Armadale farming life in the spotlight in TV documentary series
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A north coast farm is among those featured in the latest series of the award-winning TV show This Farming Life.
Next week's opening programme will follow hill farmer Joyce Campbell of Armadale Farm as she makes her annual trip to the lamb sales in Lairg, one of the largest events of its kind in Europe.
It is the farm's biggest pay day of the year, and viewers will watch as Joyce waits anxiously to see if she gets a good price for 600 of her best North Country Cheviot lambs.
It all comes down to a few minutes in the sales ring, where shepherdess must become saleswoman to achieve the best price for her lambs.
The programme is scheduled for Tuesday, August 18, at 8pm on BBC Two.
Armadale is one of six new farms featured in the present series, which follows farmers from the Highlands to the Lake District as they go about their day-to-day work.
Filmed during one of the most difficult years for farming to date, the fourth series begins at the end of summer 2019 as concerns come to the fore about Brexit.
The filming at Armadale was a family affair with Joyce's husband Ian Macleay getting involved as well as her nephew and niece, twins Mure and Frances Grant (20), who worked on the farm over lockdown.
Joyce explained that they were followed by the camera crew for a year, filming everything from putting the tups out to gathering the sheep and scanning ewes.
"It has been an intense year’s filming," she said. "I really hope that we give a true representation of the farming industry, hill farming in particular, and what makes us tick."
Joyce, a co-chairperson of the Women in Agriculture Taskforce in Scotland along with rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing, was pleased that women were well represented in the programme.
Pointing out that it was a good opportunity to showcase the north, she said: "I am a wee bit nervous – there will be critics, but you just need to be true to yourself and be proud of what you do."
Joyce had previously turned down a chance to take part in series two of the documentary. "I felt this time I was was determined to speak to the people who actually buy the food we produce and grow," she said.
"When there are so many negative stories about farming it really is important to speak to the people who matter and sell the story behind the food we produce."
Along with running a farm Joyce is kept busy helping out with various committees and groups, whether it's a community project such as the building of the new Armadale Village Hall or a Women in Agriculture meeting in Edinburgh.
She feels having the cameras around will make people aware of the distances involved in the work she does.
Twelve hour-long programmes have been filmed, with the first episode also featuring 28-year-olds Matt and Dani Blair, who run a traditional hill farm at Haweswater in the Lake District. They are about to take on the biggest gamble of their lives – moving 10 miles north, taking on a new, bigger farm and adding it to their existing land.
In Aberdeenshire, new entrant farmers Isla and George French, who have three children under five, are preparing for new arrivals. Their mixed livestock farm is home to Belted Galloway cows, Dutch Spotted sheep, 100 red deer and, more surprisingly, ostriches. In the first episode Isla oversees the hatching of this year's baby ostriches in her ostrich nursery.
In Northumberland, Emma Gray and firefighter-turned-farmer husband Ewan have a 100-acre farm which is off grid and off the beaten track. Emma is one of the UK’s top sheepdog trainers and trialists and she is seen preparing to compete in the English national sheepdog trials.
