Across some of the most beautiful and remote landscapes
of the British Isles...
There's not many views like that. It's absolutely stunning.
..Scotland's farmers work day and night...
..producing our milk and our meat...
..trying out new ideas...
Buffalo doesn't want to do something,
you're going to find it very difficult. Hey!
..and striving to turn a profit in tough economic times.
We're struggling, we're definitely struggling.
A wee rosette. Over the course of a year,
six very different families let cameras onto their farms...
Everything that could've gone wrong there went wrong.
The idea of lying on a beach - bliss!
..to share their struggles...
We have to get her out or she's going to die.
..and their triumphs.
Thank you.
It's not about the pay cheque. It's about the lifestyle.
Across the country,
spring is blossoming into summer.
The rush of births is over.
But there's no let-up for farmers.
They must now ensure the new mothers and their young survive...
Come on girls, come on! Come on!
..and cattle, wintered indoors, return to the fields...
..to fatten up on freshly-grown grass.
It's definitely one of the rewards of having livestock,
having these moments where you get to set them free and you know that
they're going to be very happy to be out in the grass.
The best environment for them.
In Fife, the grazing land
surrounding Stevie Mitchell's farm
is beginning to grow lush and green.
It's time for his cattle to be turned out.
Come on.
But this is no ordinary herd.
Stevie keeps 400 buffalo.
And today, the first of them are about to set off
on a trek to their summer home.
I've chosen to let the cows with the young calves out first.
Mainly cos we intend not to really have to have much to do with them over the summer,
so we're taking them to the furthest-away field
which is probably about three miles from here.
It's a journey they're familiar with.
Five months ago, Stevie herded the cows
back to the farm for shelter over winter...
..where they gave birth to 30 calves.
Come on.
Come on, guys.
Now, these new mums will be introducing their calves
to the outdoors for the first time.
So it's great just to be able to let them out and have space
and, er...really enjoy life.
Freedom.
Stevie's in the business of producing premium meat.
By mid-May, the grass will be full of protein, sugars and fibre.
Come on now.
Livestock that feed on pasture will have leaner meat filled with
higher levels of antioxidants and omega-3.
The sun's out, it's great,
the animals will thrive now they're out in the fields.
As long as we can get them into the right field
without any up in a barley field
or causing any damage to other people's crops, you know,
that's my, er... That makes me a bit nervous.
With Stevie driving the herd from behind
and stockman Eddie at the front,
it all seems to be going to plan...
They're co-operating quite well.
Ah!
..until the buffalo make a run for it.
Oh, you.
Oh, whoa. Whoa.
Oh, you.
Ssh, ssh! Hey!
Eddie steers them back to the road.
But, confused, they hotfoot it straight back to the farm instead.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
Eddie, just stay there!
Eh...not quite to plan.
Come on!
WHISTLING
Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!
Eventually, they get back on track.
It weren't perfect, but we've got them where we wanted to get them,
so quite a happy man.
Come on! Next, they take Taff, one of Stevie's bulls, out to join them.
It will be his job over the summer to get these females pregnant again.
Although he seems to be more interested in mud than mating.
So we've got an uncooperative bull.
He's decided he wants his first bath.
Come on, you.
Hey? What are you doing? Come on.
Come on.
Lazy.
He's happy.
But this isn't part of my plan.
We hadn't scheduled for you to have a roll about in the water, come on.
You're holding us up. Come on, let's go, let's go. Come on.
One of the things they enjoy about being outside is the opportunity
to kind of do what water buffalo do,
it's one of the different things from cattle,
and that's find a muddy hole and get themselves bathed in it.
But...
Come on!
He's obviously wanting to have a bath to impress the ladies later.
Come on! Up we go. Come on.
Come on. Up we get.
Out the bath. Come on, you stubborn brute.
Come on. What is this all about?
Eh?
I've just given you 25 girls, all not in calf
and you want to lie in a puddle?
What's your problem? Come on!
