Episode 12 Landward

Hello and a very warm welcome to Gleneagles -

Scotland's playground for the rich and famous.

And this autumn,

the landscape will be flooded with passionate golf fans from both sides

of the Atlantic as Europe take on the USA in one of the great

sporting contests, the Ryder Cup.

Later in the programme,

I'll be finding out how preparations are going on and off the course

but, first, here's what else is coming up on Landward.

Nick finds out how much people are prepared to pay for his burgers...

Let's do a deal - £6.50.

..I meet some ponies that are halting an invasion...

-It's great to have the wee ones around.

-Absolutely, yeah.

..and we visit another athlete aiming for gold

at the Commonwealth Games.

But first, golf, along with whisky and salmon,

is one of Scotland's greatest exports to the world.

But can we do the same for milk?

Sarah has been to find out.

Over the last decade, milk prices have fluctuated constantly.

In an attempt to survive, many dairy farms, like this one in Fife,

have invested in modern sheds and equipment and more cows.

These Holstein cows are super-efficient milk producers.

Decades of careful breeding mean that, given the right conditions,

they can produce up to 60 litres of milk a day.

At the moment, the UK dairy herd produces 13 billion litres

of the white stuff a year and there are plans for that to increase.

Most of the milk produced in Scotland is sold as fresh

liquid milk and drunk at home.

If the industry is going to remain profitable,

it will have to look to export markets.

Dairy exports from Scotland account for £82 million a year.

Ireland exports almost 20 times as much -

a staggering £1.5 billion worth.

And a recent Government report has recommended that we should try

and do the same.

'I'm meeting Allan Bowie from the National Farmers Union of Scotland

'to try to find out more.'

The minute you have 5% too much, the market drops,

so if we have a market for that surplus, and we're arguing

that export could be the surplus and you would take it outwith the UK...

Sorry, excuse me,

so you're saying we're producing too much at the moment.

No, we're not producing enough but the market is needing to grow

with the producer here and that's the signal we need as dairy farmers.

There's no point producing more if, tomorrow,

there isn't a market for it.

He argues that selling more dairy produce,

like butter and cheese,

both at home and abroad is the way to go.

We're relying far too heavily on the UK liquid market

and at the same time we've got the world market there, whether

it's China or Russia or these other countries, looking for quality milk,

whether it's in the form of cheese or milk powder,

but they are looking for it.

There's no point complaining that you're in a bad place.

You have to fight for the market

and have to show that you're wanting to compete and wanting to deliver.

Producing much more yoghurt, cheese and butter

will need investment in equipment of course,

but the dairy produce can be sold around the world.

If we created the capacity,

Paul Grant believes the demand is there.

It's got to be cheeses, maybe some butter...

'He's had great success building an export market for his jam business

'so the Government have asked him to apply those lessons to milk.'

For Scotland, it's about finding those speciality stories,

finding the right brands

and then selling into markets that support Scotland

so I suspect it's more to do with the Germanys, the Japans,

the Singapores, the Koreas,

and, yes, beginning the journey into China.

The hope is the dairy industry could benefit

from the international image of Scottish produce,

built by the whisky and salmon industries -

one of quality and luxury.

-So, how much potential is there for growth?

-I think there's significant.

We are behind the ball,

though, we are behind many other countries in terms of exporting,

so we are behind but thank goodness we have Scotland

and the endorsement of Scotland

and the great consumer awareness out there, so there's a chance.

But it will take time.

I'm on my way to the island of Arran,

where one company has already had great success selling abroad.

Believe it or not, the most recent supermarket to start buying

Isle of Arran cheddar is based in Taiwan.

The cheese is also sold in the United States and across Asia.

'Paul Flanagan from First Milk, the company who owns the creamery,

'is showing me round.'

-How many people do you have working here?

-We have five people.

'A tiny proportion of the cheese made here is sold in the shop out front.

'All the rest is exported

'and the packaging is tailored for that market.'

If you look at some of the cues and some of the pictures here,

Lochranza Castle here,

it is picking up some cues in the way they sell whisky,

that's the way they sell salmon in some of these marketplaces.

You mentioned whisky and salmon, so would this be

perceived as a sort of aspirational product in those countries?

Absolutely.

We're learning from what they have done,

and positioning it along those lines.

