This Farming Life episode 12

This Farming Life episode 12: In Loch Ness, the countdown to Christmas begins. Donald and Joanna hit a few teething problems as they open their new farm shop in the middle of a winter storm. Later, with their reindeer event in full swing, they reflect on their year of change.

In Fife, brothers Mike and Pete work in stormy weather to bring the cows in for their first pregnancy scanning, which will reveal how successful their new joint venture has been. The whole family gets involved with a local Clydesdale horse show, in which young colt foal Rocky competes against his older stable mate, Maximus.

As Emma and Ewan near the end of their first year on their new farm in Bute, they are taking the time to return to what they know and love best: training sheepdogs. Later, they reveal a new business plan, which draws on both their strengths.

This Farming Life episode 12

Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Pigs, sheep, goats, and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture.

The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials (such as rubber). Food classes include cereals (grains), vegetables, fruits, oils, meat, milk, eggs, and fungi. Over one-third of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture, second only to the service sector, although in recent decades, the global trend of a decreasing number of agricultural workers continues, especially in developing countries, where smallholding is being overtaken by industrial agriculture and mechanization that brings an enormous crop yield increase.

Modern agronomy, plant breeding, agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, and technological developments have sharply increased crop yields, but cause ecological and environmental damage. Selective breeding and modern practices in animal husbandry have similarly increased the output of meat but have raised concerns about animal welfare and environmental damage. Environmental issues include contributions to global warming, depletion of aquifers, deforestation, antibiotic resistance, and other agricultural pollution. Agriculture is both a cause of and sensitive to environmental degradation, such as biodiversity loss, desertification, soil degradation, and global warming, all of which can cause decreases in crop yield. Genetically modified organisms are widely used, although some are banned in certain countries.