He likes his puddles. So, he stays maybe the whole day.
Unfortunately we've not got all day though, Eddie.
I know. Right, come on, please.
We're taking you to a perfect field with big puddles.
Let's go, let's go. Come on, come on!
Come on, come on, come on! Come on, buddy.
Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!
Ho, you. Hey, hey, hey, hey! Well done, good boy.
Right.
A few minutes in the mud bath and Taff's finally ready for the ladies.
These mums will spend the summer with their calves.
But back at the barn, the mothers with older calves
have only days left together.
In the north-east of Scotland, near Aberdeen...
Come on girls, away you go!
..Martin Irvine is also turning his cattle out for the summer.
Yeah, that's the first batch out.
He and his wife, Mel, have a herd of 72 pedigree Limousins,
raring to get outside after seven months wintering in the barn.
The cows know where they're going. They know what's happening.
So they'll run around the park about ten times,
then they'll realise there's a taste of grass
and they'll put their head down and that'll be them.
The calves that were born inside,
they've never been outside in their lives,
so this is a whole new experience.
The taste of grass, which must be amazing for them compared to
what we feed through the winter, it's basically silage
and draff and straw.
Tastier than silage, and much cheaper too,
grass will save Martin and farmers like him
much needed cash over the summer.
If you could keep them outside all year, it would be brilliant.
But the fact is, where we live, for this part of Scotland,
it's a short summer, it's a long winter.
The calves are out.
Next up is their dad.
BULL GRUNTS
After a few years selling his pedigree cattle for poor profits,
new stock bull, Irish, may have helped Martin turn a corner.
Come on! IRISH GRUNTS
That's him just letting everybody know he's here.
IRISH GRUNTS LOUDLY
Just man noises.
He was bought for £5,000 three years ago.
But the sale of his first two bull calves has already made the farm
nearly £20,000.
All the calves we've had for the last two years have all been Irish.
Good calves. Clicking really well with our cows.
Our cows are a bit what you call plain, but good, big square cows
and Irish, with that extreme muscle, is just kind of rounding things off,
so it's suiting us really well.
They seem to be suiting the market right now, so quite happy.
Martin's Limousins provide over half of his income.
Top-class bull calves can make thousands at auction.
The others he sells on for beef.
Irish has fathered 22 calves and is expecting ten more this spring.
The mums due in the next few days are still indoors
and Honey is looking like she could be next.
For the last half hour she's been pretty quiet.
I'd imagine there's some contractions happening,
a bit of pressure at the back end.
Honey comes from premium pedigree lineage.
Her brother broke records at Carlisle auction,
selling for 30,000 guineas.
So she's come out of a good bloodline
and we've crossed her with Irish,
so that combination could be something special,
so we're quite anticipating to see what we get.
I'd like a bull calf of her, it'd be quite nice,
so, fingers crossed, bull calf alive and well and all right.
A good, safe birth is critical.
Honey's new calf is potentially worth thousands.
So the plan now is just to keep an eye on her.
I want to be able to see her, but I don't want her to see me.
I want her to relax and get in the zone
and get on with pushing this calf out,
so I'm going to hide in the tractor.
I'll see her and she won't see me.
Just leave her to get on with the job.
In Appin, Hill farmer David Colthart
has had a hectic few weeks.
BLEATING
His flock of 540 hardy blackface sheep
have nearly finished lambing outside.
There's plenty of lambs.
I haven't found any dead lambs yet, which is good,
either predated, or with the weather.
So far, so good.
Things seem to be working out pretty well at the moment.
Calving is also over for his herd of 45 beef cows,
who will be kept indoors for a few weeks
so that David can keep an eye on them.
Right now, though, David's looking forward to a bit of time out
at a family wedding.
Tomorrow, a cousin's getting married,
so it'll have to be a very early start
and a very sharp finish or I won't be popular.
The morning of the wedding, and wife Sandra's ready.