This isn't going to be something that people in China are going

to consume every single day at every single meal,

this is going to be something which is premium...

Whereas in this country, we eat it all the time.

Yeah, almost every single day.

I think 97% of shopping baskets

you've got cheese, or milk's 99%. It's different in Asia.

Understanding the tastes of consumers across the world is

key to securing new business.

There's no point in us saying to the farmers that we want another

billion litres of milk and not having a market to do that.

We need to do more at understanding what consumers want in Asia

-and the Middle East.

-So, is the export market key?

Absolutely. It's critically important for us.

For this creamery, it's absolute life and death.

As a nation, we have a fantastic reputation abroad

as producers of quality food and drink,

an image we can capitalise on

to create a better future for dairy farmers.

Now it's time to turn that opportunity into a reality.

At this time of year, Scotland's farmland is looking pretty fertile

and green but there are a few colours that are missing.

Agricultural intensification

and specialisation have simplified the landscape

and made it the domain of just a few plant species, but the loss

of our wild flowers is having a huge impact on our wildlife.

And this is what we've lost, a rich array of flora that make up

wild flower meadows, full of wildlife species that depend on it.

I'm meeting Deborah Long from Plantlife Scotland

to find out more about why our meadows are important.

Now, tell me,

what would you typically find in a meadow like this?

Well, in a flower-rich grassland like this, a pasture,

you would typically find the meadow buttercup.

It means that we've got an old pasture here.

Other examples, I've got some in my hands here, we've got

a black knapweed and it gets a beautiful purple flower on the top.

It's quite common, so people would see that quite commonly.

And this one is a yarrow.

Now, what's actually happened to our meadows? What's become of them?

Well, in Scotland, as across the rest of the UK,

there has actually been a decline,

particularly in the diversity of plants that you find in these

sorts of pastures, so although the area of grassland in Scotland

has actually gotten bigger over the last few years,

the diversity of plants within that area has actually declined.

Since the 1940s,

large areas of meadow were converted to arable farming

and chemicals were introduced in fertilisers and pesticides.

Over this period,

nearly 7.5 million acres of meadow has been lost in the UK.

Plants are the canaries of the environment if you like.

They're at the bottom of all food chains

so as soon as you see a change, a significant change,

in wild plants right across the country, then that has

an impact on other wildlife that depends on those plants,

it has an impact on us, because, ultimately, we also depend on plants.

It also has an impact on pollinators, birds, butterflies,

because they're seeing a decline in their food plants as well.

So what can be done about it?

I'm visiting the Loch of Strathbeg Nature Reserve in Aberdeenshire,

where the RSPB is doing its bit to

boost biodiversity and bring back the meadowland plants.

Helping to oversee this project is Emma Parker.

'She's about to show me

'the innovative way they have of managing the landscape.'

-Excellent, I can see them out there.

-Yep, that's them right out there.

-Shall we go and have a closer look?

-We can do, yeah.

-Let's go.

-OK.

The reserve is Britain's largest dune loch and home to

thousands of geese, swans and a whole host of other wetland birds.

There are also some animals I didn't expect to see.

These are konik ponies.

Well, konik is actually the word for small horse

or small pony in Polish,

so they were actually bred back to how they would have

been 10,000 years ago, so they're a lot hardier and a lot tougher ponies.

And why are they here?

They are here to help the RSPB and this reserve to try and cut down on

the plant that you're actually stood right next to - juncus, or soft rush.

-He's coming to see us.

-Yeah, coming to have a nosy. See what we're up to.

So, what was going wrong here before?

Basically, if you can see round where the ponies are here, we've got

a lot of soft rush which was drowning out a lot of the other plants.

At the moment, we've got just above 90%,

we want to get that back down to 40-50% of soft rush

on the reserve as a whole and try

and let some of the other wildlife-friendly flowers

actually be able to grow up

and support a bit more of the wildlife that's around the area.

The koniks first arrived here about three years ago

and the grazing has been so successful, they've introduced

a breeding programme, and behind us are this week's new arrivals.

Emma, what are you seeing?

We've got one that's just a few hours old, it's galloping around out there.

He wants to be a racehorse when he's older.

-It's great to have the wee ones around.

-Absolutely, yeah.

