This Farming Life episode 8: Autumn is on the way in Loch Ness, and at Corrimony Farm, David and Barbara are embracing a new piece of tech that involves fitting GPS collars to their herd of stabiliser cows so that they can roam the rough upland grazing high in the hills above their farm. Late summer is a busy time for Barbara and her sustainable cut flower business, and she hosts the first of many sunflower tea events in the barn.
Further down the glen, it’s all quiet on the Frasers’ farm. The whole family have come down with Covid, and Joanna makes a lifechanging career decision. In Orkney, ten-year-old Harvey is preparing to sell his fat lambs at the mart. Later, as Sean is moving cattle with dad Michael and uncle Martin, his top dog, Tara, collapses. And in Stranraer, weeks behind schedule, the pasteuriser finally arrives on site. Meanwhile, Andy and the family register their new Clydesdale foals.
Documentary series following the struggles and triumphs of very different farming families in beautiful and remote landscapes. Filmed across a year, this series follows six families in remote and stunning Scotland. It’s early spring as the farmers gear up for lambing, their busiest weeks of the year. In Northumberland, Emma and Ewan are rounding up their cattle and sheep as they prepare to move from Emma’s home for the last ten years to a farm seven times the size, on the Isle of Bute just off Scotland’s west coast. The move means taking on huge financial risk, and when they finally arrive on Bute, the scale of the challenge that lies ahead begins to sink in.
This Farming Life episode 8
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.
