.'

It's not me, it's the sheep.

I think we'll try you.

What do you think?

Shall we... Could we separate off the ones we've shortlisted?

'We picked out our favourites.'

Doing a wonderful job, Kate.

And these six sheep, our very first, will always be special to us.

Go on, girl.

That's it. That's brilliant, Peter, thank you very, very much.

I think you've chosen well.

But I was still a novice shepherdess.

So once I'd got them home, I called in some expert help

from my first Lambing Live mentor, Jim Beavan.

-They are pretty, aren't they?

-Do you approve?

-Yeah, they're all right.

'My ewes were looking a little woolly.

'They needed shearing, and I wasn't about to try this on my own.'

They are light.

'Jim talked us through the theory.'

Grip through, step over. Step over, step through.

-It's like Strictly Come Shearing.

-Oh, yeah. Down the leg.

'It looked pretty easy.'

-Through.

-'I mean, how hard can it be?'

-And then you're finished.

-She's done.

-I'm kind of nervous now.

Come with me, lady.

-You're the wrong way round.

-That way?

Step through.

-Argh!

-Next one now.

OK. Whoa, whoa, we lost her.

There we are.

-THEY LAUGH

-Oh, God, that's hard work!

Look, she's got tufts!

THEY LAUGH

Well, I grew up in the age of punk, that was trendy then!

It wasn't so bad at all!

With Jim's help, we'd done it -

our first ever shearing of our own sheep.

Jim's own farm, which we featured in the first series of Lambing Live,

is only a few miles away from ours, near Abergavenny.

Rolling hills and plentiful grass make Wales the perfect place

to fatten up lambs for our tables.

There are close to nine million sheep here - almost a third of

all the sheep in Britain.

And 950 of them graze the Beavan family land.

-Come on, good lad, steady now, steady.

-Steady.

The family have farmed here since 1939.

And today, three generations live and work side-by-side.

Wait for me, honey.

For Jim and his wife, Kate, this is one of the joys of the farming life.

Get off, you daft...!

You have to have a very strong relationship, to be honest,

otherwise working together, living together, doing everything

together, it'd be very hard.

I love working with Jim.

We've worked closely together for 24 years

and I think our relationship is pretty strong.

But unlike many farmers' wives, Kate wasn't brought up on a farm.

She's had to learn the skills needed to keep everything running smoothly.

You don't understand multitasking until you become a farmer's wife.

So you could be getting the kids ready for school, at the same time

sorting the breakfast...

Can always put another sausage on.

..running to the sheep shed, doing the lambing,

obviously accounts, paperwork, and you've got to be an unpaid farm help.

We're going to move the electric fence that way.

'You've got to be a mind-reader.

'You've got to know what your husband means with all his grunts and noises,'

which doesn't actually make any sense

but he expects you to know exactly where to be at the right time.

I think Jim's plan A was maybe pick up,

because obviously we've unhitched all the electric fence now,

and move it in one go.

But it's going to end up in a tangled mess. OK, isn't it going to get...

Hang on.

She's got to be a bit 'telepathetic' sometimes

when I'm telling her to do things and she's going, "What do you want?"

-Jim, it's getting tangled back there, love.

-Hang on.

I know what I want,

but it just takes a bit of getting through sometimes.

Pig's ear, isn't it? Hang on.

He's in a bit of a tangle.

BLEEP!

All right, hun?

Constantly smiling, not complaining, nodding

and keeping the farmer happy.

Do you want me to do it?

No.

There are tough days, but there are way more good days than tough days.

Lately, the farmers' common enemy has given Jim and Kate

some difficult days.

It's all to do with the weather and the seasons, how you feel as well.

A year can be a total success or a total failure

because of the weather.

Come on, girls.

We'll wait for them to get here, then they can all have food.

This winter has been the wettest on record.

We've had nonstop rain for bloody months.

Like farmers across the whole of the UK, Jim and Kate

are struggling with waterlogged ground.

This makes every task that little bit harder.

We've had a bloody hard time, as you can see it's wet.

I've farmed here 30 years and I've never known nothing like it.

It's seriously wet.

But the sheep seem to cope and as long as they're having their food,

as long as we can find a bit of dry ground to feed them on...

It's getting harder.

It'd be a lot nicer if it was sunny.

-It'd be preferable.

-Could do with it drying up now,

cos we've had a tit full, to be honest, of this weather.

