Episode 16 Landward

Hello, and a very warm welcome to Landward, your window on the

working world of Scotland. We'll be going back to school at the

country's first pig academy. But first, here's what is coming up on

the programme. Hill tracks, an essential tool for estate

management or a blot on the landscape? At the moment it is a

death by a 1000 cuts because we are losing a lot of land to tracks and

development. We are at the races with a top trainer, Jim Goldie.

on, son! Come on, Jack! Go on, boy, that's it. And Iwan learns how to

make charcoal. Over to the kiln. Yes. And tip it right down the

The Scottish pig industry has a shortage of trained stockmen. You

may think there is not much to it, but looking after a pig's welfare

and rearing them is a skilled job. To address the problem, Quality

Meat Scotland has joined forces with Barony College to set up

Scotland's first pig academy. When I first heard we were doing a film

about a pig academy, I imagined pigs in mortar boards sitting in a

classroom, but of course it's not these guys going back to school,

The pig academy is a new, modern apprenticeship for pig keepers.

What we're trying to do is take that learning from the more

experienced people on the farm and add to it a bit of the rigour you

get from college courses and structured education. And how

needed is this qualification within the industry? It is vital. Getting

staff into the industry is one the biggest challenges we face, and

once we have got them, keeping them. It is about giving people job

satisfaction as well. They can get that by developing them on the job

and that is what this programme will do. Looking after livestock is

a responsible job that takes skill and dedication. So making sure any

young up and coming stockmen have the right training is vital, not

only for the health and well-being of the animal, but also for the

economic viability of the business. One benefit for employers is that

the course uses distance learning, and students can remain working on

the farm. For us, as a business, the biggest attraction is it is

done remotely and we can actually not have to send staff off the farm.

People think you get from farm to fork, it's just feeding, watering

them, keeping them going, but there is a lot more to it. It's quite an

interesting and technical kind of thing to get them to grow. Various

elements can make a business not profitable. A good stockman who

knows about what he's doing is worth his weight is gold. Craig

Mackie is the first apprenticed from Slanes Park Farm to sign up

for the new pig academy course. Will we be doing today here? We are

going to be bedding a couple of pens of the young weening piglets.

Probably not a great thing to do on some occasions, but have you ever

had any difficult situations? I've been good. I've been lucky so

far. I have had a few horror stories in the past, but not too

many quite that yet. I got a weaner last year that my friend fattened

on the farm for the table, and I have to say the size of my pig was

nothing in comparison to the site of this sow, so are nervous before

going in. What we are doing is bedding down the sow and the

piglets. How carefully you have to be? Slow down, be nice and gentle.

Hopefully the piglets will come out as well. It makes life a lot easier.

A few piglets in there. Come on! How old are these? They are about

two weeks. Come on, come on. They seemed quite happy in there.

will put some clumps of straw in. guess being so young, it is a warm

day, but the wind is very chilling. Let's get them back round. Here she

comes. Alright. Here you go. There we go, back in. They will go back

in themselves. It's a good industry to be in. It's tough, it has its

times, like they all do, but the industry we are in just now is I

think very positive and this is one big positive to see this training

thing coming off and getting some new generations into the job. If

your boss is investing in you, you will feel a bit of pride and

enthusiasm which will have a knock- on effect in the business. We will

eventually have, hopefully, the top class of stock men working in

Scotland, world class. The pig academy has already attracted six

young, eager hopefuls like Craig who was already doing a fantastic

job, but with the right training, he and others like him could become

And later on the program, Nick will get his pan out and create a

delicious pork dish. Now, over the last couple of weeks we have

followed the working lives of one of Scotland's top racehorse

trainers, Jim Goldie. In the final part of the series, we are heading

It's the Saturday morning of the Ayr Gold Cup festival weekend, and

the horses are being loaded up at Jim Goldie's yard. Two horses are

running in the first race of the And Jim's star sprinter,

Hawkeyethenoo, is racing in the Gold Cup itself. The atmosphere at

the racecourse is building, and Jack Dexter is going into the first

I would prefer it if he wasn't the favourite. It doesn't make them run

at any quicker. The expectation is a bit higher. Jockey Graham Lee

will be riding Jack Dexter. He won the Grand National back in 2004 on

Amberleigh House, and has recently made the move into the flat racing.