And just how big an impact do they have on the wider environment

apart from just the flowers?

It kind of goes up in the old style that you would've

learned at school, food pyramid, with the predators at the top

and all the plants and insects and everything at the bottom.

But it seems incredible bringing in something so big

-and beautiful as a horse is actually helping at that bottom level.

-Yeah.

When the soft rush is down to 40-50%, all the insects

and the butterflies and the bees and everything will come back

and it'll just look even more beautiful.

Now, the horses are away off in the distance,

no longer interested in us

but the introduction of them into this diverse habitat is paying off,

as you can see here by the re-emergence of the cuckoo flower.

Now, this is just one small example, but it really gives us

a sense of what can happen within our soil if we give nature a chance.

As we've seen over the past few weeks

with our Commonwealth Games hopefuls,

the Scottish countryside is the perfect training ground

for some of our athletes

and a few miles southwest of the Loch of Strathbeg,

Shona Marshall has the peace and solitude

she needs to practise her sport.

Clay target shooter Shona is already a Commonwealth Games medallist,

having taken silver in Delhi in 2010,

and the tranquillity of the area

where she lives is key in helping her achieve the right mindset.

The idea is to have as little in your mind as possible.

A Russian coach once said you should think like a donkey.

Now, how he knows how a donkey thinks, I don't know,

but the less you have in your mind when you're shooting, the better.

The idea is to do it subconsciously.

Pull!

You try and get your conscious mind thinking of something else

so you're not thinking about shooting and then just

when you pick the gun up and you're going away to shoot,

you're really trying to just be completely blank.

Former cattle farmer Shona sold her herd of Aberdeen Angus

five years ago to focus full-time on her sport.

I took the decision to sell the cattle

so that I could train full-time,

which obviously paid off in Delhi, winning the silver medal.

When you're competing at the highest level,

the bulk of the other athletes are all full-time professional athletes

and to be able to compete on a level playing field with them,

you really have to make that commitment.

Being a canny Scot, we re-use the ones that haven't broken.

She rents out the fields of her Aberdeenshire farm but

the livestock seem to be confident in her ability to hit the target.

Animals seem very adaptable and get used to different things going on.

I mean, obviously,

if a new batch of cattle arrives that's never heard

shooting before, they will be a little bit more edgy

but it doesn't take them long before they get quite used to it.

I very often have roe deer coming out onto the fields out there

while I'm shooting. We saw a pheasant this morning.

I think they know when they're not what you're shooting at.

After her podium spot in Delhi, Shona is upbeat about

her chances at Barry Budden Shooting Centre near Carnoustie,

the venue for the competition.

Well, obviously,

I have to be confident or there's not much point in going.

Shooting's a sport where you're not really competing against anyone else,

you know, there's nothing I can do to influence anyone else's

performance, so I could still go and shoot a personal best and not win.

The winner of the silver medal, representing Scotland...

'Winning the silver,

'that's been my personal high point in my career so far.

'Obviously, we're hoping to go one better in Glasgow this time.'

The countryside around her Aberdeenshire home

has been a major factor in keeping her motivated for the Games.

Living in this part of the world, I think it's just...

It's so inspiring, really, and it's...

You know, sometimes when things maybe aren't going so well,

it's great just to...

I can walk up the hill at the back there and take in

the view and you really just remember what things are important to you

and, you know, I think it's just a great place to live.

And we wish Shona well for the clay target competition

at the Games in July.

Cattle farmer Shona would have been at home at the Drymen Show,

where Nick and Sarah have fetched up with the Landward Food Van.

Open for business.

This week, they're going to find out

if the public really are prepared to pay the extra for fresh ingredients

and locally sourced produce.

Today, I'm going to show you how to make a really high-quality

burger using locally sourced beef.

I have my assistant, we're both suitably attired.

This is an agricultural show

and everyone loves an agricultural show, they come out, the sun

is shining, they want to spend some money

but usually at shows like this, the fare is a burger and sometimes

it can be lacklustre so you are going to work your magic, aren't you?

We're going to make a proper burger so we've got 1.8 kilos

of minced locally sourced beef, but to that I'm going to add...

-Try to?

-..the secret ingredient.

Now, the problem with burgers is you could make a very nice lean burger

-but it would be a bit dry and tasteless.