LAUGHS
I'll have to get a bag for all this stuff.
But David's been held up in the cattle shed.
A wedding in two hours' times, my cousin's wedding,
and this is not helping with things.
Things just went wrong today.
It's the wrong day for it.
He's had to call in vet Alistair Carswell.
Do you need to be somewhere? Aye, in about an hour's time. All right.
First thing this morning, there was a cow flat in the pen
and just overnight, just must have taken an attack of milk fever.
Milk fever is caused by a drastic drop in calcium levels
that can happen if a cow produces a lot of milk quickly.
It causes muscle weakness
and, untreated, can lead to heart failure.
The cow has just calved, which makes her unpredictable.
Calved just a couple of days ago? Yesterday.
Just wait till she gets up.
At least she's got up. She wouldn't get up earlier on.
But the other one in the pen here, she's just staggering about.
It's not just her.
There are four mums showing signs of milk fever.
Alistair needs to get calcium into their systems.
If he can stabilise them in time, the cows should recover.
The calcium's basically going in under the skin.
It will then be absorbed slowly into the body,
which will raise her levels.
She's not bad, she's still on her feet.
She's a bit wobbly, she would rather lie down,
but that'll just be absorbed, that'll boost her body's levels,
which will allow her to just get back into the correct metabolism.
Steady now, steady, steady, steady.
Ooh, lass. Just want to get the cow sorted.
She's got a calf there, a good, big cow, good calf,
and she's just...
If you're to lose her, you've got a whole load of other problems
you've got to deal with, so you don't want to do that,
you just want to get her sorted.
Milk fever is more common in dairy cows,
as they produce high volumes of milk.
About 8% are affected every year.
But David has beef cows,
and to have four struck down all at once is highly unusual.
The trouble is, I don't know if any more are going to go down...
So when I go along to the church,
I'll just have to be there
and then just get back out after the service and back across.
TELEPHONE RINGS You can see it there on top of the feet.
That's Sandra.
Yep. I'm about to get very much...
..even more harassed.
Alistair has offered to come back and check the cows
while David's at the ceremony.
OK, that's great, Alistair. Thanks so much.
If I'm not back in the house by 1.30pm...
I think you'd better go.
Yes. Thanks very much, Alistair. No problem.
Normally speaking, you wouldn't leave the farm.
If it was any other event other than a close family wedding...
I would not be leaving.
Even with the draw of champagne and ample whisky.
You wouldn't be able to enjoy it,
because you're worried about what's happening at home.
Back at the house, David pulls off a dramatic transformation.
Here's what a man can do in 15 minutes.
Sandra's now been waiting two hours.
Yeah, that's why we don't plan anything.
I mean... You know, you can't plan to do anything, really, can you?
Because you don't know what's waiting for you in the shed.
David logs on to the cow cam for a final check.
The time is 1.30pm. What time are we supposed to be there?
Ten minutes ago. Ten minutes ago.
OK! Great.
So we're already late.
She's standing up, that's good.
That's good.
Everything else seems fine in the shed at the moment.
Just time to put this away and not torment myself.
And get my lessons I've got to read.
Wee practice as I'm sitting down in the pew.
All right, honey. Time to go. SHE MUMBLES
Back in the fridge. I've probably forgotten some of my kit.
Sporran.
Belt.
Hopefully have a couple of hours of peace.
Oh, my phone.
Oh!
On his farm north of Aberdeen,
the spring births are not yet over for Martin.
Prize bull Irish is about to become a dad for the 23rd time this year.
Honey has gone into labour.
Martin's hoping for a bull calf
which could earn him thousands at auction next year.
The heid's kind of fell back.
Dad Stephen is on hand to help with the delivery.
Push. Good girl.
So there was a little bit of a problem.
The calf's head was lying down and back, so I've flipped it up.
It's sitting where it should be now and now she's starting to push,
which is fine.
So I've got the calf into the position we want it to be in.
