People establish farms for all kinds of reasons. It could be a lifelong dream or a desire to connect with the land.
You can find a lot of helpful information about farming and how to start a farm by looking through publications and websites. Some popular ones are Acres U.S.A, Chelsea Green Publishing and Storey Publishing.
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This Farming Life returns for sixth series, following a year in the lives of five farming families across Scotland.
In the first episode, the Autumn sales are over and preparations are being made for winter.
In Newtonmore in the Cairngorms National Park, Robert MacKenzie needs to gather in all his pregnant cows back down to the croft for pregnancy testing. Costs of feed and fertiliser have shot up this year, so if not enough are in calf, it may be time to stop farming cattle.
In North Uist, the MacDonald family are harvesting potatoes grown in the sandy Machair soil unique to the West of Scotland. The croft has been in Angus’s hands since the 1980s but now he’s steadily handing over the reins to son Fraser and daughter-in-law and only full time farm worker Carianne.
Not all farmers have generations of knowledge to tap into.
On Thorabella Farm near Dallas in Moray, Nikki and Ollie Lake are doing things a bit differently.
They bought their first farm in 2017 with the goal of living as self-sufficiently as possible.
They need to call on the vet to help one of their cows that’s having a difficult birth.
This Farming Life returns for a 12 part series on Monday, August 28 on BBC Scotland, 8pm – 9pm and again on
Tuesday, August 29 on BBC Two, 8pm – 9pm.
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Source: northern-scot.co.uk