-So is that breadcrumbs?

No, that's suet. This is grated kidney fat.

And it does make the burger taste fantastic.

So, we're going to end up with a burger that has a fat content

of about 10% and that actually is still lower than

a lot of the commercially produced burgers.

I'm just going to mix it all together.

The only thing I would like to add in here is a little bit of mustard.

Could you give me a tablespoon of that smooth grain mustard in there?

Can you give us an idea of how much it costs?

Well, it's a little bit complicated cos you have to take into factor

the cost of the pitch and the getting here with the van,

and to give it a level playing field we would have to charge seven quid.

But is anyone realistically going to pay £7 for a burger?

I mean, if I brought my family, that would be...

six times seven.

Well, Sarah, the only way to find out

if people will spend the money, £7 per burger, is to go and ask them.

-Could you form that for me?

-Right, I'm just standing...

This is what we're looking for here, OK?

-I'm standing watching, not doing very much.

-Just like that.

-Like a pat-a-cake.

-Like a patty, that's exactly what it is.

-OK.

So, we're making these out of 150g uncooked weight.

-And you haven't added any herbs or anything like that?

-Nothing.

-Just salt...

-There's no salt in there yet.

The salt goes on just before we go to cook them.

-Ah, so on top of the burger.

-Yeah. And I can see they're very homely.

Do you know? They're sort of artisan, aren't they?

Artisan is one word for it. A bit coorse is another.

So, just straight onto a hot griddle and I'm going to cook them

very slightly medium-rare.

The reason we can serve these medium-rare,

or still slightly pink in the inside,

is this was taken from a nice piece of rump

and it was minced specially for this and it was minced today.

So, if you keep mince for a long period of time,

you can get some problems with bugs inside it.

So, while the burgers are cooking, a quick recap on the price -

if you were going to cook these burgers at home

with all the trimmings, they'd cost you about £2.30 each.

For us to make any money serving them at the show,

we'd have to charge a retail mark-up,

pushing the selling price to somewhere around £7.

-That looks absolutely delicious.

-On goes the lid.

A little skewer in there

and there we have the Landward Burger Van burger.

And we're going to find out if people will pay £7 for a burger like this.

-Remains to be seen. Ready to go?

-I am indeed, let's do it.

Hi there, you look hungry.

-Mm, that is good.

-OK, so would you pay £7 for one of those burgers?

If I was hungry, maybe.

Hmm, maybe six. Don't know about seven.

Would you pay £7 for it?

Eh, possibly, yeah.

-We're talking about £4, something like that?

-£4?

£5.50?

-Mm.

-Are you allowed to eat on the job?

-Not really.

Let's do a deal - £6.50?

Initially, it tastes phenomenal.

I would rate that up there with the five quid burgers.

-No, I would actually pay seven, I was only teasing.

-You would?

-Yes, it's excellent.

-Would you spend seven quid on that burger?

-Yes.

-You would?

-I've just said it's up there with the five quid burgers.

Well, I think it's worth it cos it tastes really good.

Would you pay £7?

I would knowing what it tasted like. However, that's a trick -

how'd you get people to know how good it's going to be?

Sarah, how were your customers?

Well, the empty trays speak for themselves,

they all absolutely loved the burger, but I hate to say I told you so,

quite a few of them were like,

"£7, I'm not sure I'd spend that." What about you?

Well, I don't think you were trying hard enough because every single one

of mine said they would willingly pay £7 for a burger of that quality.

So, perhaps they're reluctant to pay that price

-until they know what it tastes like.

-I think that's the case, yeah.

-Well, it's been great today, hasn't it?

-It has, yeah.

And that's it for this series of the Food Van, but next week

we will be sampling the delights of the Royal Highland Show.

-We're going to be there, aren't we?

-We are indeed.

-We'll see you.

Scotland is hailed as the home of golf,

and I'm at one of the world's most prestigious venues - Gleneagles.

This year, Gleneagles will play host to one of the world's biggest

sporting events - the Ryder Cup.

It's the first time the event has been hosted here

and it's a mammoth task to get the course in tip-top condition.

Very nice.

This is the 18th green.

It is immaculate, and during the competition

80 green keepers will be out and about on the course, grooming it

as the Ryder Cup is beamed

to a staggering half a billion households worldwide,

so...it's got to look good.