We're going to put on the ropes,
onto the front feet, and pretty much apply pressure, pull,
help the cow push the calf out.
And now that we've got the heid in the right position,
she's feeling pressure where it needs to be, it's making her push.
That's why she's been taking a bit of time.
HONEY MOOS Just lie on it.
Here it comes.
So, just checking its airways are clear, see it's breathing all right.
Heifer.
A heifer calf is a disappointment.
But as a healthy pure-bred female,
she can help to grow Martin's herd in the future.
Yep, good calf, nice size.
On the Isle of Mull...
..Janet and Alistair Taylor are very pleased with their crop of newborns.
They've just finished lambing their 128 breeding ewes.
Lots of new life around the farm, yeah!
Busy time of year.
We're doubling our quantities of stock on the place.
This spring, the flock has produced 119 healthy lambs.
They're not just lambs to us, they're our future,
they're future ones to be sold,
future yow lambs that will become yows on the place.
Future meat for the freezer, as well,
so you're always watching them grow,
as well, and enjoying seeing them thrive.
Starting with nothing five years ago,
they've begged, borrowed and budgeted
to get their flock to this size.
They've also been building up their Highland cattle.
This year, they've had seven healthy calves.
Like Martin, they're hoping the new calves
will boost the farm's fortunes.
The plan for all this year's calves is a way to market.
We're not keeping any for replacements this year, so...
Fit and healthy, that's what we want.
Sell for lots of money, that'll be nice.
He's coming over here.
But first, the calves need some modifications.
Come on. Bull calf Stephen is brought in first
with his mum Morag keeping a watchful eye.
That's a girl. Come on. Good girl.
Unfortunately for Stephen,
he'll make more money without his budding horns...
Good girl.
..and his crown jewels.
They've got no horns, they can get their head through the feeders
and it's not a problem so they're more sellable
when they're dehorned.
Castrating so we don't have lots of bulls, and again,
it's so that when they're sold on, they're easier managed.
Could you find me a cattle needle?
And a shoot needle and a syringe.
Alistair takes the lead on the cow work.
He's in charge. I'm just the labour!
Yes, she knows I'm trying to trick her.
Good girl. I want your baby.
It may seem a harsh process,
but it's vital if the farm is to get the best price for every calf.
Whoa!
I do feel sorry for them.
I feel sorry for any animal that you are having to do this to.
It's not pleasant,
it's just something that we have to do to help management.
It's all right, I will take good care of him.
His two horns, all they are
is tiny little lumps.
That's all there is to his horn.
So we'll put a wee anaesthetic in to numb the area.
Ready? Steady, steady.
Then we'll use the dehorner to stop it growing.
Once the anaesthetic's working.
It goes onto it and it just burns all the way around,
cuts through the skin and you do a perfect circle
and it cuts all the nerve endings, all the blood vessels,
everything that supplies the horn, so the horn won't grow.
Anaesthetic's working. Yeah.
Good boy. And then, should be able to see a nice clear ring
all the way around. Missed a bit there.
It's a cruel day, hey?
Next, Alistair tackles his tackle.
Cough, please.
A bloodless procedure using a simple elastic band.
Just expanding it with the pliers and he's doing the same thing,
it goes over, the balls remain in the sack
and the ring's there to cut off the supply and that will drop off.
All done. All done. Just like that.
Nice and quick, just a quick elastic band. Good boy.
He's fine, actually, but the longer you have them separated,
the more he gets stressed, so he needs to go back to Mum now.
CALF BLEATS
All right, you can go.
They're definitely happy to be reunited.
That's the important bit -
getting them back together as quick as we can.
Then he can get a sook from his mum, he'll settle down, although he's...
At the moment, the adrenaline's still kicked in,
so he's not sure what's happened to him, but something has.
In Appin, David's cousin has just got married.
After a quick snap for the wedding album...
..David and Sandra have to skip the reception canapes
to race back to the four cows struck down by milk fever at the farm.