It'll be just nice to have a bit of dry weather.

At the moment it's dark, grey, miserable blooming weather

but you know spring is just round the corner and

when that comes, you'll have Dr Green back out in the fields

and all will be the better.

The pattern of the farming year is always the same.

But it's getting harder and harder to make a living from the land.

You'd never farm to be rich, to be honest.

If you didn't love it, you wouldn't do it

because the financial reward isn't there at the end, to be honest.

Like many farming families,

the Beavans have diversified in order to bring in extra income.

The long-established family butcher shop has been joined

by a country skills school.

Oh, could you be my pelvis? Would you mind? I'm sorry.

It might be easier. There we go.

So there's the head. Is that the right way round? Yep.

Today, Jim and Kate are demonstrating lambing techniques

to wannabe farmers and smallholders.

You go over the top of the head.

We had a girl come on the first lambing course

and she wouldn't leave and I said, "What's wrong?"

She said, "Well, I've got to lamb a ewe."

If you've got one leg back, then that can cause a problem.

"It's on my bucket list," she said.

I said, "Bucket list, what the bloody hell's that?"

And she said, "It's one of the things I want to do before I die,"

I thought, "Christ, marvellous!"

Just as the Beavans share the tasks on the farm, they also share

the satisfaction they take in their animals and in farming.

I'm very proud of what we produce on the farm.

And when you've got a pen of lambs, you think, "I produced them."

And it is a nice feeling, to be honest, to know that you're

producing lambs to the best quality you can and people appreciate it.

Working as Jim and Kate's apprentice shepherdess on the first series

of Lambing Live was what originally inspired me to begin farming.

Now I've got my own land, the routine - the daily tasks that

have to be done - is something I've come to love.

It doesn't matter what the weather's doing,

what day it is, this is the way it has to start,

with feeding and checking the animals.

It's funny, I think I've never been a person who's had much of routine.

I just love the rhythm of it.

There's always muck that needs dealing with in one form or another.

It's become a bit of a joke

with Ludo, my husband, and Tim

up at the farm that if there's ever any mucking out to do,

I'm their girl.

Alongside the daily routines of farming comes a strict

yearly timetable.

Autumn is the time when we turn our attention to lambing,

because this is when ewes come into season.

I'm not sure I'm allowed to call myself a sheep farmer yet.

But I have sheep and I'd like to get them in lamb so I'm heading off

to a council farm just outside Caerphilly

to see my friend Russ Jones.

Russ breeds badger faced sheep like the ones I have at home.

-Morning, Russ.

-Morning. How are you?

-Good.

-Nice to see you.

'I'm here to borrow one of his rams.'

He's a little bit wild, Kate, I'll have to catch him.

Steady, boy.

This ram has proved his worth by producing good lambs last year.

He'll come to my smallholding for two months.

If he does his job properly, he'll get all my ewes pregnant

in that time.

Good boy. There you go.

'He doesn't waste a moment.'

Wow. It's like bees to the honey pot.

It's the perfect day for romance, isn't it?

I love this moment. I love the kind of sussing of each other out.

As you can see, he's definitely interested in them.

And so he should be. They're beautiful.

'Now I just need to wait for nature to take its course.'

Of course, most farmers buy rams rather than borrow them.

Which makes ram sales like this one in Kelso,

in the Borders of Scotland, a key event in the farming diary.

It's a chance to catch up with friends, as well as buy

and sell stock.

Top notch rams can go for thousands of pounds.

A good investment if they father healthy lambs for your flock.

John Scott comes here each autumn to buy new rams

for his flock in the Highlands.

It's a bit of a carnival.

You can get carried away very easily and spend more than you planned to.

We spent 2,600 guineas on this guy.

Looking forward to getting him home

and seeing how he looks at home with the rest of the sheep.

John's ancestors moved to the north of Scotland in the 18th century

to act as shepherds. And they've been here ever since.

Generation after generation of farmers.

The Scotts have the biggest farm of all our families,

with more than 4,000 sheep.

They also have 120 cows and bulls...

..500 acres of arable land...

..more ducks and hens than they can count,

two horses and, until recently, four pigs.

And here they are now. And they taste really good.

John chooses his animals according to their ability to survive

and prosper in this harsh landscape.

Some of the ground we farm especially up here

in Sutherland is pretty challenging.

That's why we've gone for a breed like the Luing cow

who are really used to being outside all the time.