-How are you, Scott?

-I'm very well, Dougie.

Nice to see you hole that putt there.

You didn't see the ones leading up to it. There were quite a few!

'Course and estate manager Scott Fenwick is bringing me up to date.'

There's been a lot of challenges from the point of view of weather

and that sort of thing, getting all the work done,

but we've had plenty of time.

We've been dealing with it since 2004, really.

One of the most important tasks was a major rebuild of the 18th hole,

which had a reputation for being overly easy to play.

We created what you see in front of us now,

a big amphitheatre feel about it,

we changed the whole way that the hole played.

This is impressive stuff,

but there's a lot more to this than just building the perfect course.

Two thirds of Gleneagles is natural or semi-natural habitat

and there are 19 designated Sites of Scientific Interest.

So how does Scott's team balance the demands of world-class golfers

and a world-class natural environment?

We try and make sure that whatever we do keeps nature

and keeps everything in balance.

We try and put as little nutrient on as possible,

we're very tight with how much water we put onto the golf course as well,

so looking at all different aspects,

making sure that whatever we put into the golf course

is very minimal to achieve that.

'It's a big job already,

'so how will they cope with an expected 45,000 spectators per day?'

So we're used to big crowds coming in.

We've managed the areas on a regular basis,

so all the deep rough management we do to allow spectators around the golf course

all enhances it and keeps it nice and thin

and allows all the younger flowers and that to come through as well

instead of choking them out, so it can actually be an advantage,

it forces us into managing the whole estate,

rather than just pockets in the golf course.

This integrated land management is paying off - the estate is lush

with wild orchids, gorse and a multitude of wild flora and fauna.

We've come to this pond system

to see another example of how wildlife is encouraged to flourish.

They're used as irrigation ponds,

and that's a great habitat for local wildlife

and that sort of thing as well,

so we get a lot of birds nesting round about the hedges

and we get a lot of insect life.

The Ryder Cup is a huge event, and not surprisingly,

its impact on the land extends far beyond the course itself.

Gleneagles Railway Station is being modernised,

and road access is being made easier and safer.

Currently access to Gleneagles Station is directly on the A9.

We all know how dangerous that can be,

but a new £4.3 million access road will give drivers and pedestrians

a much safer option.

How are you? Good to see you.

'Councillor John Kellas is one of the key figures steering

'this multi-million-pound upgrade.'

So, John, a large investment has been made.

What improvements are being done here?

There's a number of different improvements to the station itself.

Just to the side of us here, you can see the access for all

with the lift system that's going in.

That was never here before,

but it's been built into a lovely station in terms of its age

and its infrastructure, and most of it's been left intact.

There is refurbishment of all of the facilities within the station,

and that's going to hold great for the long term,

for every commuter that comes here.

Yeah, because you can see there is work in progress

-here in front of us, and here in behind us as well.

-Yes.

Now, this was always an issue, getting out of the station here,

but improvements to the road too.

A vast improvement, because it's not direct access onto the A9 itself,

and that has to be looked forward to by everybody

because the access as you came in today, it was dangerous,

particularly if you were coming northbound,

you were cutting across the flow of traffic,

and now you've got direct access onto a roundabout

just above the main road with proper slip roads,

so it's integrated, and I think

it will be a facility long-term that the community are looking forward to.

Absolutely, and I guess these improvements happening just now

are not just for the Ryder Cup, they're for the long term.

Very much the long term.

We'll see the benefits to the station itself, the road network benefits,

but of course one of the best legacies of all

is the fact that tourism itself will be a terrific showcase for Scotland

and for Perthshire itself.

On a relatively quiet day like today,

it's hard to imagine over 250,000 people descending here

for the Ryder Cup in September,

but already you get the sense of anticipation for a bonanza

for the local area, and hopefully the whole of Scotland.

I can't wait.

And I can't wait for next week,

when Landward hits the Royal Highland Show.

We'll be at Ingliston for special programmes on both Friday and Sunday

bringing you the best of the sights and sounds from the week

when the country comes to town.

Please join us for that at the same time next week, Friday night,

7:30 on BBC Two Scotland.

In the meantime, from all the Landward team here at Gleneagles,

thanks for your company. Bye for now.