Jim and his team have prepared Jack as best they can. Now it's all down

Racing is a team effort, so there's a lot of players on the team. There

are a lot of different things going into making winners. It's not

always the best horse that wins, you need a jockey who can get the

best out of them, and certainly in Graham Lee we have one of the best

about. Hopefully. Hopefully I am saying that after the race. They

are lined up. They are off. They get away, and Dexter Jack is

possibly the slowest one away, Frequency and Rassaman didn't get

that well away. It's not the best start. The race split into two

groups, Jack Dexter is on the ride. Come on, son! Go on, Jack! As the

race enters the final furlong, Jack Dexter hits the front in the group

on the far side. But can he hang on to the finish? Jack Dexter has gone

into the lead. By a length-and-a- half. It is Jack Dexter and Graham

Lee. Come on, boy, that's it!!! Yes!!! Needed a winner! It's a

stylish win and all the sweeter because Jack Dexter is named after

Jim's two grandsons and owned by the Jim Goldie Racing Club.

trained your mum, trained your dad, and we bred them. I am chuffed to

bits. You need good jockeys and good horses. It's a special day.

Sadly, Jim couldn't get the double. The heavy going did not suit

Hawkeyethenoo. But he still has high hopes for Jack Dexter in the

Gold Cup next year, so keep your Still to come on a programme, plans

to control the unregulated spread of hill tracks. If it changes, we

may have to get planning permission for this, which will add a

significant cost and a bureaucratic burden to an already overloaded

And perfect pork from the man with a pan. Nice and salty, fresh

Rhododendron is the scourge of much of Scotland's countryside. A lot of

effort has gone into removing them to make way for native plants. One

National Trust scheme just down the road from here involves putting the

cut down rhododendrons to good use. Rhododendron is one of Scotland's

most invasive species. It suffocates habitats and hampers

biodiversity. It's also incredibly difficult to get rid of. Here in

Loch Lomond in the Trossachs National Park, they have loads of

it. The bushes can easily get four metres high, and basically when

they get really dense, they start shading out everything else.

rhododendron desert? Yes, a dense rhododendron jungle with nothing

else in it. Instead of dozens of species or native plants or

bluebells that you see in the springtime, you just have this guy.

OK, yes, pretty purple flowers, but nothing compared to a bluebell

woodland. There's something like 4000 hectares of the national park

already infected with rhododendron, so I think the all invasive non-

native species, the early start doing something about it, the

better off you are. Clearing rhododendrons, especially big

massive ones like this, can be hard work. And once you've cut it, you

also have to get rid of it, and usually this stuff would just be

burned. But here the National Trust have come up with the unique way of

adding value to what essentially was a waste product. We are making

charcoal out of rhododendron. The reason we are making charcoal out

of rhododendron is because we were doing a lot of rhododendron

clearance in the woods and we had so much rhododendron wood to get

rid of. We were burning a lot of it and it was all going up in smoke

and we just thought, there's got to be something better you can do it

than just burn it all. Rhododendron makes absolutely fantastic charcoal.

Before we made charcoal, we tried selling it as logs to make use of

it, but it's not that great a firewood. It is a bit tarry and

crackly. It is actually really good charcoal and we've been doing it

for the last five or six years. The trailblazer volunteers are just

filling after loading the kiln along with our Ranger, Fraser, and

we have a fire getting started at the back which will provide hot

embers which are fed into the kiln to get the whole process going.

we'll do a bit of stacking. So, we got the rhododendrons. Any

particular pattern? We are using a pattern like the spokes of a wheel,

leaving a central funnel and that is where the hot embers will go

down. It is dry, isn't it? musical fire. So, I want you to

pack your sticks nice and tightly, try to fill the gaps as much as

possible. We want as much wood and as little air gaps as we can.

Unfortunately, rhododendron is twisty, so we don't get many

straight lines out of it. That is the last, pretty much the last log.

The fire is burning away in the background, so what happens now?

have to transfer that fire, all those hot embers down into the kiln.

And we will do that so with a pair of thick, heavy duty gloves, and a

big wide space. So keep those gloves on. This looks fraught with

danger. A shovelful of this? Yes, take some of the embers. Just half

a shovelful, that will do fine. And keep it out on the windward side of

you, nice and gently, over to the kiln. And tip it right down the

middle. That's the way. Look at that. The last one. So what happens

now? On with the lid? 1, 2, 3. Maybe. And a bit more. That looks

about right. With the lid in place, the rhododendron is left to burn

for 24 hours before it is ready to be put into pieces. And here it is,

the final product. And what could be better than having a barbecue on

the banks of the loch, and cooking the meat with charcoal that was

made right here in the woods of If you have a comment about

anything you've seen on the programme or have a wonderful story

to share with us, one on droppers and e-mail. Now the weather here on

the banks of Loch Lomond is warm enough, but it's pretty changeable.

So what about the prospects for this weekend and beyond? To find

out, here is the land would weather Good evening. Well, after the

deluge of rain we have seen over the last 24 hours, things are set

That rain is tied in with this static area of low pressure, which

is gradually weakening tonight into tomorrow. And we should see some

brightness coming through first thing across the far south tomorrow.