In the case of these girls, as you can see, the wind is coming flying

off the sea there, but these girls are tough.

They'll outwinter no problem.

They've got a cracking view, on a nice day up here.

It's really a pleasure to be here.

It's a beautiful place to farm

but the challenge is to make money from it at the same time.

Come on, girls.

John is the fourth generation of Scotts to farm here - something

that came as no surprise to his dad, James.

I always knew John would follow me into farming.

He was out on the farm whenever he could, there was no way

he was not going to farm.

Like lots of farming children,

he took an interest in stock from an early age.

When I was six or seven, I started to be of a little bit of use.

I would have been out with Dad in the pick-up from a lot younger

age than that, like James was.

He started coming out aged two, and started to recognize cows

and bulls and pick up their names.

Beltex!

We're weaning off my sheep, which are the Beltex,

which are the ones on the right-hand side.

I had my own Jacob sheep when I was about ten,

and we would take them to local shows

and we always used to come last,

and if we had two in the class we came last and second last.

Son James's record in the show ring is shaping up more impressively.

This one here's Petunia.

We got champion at the Nairn Show with her.

This one here's Kirsten and she was also champion at the Nairn Show,

but she was champion in 2009.

Well, that's Poppy staring at the camera.

She's a bit of an attention seeker.

When family members are work colleagues as well as

flesh and blood, relationships aren't always easy to manage.

Working with Dad and family can be challenging at times,

there's no doubt about that, but it can be really rewarding as well.

-Is that the good one?

-That's the good ewe, yeah.

I don't think there was any official handover from Dad

and myself on the farm.

I'm very lucky in that he let me start buying stock when I was 17,

and just gradually over the years, I've done more and more.

We probably need to up the feed a bit or change it a bit, maybe some new rolls.

I do give John the benefit of my wisdom.

He sometimes listens, not very often.

Don't give them more than they're getting at the moment - that would give them a balanced ration.

Now and again he's utterly wrong not to listen,

but that's the way of things.

I'm quite pleased with them.

-I just hope you are too.

-No, no, they're decent.

Affection for their animals is something our farming families share.

But farming is a business,

and for money to come in, animals also have to leave the farm.

John is sending 420 of last year's lambs to the abattoir.

There is a degree of sadness

because you've spent time with those animals over the weeks and months.

More so when it's an individual animal, for example,

an old stock bull or an old stock tup that's been here for years.

For example, we had an old ram went away last week,

he'd been here for five or six years, he'd done a really good job.

And it was sad to see him go.

I've certainly shed tears on several occasions,

I'm sure many farmers have done.

You do get attached to animals.

It's just farming.

You've just got to deal with it.

John hopes to be able to pass the farm onto his own children,

as his father passed it to him.

But working out what the future of the farm will be

can be financially and emotionally challenging.

There's always a debate surrounding handing the family farm on and how you do it.

If you've got three or four kids, do you give it to one? Do you make it fair?

Do you give it to the boys, not the girls?

It's always an interesting topic of discussion.

It can be a real source of fall-outs in families.

But I think the key is getting the kids involved early

so they buy into what we're trying to do

and where we're trying to get to.

And for John, a future without Scotts on this farm would be unimaginable.

When you ask farmers about the next generation

and whether they want their kids to follow them into farming,

most of them will say, "Oh, as long as they're happy,

"as long as they do what they want to do and live their lives, that'll be fine."

That's absolute rubbish.

Most farmers would be delighted if their children followed them

into the industry, and I am definitely in that camp.

I'd love to set all my children up with farms if they're keen to farm,

but it's going to be a big challenge, but we'll have a go.

No farm is complete without its sheepdog.

The dogs come in all shapes and sizes, but the job is the same -

helping the farmer to gather and move the sheep in a flock.

The sheepdog is the shepherd's essential partner.

I can't help feeling that I won't cut the mustard as a farmer

until I have a sheepdog on my heel.

A year ago I bought a Welsh sheepdog with the idea of training her

for work, but I very quickly realised

that I knew absolutely nothing about training a working dog.

So I've been getting some help from someone who does,

and I'm on my way to see how my little dog, Teg, is getting on.

Teg has been away for the last six weeks learning how to manage sheep

under the expert tutelage of Adeline Jones.

I'm desperate to see her, and to find out how she's been getting on.

Hi!

Hello, my pretty girl.

Hello. It's lovely to see you. And lovely to see my dog.