Hey, Dad, we'll just check things back at the shed.
Aye, we'll see you over there in a wee bit.
A lovely service. It was nice, the minister did a good job.
It's good, but this is in the back of my mind.
Cows in the shed here.
So hopefully there isn't any more problems.
I'm not dressed for it. Neither are you, Sandra.
Knowing I'm going to get covered in smell, as well!
I'm covered in smell.
Three of the cows have recovered.
Come on, girl. Oh, God.
But one is much worse.
Oh, Jesus.
How was she when you left her? She was sitting up.
I can't really go in there with my shoes on and help you push her.
I'm not dressed for it. No.
Oh, boy.
Just try and pull her round with her head.
If not, I'll go back and get changed and lift her up.
Come on, girl.
Come on.
Come on, lass.
It's vital the cow gets into a sitting position.
Lying flat, her stomach will fill up with gas and she could die...
..leaving her calf an orphan.
Here's a rope here, David.
David's called a neighbour, Dennis, to help.
We'll get her head round, then get her legs in below her
and just try to pull her round.
Try to pull her round so she's sitting up.
It's not looking very good. I don't have hope for her, I'm afraid.
Trying to get her up on her side so she's propped up, but...
No. You can usually tell with looking at them
when things are not good.
No, things are not looking too good for her.
Jam it in against there. Help keep her up.
Long ways, and I'll try and pull her.
One more.
Earlier, David put a special sling on her
so she could be hoisted up by a forklift.
But at the moment, she's too weak.
At least she's up. Yeah.
It just means it's probably going to be a long evening tonight,
because after we get our meal,
we'll have to just change and come back and deal with her.
Do you want to put a blanket on her? Cos she's shivering all over.
Dennis, you can come to the house and take some covers across.
Covers? Yes, for her. To add on top of that. From the house?
We'll just go back, Sandra. We'll go back. What covers?
You're not taking a coat off my bed!
No.
It's a great life, really. Oh, yes, wonderful!
You just never know what's going to happen, but...
Nobody really expected all this on a day like today.
I mean, how many weddings do we ever go to? Like, one a year.
And all the disasters in one day, too, the day of the wedding.
It's so typical.
We don't plan to do anything, right?
Most cows recover a few hours after being given calcium,
but in a minority of cases the animal will die.
This cow's had the maximum dose,
so they've just got to wait and hope.
But for now, they're expected back to toast the bride and groom.
Won't be able to drink too much, though.
Not if we have to drive back here and do this.
But, boy, do I feel like it!
In Fife, Stevie needs to get the final batch of buffalo out to graze.
These mums have older calves.
They've been together all winter.
Steady.
Now it's time to cut the apron strings.
We'll just put these gates here so that we can wean some calves.
Once they're separated off from their mums,
they'll be pretty keen to find any escape route,
so we're reinforcing things.
At eight months old, the calves no longer need their mothers' milk,
and will thrive outside by themselves.
Steady, guys.
Most of the mums are already four months' pregnant
and need some time to rest before they calve again.
But buffalo can be more tricky to wean than normal cattle.
They've got a much stronger bond between mum and baby,
particularly the female side for whatever reason.
I think it's obviously the kind of traditional herd instinct
that they want to stay bonded,
so we have to kind of try and do it inside
where we've got big, strong pens,
because if we did it out in the fields,
they'd be hopping over fences and through fences and breaking things,
all to get back together.
So this is...
We've learned this over the years.
It's better to do it now and then we'll let mums out to grass
and hopefully maybe a week's time,
once we're confident that they're quite comfortable
and the cows will go out, too.
Come on.
We're going to just bring all the cows and calves this way
and then the theory is we'll only let the cows go back
and then we'll shut the gate.
So the cows will be on this side, calves will be on that side.
As the mums are separated off...
Hey!
..some persistent calves slip through.
Yeah, two calves have just beaten us.
They're pretty quick. If they want to go, they're quite hard to stop.