Elsewhere, a fairly cloudy start to the day with outbreaks of rain,

fairly persistent rain across the far north. As that journeys south,

it will break up. Come the afternoon, we're looking at

cloudier conditions, certainly for I can't ire and the south-west. The

best of any dry weather will be towards the border. Nuisance value

rain in the central belt. A lot of dry weather Saturday. Patchy rain

for Caithness and Yorkny, but fine weather here. Brightness in the

Outer Hebrides and the north-west corner. Fresh wind across the far

north. Lighter winds elsewhere. If you're thinking of heading to the

hills tomorrow, we're starting with the southern areas. For the Border

and Galloway hills, showers develop for the afternoon. Fairly breezy at

the tops with a strong westerly wind at times. Lighter winds

further. In Perthshire and Argyle hills, rain here. Fairly extensive

hill fog across the northern range, but that'll lift during the course

of the day, staying cloudy, though, winds will be largely light from

the east at the tops. For more southern waters, westerly, force

three or four locally. Force five around the Mull of Kintyre area.

Rain for northern areas - easterly, 4, 5 or 6. Locally 7 around the

Northern Isles at times. Moderate or good visibility. Saturday, the

rain is starting to peter out through the evening. Dry overnight,

but fairly cloudy. Temperatures generally around 7-8 Celsius. For

Sunday, we'll be looking at this weather front that has been causing

us all the problems with the rain. It has been weakening as it crosses

the country. It will brighten up behind the rain. A fairly cloudy

start, but outbreaks of rain. Brighter conditions following on,

but quite cool thanks to quite a fresh north-easterly wind at times.

For Monday this low pressure is a rather weak affair, a few showers

in circulation. Ridginging going on, which means a respite from all the

unsettled weather we have seen. A few showers in the north. A lot of

dry, bright weather and decent spells of sunshine on Sunday, cool

on Monday. All change on Tuesday with this weather system coming in

from the Atlantic bringing in rain and strong winds, pushing in across

the country, but it will be quick as it moves through. So a wet start

with strong, gusty gale-force south-easterly winds. The rain

moving on with brighter, blustery conditions following behind. For

Wednesday, a rather wet day to start with, but it should improve

Earlier in the programme, Dougie tried his hand as a pig stock man

with mixed results, but I much prefer my pork in this form, a fine,

organic Scottish pork fillet. I've come to Hugh Grierson's organic

farm near Perth where they rear Berkshire pigs. I'm going to cook

one of the pork fillets wrapped in bacon with some summer vegetables

from the garden. So the first thing I'm going to do is flatten out the

pork fillets into little medallions and then wrap them in bacon. So

here's how we do it. I'll just cut these into inch-sized pieces, press

them down on the board and then use a steak mallet to flatten them out.

Beat them out until they're about the thickness of a beer mat. Season

with a little bit of soft sea salt and a turn of freshly ground black

pepper, and then I'm going to wrap them in thin slices of ham, and I'm

using Parma ham. What the Parma ham does is give this lovely crispy

outside, which is going to go really well with my summer garden

veg, a kind of ratatouille, courgettes with a little bit of

tomato, some chilli, some garlic, some fresh basil, a splash of olive

oil, and in goes the little Parma ham medallions. Quite hot at first.

You might get a little bit of smoke, maybe the odd flame as they go in,

but it's important that the pan is really nice and hot to crisp the

bacon up on the outside. Cook the pork until it's nice and crisp on

the outside, and then flip it over. Now, once the ham is nice and

crispy on the outside, we're going to take the little medallions out,

put them onto a plate to let the pork relax. Just going to flip the

board over so I have a nice clean side here for doing the veg prep,

keep it away from the side we cut the raw meat on, a little courgette

from the garden this morning, take the ends off. I'm just going to cut

those into little wedges, and we'll chuck them into the pan and get

little bit of chopped chilli, a bit of garlic and some chopped ripe

tomato, and you can see the juice from the tomato de-glazes the

bottom of the pan, so all the flavour from the pork and the bacon

goes into the garnish. A splash more of olive oil I think in here

and a little bit of seasoning, and in we go with the spring onions,

just finely-shred spring onions. Going to add the basil, and that's

it. It's really that quick and that simple. I'm just going to carve the

pork medallions in half, and there's nothing poncey about this.