Are you going to do a bit of showing off?

Well, no, I don't do showing off. She can do the showing off.

Come on, Teg.

When I last saw Teg, she was far too boisterous to control the sheep.

Come by.

Now she's going to be a bit excited to start with.

Teg, steady!

-Come by.

-The instructions "come by" and "away"

ask Teg to move clockwise or anticlockwise around the flock.

Teg, come by. That's it. There.

There's been a huge change in my little dog.

Come by. Teg, come by.

She's hanging on Adeline's every word, responding to commands.

Good girl.

And between them, they have the flock just where they want them.

It's just the most wonderful thing to watch.

I feel like a ridiculously proud parent.

I can't believe that's my dog.

You're doing very well, but I don't think you're supposed to be here.

You're supposed to be working.

Teg is starting to look like a proper sheepdog.

Now it's me that needs some training.

So that hand gesture is to send her back round...

That hand gesture is to tell her that she's coming a bit close and I want her down there.

With you, she seems to know exactly what you're after,

and that's going to be my big challenge,

being able to inspire that confidence.

My aim with her is to get her to a position where she can teach you.

Hopefully, she'll teach you and I won't need to do much of it.

Well, let's see. I hope I'm as good a pupil as Teg.

-She knows where she's going.

-She does indeed.

Now the job today is to get these ewe lambs that need to come in.

All right. Shall we try, Teg?

Come on, then.

I have to get Teg to drive these sheep up the field,

through a gate and down the road.

Steady, Teg. Go steady.

I'm having to think hard about every word and gesture.

I'm slightly out of control.

It all looked so simple when Adeline was in charge.

Thank goodness Teg knows where she's going.

That'll do, Teg.

Good girl.

Teg is utterly transformed.

I'm so proud of my little dog!

She's just walking beautifully behind the sheep, keeping them all together.

Now she's keeping them calmly together, waiting for me.

Poor little dog - she's going to spend her life waiting for me.

It's so fantastic having a working dog and seeing her work.

-That's what it's all about.

-That is what it's all about. Thank you.

I can't thank you enough.

Teg, stop working, come here. You are a very good girl.

For all the farming families I've met,

producing quality animals is a matter of pride.

Roderick Runciman is a pedigree breeder

with a reputation for producing some of the very best Cheviot sheep.

They looked well in the ring.

They've got breeding coming out of their heads.

Roderick and his family live on just over 1,000 upland acres

near Galashiels in the Scottish borders.

I'm Roderick Runciman.

I live here at Allanshaws with my wife, Amanda,

and my two kids, Lewis and Libby.

Roderick insists on doing almost all the jobs on the farm himself.

Something that's not gone unnoticed by wife, Amanda.

My granny told me and my mother not to marry a farmer.

So we didn't really listen to her, did we?

You can't choose who you fall in love with, can you?

They're always out working and the farm comes first and you're second,

third or fourth depending on how many children you have.

If you work with the sheep yourself and the job's not done right,

you've only one person to blame.

It's up to you how good you want to do the job

or how well you want to do the job.

I'm bloody useless on a tractor.

I am, honestly - shocking!

I do enjoy working on my own.

I probably don't trust anyone else to look after the sheep, like.

Although he has devised the odd labour-saving device

to make his life easier.

This is my snacker for feeding the sheep inside to save carrying

bags of feed along the sheep shed,

which is a long way, 180 feet, with a bag of feed on your back.

His flock of Cheviot ewes are expecting 1,500 lambs,

so Roderick is treating them to a bit of TLC.

That's a tremendous view when you look up the shed

and see all the heads out eating and feeding.

Pedigree animals like this are the supermodels of the sheep world,

sold to other farmers as top quality breeding stock.

You don't learn how to breed sheep, you either know or you don't.

You either enjoy doing it

or if you don't enjoy doing it you have to find another profession.

To the untrained eye, his sheep may all look the same,

but Roderick is attuned to the tiny variations between them.

There's a pen of 30 sheep, and every one is different.

You've got shorter ears, longer ears. Och, they are different.

You've got wider ears, you've got darker ears.

But I only know the ones I want to know.

You've got taller ones, you've got shorter ones.

The rest get treated the same, you know what I mean?

Roderick is obsessive about improving his flock.

You're always wanting to try and breed better sheep,

and you're always wanting to buy a better sheep

and also try to sell a better sheep.

It's a never-ending circle.

