Yorkshire Farm with 9 kids.

[parchworkpatty]

Now on Channel 5. Fabulous fabulous family. I grew up on a farm and reminds me of my childhood (only 2 siblings though)

So lovely to see children all mucking in as a family. And parents that don't restrict learning and adventure on 'what if' health and safety. Great balance between love , nurturing and freedom. Both parents have got it spot on !

Having read both books and now watching this series what is clear is that she’s had to diversify into cream teas, holiday cottages, publishing contracts etc etc to make hill farming pay. There is no money in sheep farming and yet it is people like them who help to conserve and protect the landscape in the National Park. What will happen after Brexit? They can’t all write books and make TV shows. It’s also interesting that neither of them is from a farming family. They are tenant farmers - they don’t actually own the farm.

I watched all 3 episodes last night and loved it too. I'm hesitant to believe it's as idyllic as portrayed though. Don't forget this is one year of life in less than 4 hours tv. I'm sure they could make 4 hours of my life look equally idyllic and I'm sure there's another 4 hours on the cutting room floor of arguments, tantrums and dramas!
It was also interesting to hear her struggle with 'mummy guilt' about them not having holidays or trips out. We all have it and the grass is always greener! :)
Having said all that they do seem amazing Just trying to add a bit of perspective.

They're quite honest about the level of hard work involved and the effort they have to go trough to keep the sheep going for only £250 or so for the wool is mad 😩 though looking at next week's preview auction is where they make money off the sheep, if at all. I love Reuben's patience with the kids.

I love how they tweezer out the white hairs from the sheep's heads

Oh god poor Clive in the auction ring. This happened to us this year.
Fucking Brexit

This is heartbreaking, that's brutal British farming now and it's only going to get worse

The series has been a really interesting insight into farming for those of us with no experience. We live semi rurally with lots of local cattle and sheep farms, but obviously have no knowledge at all of the intricacies. We buy our meat / veg locally and get our milk delivered from a local dairy farm. Hopefully more people will start to see the importance of growing and reading our own food, sooner rather than later.

Hopefully more people will start to see the importance of growing and reading our own food, sooner rather than later. Thank you

Really enjoyed this series, was it the last one tonight?

I felt really bad for Clive. Why didn't anyone give good money if they were so good?

It's been a really odd year for the sheep industry this year purple.

I won't go into the vast intricacies of sheep farming but the breed of tups Clive was selling (Swaledales) are bought by farmers who breed pure swaledale sheep with the intention of crossing the female Swaledale sheep with a different breed called a Blue Faced Leicester to make another breed known as a mule. Clive breeds Swaledales and Mules like most farmers in that area.

The female mule lambs are generally sold in the autumn and go all over the UK as breeding sheep. Only this year because of the bad spring and hot summer the usual buyers for the mule sheep didn't want them because they didn't have enough grass.

That means that farmers like Clive were already thousands of pounds down even before the tup sales and subsequently there was less money flying around for people to buy new tups.

There's also a lot of dodgy dealing in the sheep world which skews the prices some sheep sell for.

His tups were ok but there will have been many many equally as good tups there that day and at countless other sales around that time and he was selling in a saturated buyers market.

I watched it but find them a very odd couple!

I'd love to know why 9 kids ( and he has 4-5 others already.)
I'd love to know why she married a man 21 years older.

She seems to be the business brain with all the extras she has- her books, talks, column in the Yorks post, B&B at the farm. They have a lot more income other than selling sheep.

He seems gruff and a typical man of few words, and I find the dynamics between them quite strange on camera.

I thought the series was interesting, but much of it staged for the camera.

I didn't feel I got to know them as people at all or what made them tick or as a couple.

To me, he doesn't come across as gruff I don't think

To pp, I don't think the series was about getting to know them in particular as a couple though was it. It was more about the farming and the family as a whole

From the book, it read like she wanted the farm, and he was single, and not averse to a pretty young thing making eyes at him. It reads like teenage me would have been, had I never grown up, and seen more of the world.

Scrowy thank you for explaining the sheep auction / market situation.

derxa are you a farming family? We're townies, so it's been really interesting for us to move to such a farming area. Our friends couldn't believe it when we mentioned our milk gets delivered in glass bottles We love it, especially the Christmas milk tops

Ah cripes I hope that's not a polite thanks curb I know I can get really boring when it comes to sheep .

I forgot to mention, I don't know if the programme made it clear or not but people were bidding on Clive's tups, they just weren't offering the amount of money he felt they were worth so he was 'passing them out' (taking them home to use himself).

I've also since been told by DP (who stalks the market reports) that Clive sold a tup for £2k the week before the sale shown on TV and not to feel too sorry for him!

Definitely a polite thanks! I suppose the producers had an agenda selected their footage accordingly?

I hope there's another series next year, if only for the glorious scenery

I doubt there will be another series they have been heavily criticised in the farming press in recent days over health and safety issues. I believe UNITE have even got involved.

I can't see them being allowed to do it again even if they were up for it.

What things have they been criticised for?

More than one person on a quad bike at a time
Children on quad bikes in general
Children playing on hay bales
Uncovered PTO shafts
Children not in proper seat restraints
Not wearing appropriate safety equipment

Basically most farms are a health and safety nightmare but most of us aren't silly enough to invite a national tv camera crew to film us wilfully breaking every health and safety guideline going and occasionally the law...

Oh I'm surprised they would get criticised for climbing on hay bales they have hay bales to climb on at farm places near us?

What does PTO mean?

Power Take Off shaft. Uncovered PTOs kill and maim frequently. There was a case heard recently in court where a young woman died, the fatmer went to jail

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-46111935

The bales if being used officially asa play area are probably (hopefilly) secured somehow.

On a normal farm they aren't, they are just stacked. I personally know two people killed by falling bales, I know of many more vua the darling press.

Farms are great Pisces to grow up, but it's naive to think they aren't dangerous and even more naive to put it on the telly.

*Via the farming press

Sadly I appear to have little control over my auto correct

Oh I see I think I remember the bit about this power take off shaft now

I knew farms could be dangerous but wasn't really aware of these particular situations

When we were kids my granda used to drive us around in a bucket attached to the tractor, I can’t even imagine anyone doing that now!
My other granda lost both his legs in a farming accident. He got trapped in a hay bailer and had to have both legs amputated above the knee