This is really rustic, lovely food, and finally, a little bit more of

the courgette-tomato garnish on top - all of those lovely

Mediterranean-style flavours. Nothing worse than eating alone,

but luckily, the lady whose pigs these are is at hand. Sasha, what

do you think? Looks great, really fresh. I think it's summery.

lovely light, delicious flavour, a real sense of the pork, nice and

salty, fresh vegetables - delicious. Now, that just shows you how easy

it is to make dishes with just a Scotland's hills are part of our

national identity. The emotive image of a rugged upland wilderness

which gave birth to hardy, yet friendly, people is used both here

at home and to market us abroad. Little wonder, then, that any

potential development within that landscape causes great controversy,

as I found out when I looked into Beautiful, aren't they? Scotland's

imposing Uplands, the perfect place to escape the overbearing march of

development - or are they? The appearance of tracks snaking across

Scotland's hillsides has caused great controversy - so much so, the

Government has proposed stricter controls, which would mean that

every new forestry or farm track would have to get planning

permission. At the moment, they don't need permission. They're

allowed under the general permitted development order, a system which

was designed to streamline the planning process, but if Government

proposals go ahead, they will need full planning permission. It's

something conservation group The John Muir Trust has been

campaigning for. If you're going to drive a tract through the middle of

Aberdeen, you'd have to go through the planning process, but at the

moment, to put it in our wild land, you're just able to jump in a

bulldozer and, you know, put a track in anywhere, and we just

think that's not really fair and reasonable and that if you have a

planning process, you have an opportunity to weigh up the

economic benefits and the environmental costs. If you drive

up the A9, for example, Scotland looks a bit like a building site.

We have a whole range of infrastructure going in. We've got

wind farms. We've got hydro schemes. We've got grouse tracks and deer

tracks, and I think it's really how we treat this environment. At the

moment, it's kind of death by a thousand cuts. We seem to be losing

a lot of our wild land to tracks and developments, and this is part

of the problem, but the main issue here is to do with the planning

process and the fact that you can do this without any discussion with

anybody, really. The controversy has arisen largely because of hill

track, but under the Government's proposals, all forestry and farming

tracks will have to go through planning. This concerns many,

including Simon Blackette, factor of Invercauld estate. We're now in

this ancient Caledonian forest here. These trees are about sort of 40 or

50 years old. We've got an access track here which was fine 50 years

ago, but as you can see, it's OK for driving Land Rovers up, but we

need to be able to manage these trees, extract these trees, so we

need to be able to bring big lorries up. Under normal

circumstances, you contact a contractor. You get a quote for

this. He comes in. He does the work. He follows the water and forest

guidelines, and that's fine. If it changes, we may have to get

planning permission for this, which will add a significant cost and a

bureaucratic burden to an already overloaded planning system, so it

will probably make a questionably viable job completely uneconomic.

The discussion arose because of one or two inappropriate hill tracks

that have been put in over the last - good number of year, and yes,

there have been some bad examples, but you shouldn't have to change

the world because of one or two small examples. If this forest

track has to be upgraded with planning permission, then somebody

has really got it wrong. However, it's also claimed that some estates

are misusing the planning loophole. At the moment, we have hill tracks

that can be constructed under permitted development for

agricultural purposes and forestry, but quite often, they are put up

under that pretence. They're quite often being used for sporting

purposes, and that, as I say, gives problems - the planning authority

then have to try and prove what the true purpose is and then try and

get planning permission for them. The accusation from many is that

the creation of upland hill tracks is simply to get people who are

coming to shoot on estates there without actually walking and it's a

misuse of the current set-up. How do you respond to that? Well, some

people actually come here because they like a good walk, and a number

of our clients actually say, "Actually, I don't want to drive

too far." But we've actually got the issue of the guys who are

actually going to - who's got to do the job, the game keepers. We

employ 15 game keepers on this estate, and they're all employed

because of the grouse. And it's part of their tool. They need to be

able to get out without knocking the hell out of the vehicles, so

you need a road that's fit for purpose, and a lot of the roads,

like this one, are not fit for purpose, and we need to maintain

them in a state they are fit for purpose. Anyone who has ever

applied for planning to get a conservatory built or whatever will

know the process takes a long time. Will this not just completely clog

up the system? No, I don't think so. The vast majority of tracks will

not be contentious, and the planning application or the

requirement for a hill track is not something that most estates or

forestry are going to do at the drop of a hat. These things

sometimes have a gestation period of months, years even, particularly

forestry. They go through quite a long process, which at the moment

bypasses the general public. that your concern? You want the

public to be aware of these things? Well, the general public will not

be aware of many of these consultative processes like the

forestry systems, and the only system most people will understand

is the planning system, and that's what they look to, and we believe

that all changes to the landscape should come through the planning

system, so everyone has a chance to comment on them. The Government has

consulted on its proposed changes to the planning regime and will

announce its conclusions shortly. Whatever the outcome, it's unlikely

to bring an end to the long-running debate over how much development is

acceptable in our hills. And we'll bring you the

Government's conclusions on the issue of hill tracks when they're

announced. Now there's just time for me to announce what's on our

agenda next week. The Scottish dairy industry at a cross-roads

just need fair milk price. We understand entirely that we need to

be efficient and we need to do the job well. We don't need to be

feather bedded. We just need a fair place. We meet one of only two

fully qualified female farriers in the country. An awful lot of hard

work, a huge understanding of anatomy and physiology and

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