You don't get it right, you need luck.

When a tup breeds well with your ewes you need luck there,

you need an eye to see that it could happen,

but if it does happen, it's also luck.

He has had more luck than most,

and has an enviable collection of silverware to prove it.

These two trophies were for winning the Highland Show in 2013 for the third year in a row.

These two are the Border Union. Great privilege to win that.

He puts his heart and soul into it and he does work 24/7

and he's reaping the rewards of his hard work.

This is Synton Bullseye, the champion Cheviot at the Highland Show in 2012.

In 2009, I won female champion and reserve

and male champion and reserve male champion.

They say it's the first time it's been done

in the North Country Cheviot breed to win all four at the Highland Show.

I'm very proud at the sides, clapping and everything.

No, it's good. It is good.

Last year's Highland Show winning ewe is a much-loved member of his flock.

This is Pam.

She's got the character that folk look for in a show ring.

Beautiful hair. Ach, it's great winning the Highland Show.

It's amazing.

To win there is the pinnacle, like, it's tremendous

because it's the whole of Scotland, it's the whole of Britain in fact.

And the quality sheep in Scotland are just second to none.

I got asked to meet the Queen, and this is me meeting the Queen.

And she says it was a great honour to meet me.

A great honour to meet me!

Whether they're breeding sheep as pedigrees or for meat production,

our farmers are united in their love for a particular time of year.

The best thing about sheep farming for me is lambing time.

I absolutely adore lambing time.

Your first lamb that's been born up on its feet next to its mother.

Skipping or the sheep all lying, chewing the cud.

Bouncing in the field, and you go out and watch them

and they're galloping around.

Absolutely amazing!

That's one of the most satisfying sights for me.

I love the business of it, I love the pressure of it. I just love it.

Back at home, my ten ewes are heavily pregnant.

But up the road on our farm,

Tim's are already proudly showing off this year's lambs.

Oh, my goodness! Suddenly you're overrun!

So this one was a pair of twins born about four o'clock.

Early hours in the frost and cold so it's lucky they were in, really.

Another nice lamb. You're a real cheeky one!

Good girl. I do love this time of year.

It's a brilliant time of year. Yeah, it just brightens the day up

when you've got lambs being born and they're healthy

and you see them skipping around outside.

Anything looking close now?

This one, she's been up and down a bit today, so I'm sort of expecting

she'll probably lamb later on.

But lambing time also means long hours

and extra jobs like bottle-feeding lambs.

It's the one thing I don't like about lambing.

Bottle-feeding, I love, but mixing up the milk,

it's just got the most horrible smell.

Hang on. We're not going very far.

This lamb is struggling to find its mother's teats

and needs a bit of extra help.

Did a good mix this time, obviously.

There is something very, very adorable

about the idea of bottle-feeding a lamb.

However, when you've got lots of them

and they all need bottle-feeding a minimum of three times a day

and they all take ages, it is every farmer's nightmare.

But I have to confess I still quite like it.

The novelty hasn't worn off yet.

This is my fourth lambing season.

However many times I see it,

the miracle of new life never loses its power to astonish.

We've got a ewe in the last stages of labour.

I think if she lies down, I might go and make sure she's OK.

Can see her straining there.

My midwifery skills have improved over the last few years.

Ooh, that's a big 'un.

There you go, girl. There you go, girl.

I just never, ever, ever get bored of that moment.

There's something just wonderful about a lambing shed.

I can't really believe that four years ago, five years ago

I'd never been into a lambing shed,

and now if somebody said what would my favourite building be,

I know I should say Westminster Abbey or St Paul's,

but I'd say this shed right here.

One lambing shed I'm going to become very familiar with

is in the Scottish Borders,

where this family aren't just preparing for lambing,

but also for our cameras.

The Dykes are this year's Lambing Live family,

and over the next week, they'll be sharing the highs

and lows of their lambing season with us.

Hamish and Susie both work full-time on the farm,

wrangling their sheep and cattle together.

Hamish's dad John has taken a back seat after years in charge.

Today, he and Mum Kate breed Highland ponies.

That's a good boy.

Children Rosie and Murdo love living here.

Hello.

Well, we're going to put the ferrets into the garden

and see what they think of snow.

-But they currently prefer ferrets to farming.

-No, no!

But it's the Dykes' sheep which will be the stars of our show

during Lambing Live. 1,000 of them are pregnant

and due to lamb in March and April.

Susie is diligently looking after them

and is responsible for supplying meals on wheels.

She delivers the expectant ewes their breakfast and dinner,

whatever the weather.

Well, I think Susie's new job title is sheep feeding technician.

Frozen, absolutely frozen.

My fingers are numb and I can't feel my toes.

I had to check up the wages schedule to find out how much it would

cost me, but I think that was the lowest one I could find.

Apparently, there's no such thing as bad weather,

just inappropriate clothing.

I'll have to ask the boss if I can get some new thermals, I think.

These ewes are on a special diet

depending on how many lambs they're expecting.

Nutrition could make the difference between a good lambing season

and a disastrous one for Hamish and Susie.

Sheep, if you overfeed them,

and they're only carrying one lamb,

you can have horrendous bother at lambing time -

the lamb would be enormous, and very difficult birth,

so we have to be careful what we feed who

and we have them all in different batches.

Like our other farming families, the Dykes are wedded to this

patch of land and the lifestyle it provides them with.

The openness of this view, and it is beautiful, this open vista...

It doesn't matter about the weather,

if it's a nice day or a rotten day,

if the wind's getting you in the face and it's hailing up your nose, it's still just a lovely spot.

It's not just a job you go to in the morning and come home at night.

This is our life and, yes, we're working maybe longer hours

than some people might.

But views like this, whether it's raining, snowing, sunny or warm,

it doesn't matter.

Maybe I own the farm but I don't regard it as owning it as such.

I'm here for a short time

and I have the duty of care to look after it and then pass it on.

When you consider all the people who've been here before

and the things they've done, it is a privilege to have that opportunity.

The Dykes began thinking about lambing five months ago,

when the ewes got pregnant.

Soon they'll see the results of all their hard work.

They have a long list of jobs still to do

before they're ready for lambs, and the Lambing Live cameras.

As soon as you turn that corner into January and you start counting it

down almost to lambing time and it's very obvious it's round the corner.

All of a sudden you're into March and yes, the ewes are starting

to get big and heavy and their udders are growing,

so lambing time does come round very quickly at the start of the year.

You start to prepare your sheds and your fields

and make sure the environment

and everything else is correct for when the sheep do start lambing.

Hamish is turning one of his sheds into an antenatal ward for his expectant ewes.

Today, we've just emptied this shed out of all the rubbish that

was in here in preparation for the sheep coming in, so putting

down the straw, sheep are probably better off in here for a wee while.

Normally, Hamish's sheep live outside year-round.

But this year's terrible weather conditions have meant a change of plan.

This is the reason we're bringing them in.

This is where I find out I've got holes in my wellies!

The sheep would not do very well in this - they would just get wet

and miserable and get diseases.

They certainly wouldn't thrive and produce nice lambs.

Can I come back out?

The sheep need to come inside.

But first Hamish has to finish building their indoor feeding stations.

It's useful to be a handyman as well as a stockman when you're a farmer.

I do like building things that are going to make my life easier.

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

The feeders are installed in the maternity shed

and it's ready for its new occupants.

John is bringing the pregnant ewes off the hills,

and into their warm indoor accommodation.

Today, we're getting the ewes inside.

With things getting so wet, it's difficult feeding them.

A bit kinder to them, keep them in good condition.

The Dykes have done all they can to make sure the sheep

are comfortable, healthy and well prepared for impending motherhood.

Can you stop the sheep going down the road, please?

We're going to stop the sheep coming up here. Here they come now.

Not that keen to go in, are they?

There we go.

Come on, ladies.

It's quite a heavy gate, this one.

It is quite heavy. It's a good job I had my porridge this morning.

The feeders Hamish designed and built seem to meet with approval.

Look at that! Perfect height.

Don't show people that. I need to get a patent on it first.

Now the sheep are feeding themselves,

Susie's role as sheep feeding technician is redundant.

We'll find another title for her, I think.

Another job, I think you'll find for me.

Yeah, she could be the farmer feeding technician, perhaps.

This barn is about to become our Lambing Live studio.

The sheep and their lambs may not know it,

but they will be the stars of our show.

It's going to be quite rewarding to be able to show people

what we do on a daily basis.

I hope we live up to their expectations

and portray this farming community in a good light.

From Tuesday night we'll be watching the Dykes' flock 24 hours a day.

We'll bring you all the drama of spring's most exciting event.

So, join us for Lambing Live 2014.