Have you got any barley?
We're going to try and out-think them here.
Eddie's just putting a wee bit of protein in.
The calves won't be so fussed,
but the cows will be quite excited for it.
With the mums distracted by a second breakfast,
Eddie chases the calves out.
Come on in, girl.
Quite easy to get yourself all worked up and stressed,
but that would only make it worse.
Try not to hurry it.
There's one here. Oh, well done, Ed.
Watch!
That's OK.
Is that it? Yeah.
That's all. Well done.
The mums and calves are safely segregated,
but the penny hasn't yet dropped that this will be permanent.
There'll be a lot of crying calves
and roaring mums very shortly,
once they realise what we've done.
We were trying to minimise that by actually keeping them
so they can still see each other, so they can't get physical contact,
but they can still kind of see each other
and hopefully that will reduce the stress.
If you come in here tomorrow and they're all crying their eyes out,
you feel quite guilty about it, I have to be honest.
Probably not going to be very popular with my auntie
and the pig stockman who live next door,
because they roar and they keep roaring and they keep roaring.
COWS GROAN
Any human being would probably find it quite difficult
to walk away from, you feel quite guilty about it all.
But it is... You know, it has to happen.
It's for both the calf and mum's good, so...
Yeah, it's just one of these things.
Sure enough, Auntie Camilla has had anything but a silent night!
COWS GROAN LOUDLY
So, definitely feeling quite guilty this morning
when you come in and hear the noises,
the mums and young calves roaring,
desperate to get back in the same pen as each other, but...
..it will gradually get less, as I'm telling my auntie.
She's quite grumpy.
I can see why it could be quite annoying
if you were living right next door to it,
so probably not the most popular nephew today.
COWS GROAN
In Appin, it's the morning after the wedding.
But David's cow still hasn't recovered
after collapsing with milk fever.
Come on, come on.
Come on!
She still hasn't got up, but we've got her in a sling
which is specially designed for lifting down cows, so...
She survived the night
and just trying to make sure that...
that, with the harness, she can try and use her legs.
Do something for yourself. Come on, come on, try!
Come on, try.
She'll need to do something for herself.
She's not really trying. She's probably still pretty sore, so...
So, fingers crossed, if she rests for a couple of hours,
come back and give her another try to lift her.
She's comfortable at the moment.
She's got a bit of feed. She's had water.
And just keep our fingers crossed.
A real shame, a real shame.
Farmers work hard all year round
to keep their livestock alive and healthy.
But 2.5 million sheep and over 250,000 cattle die prematurely
on UK farms every year from accidents, infections and disease.
You bring life into the farm.
And sometimes you're there when life goes out of the farm.
But the wee cow behind me here,
unfortunately, for whatever reason...
she passed away last night...
..and...
No. I've had a hotline to the vet this last few days
and there's absolutely nothing more that we could have done
than what we've actually done.
For six months, we're in the shed, backwards and forwards,
they see you, you see them all through the winter period,
so you can't help but get attached to your animals to a certain extent.
At the end of the day, you have to have a level of...
..realism that they're there to produce calves for you to sell.
But still, the time they're here,
you try and make sure these animals have the best lives that they have.
They totally rely on you and that's the worst thing of it,
that I'm in charge of the environment that our cows are in,
so you can't help but think there's something
you've done or inadvertently done that's caused this problem.
David had one case of milk fever at the start of calving,
which was unusual.
But to have multiple cows struck down in one day was a total shock.
In ten years, I haven't had cows with milk fever
and on one day you get four.
It's just difficult to try and pinpoint the exact reason,
what caused it.
There's a wee stressor somewhere along the line
that I haven't quite figured out yet and I need to try and figure out,
because I don't want it to happen again.
The loss of a young cow also has a lasting financial impact.
I lost this cow.
She only had her second calf
and she could have been here till she was 14 year old.
So she's only five year old, a real shame.
Thanks, Archie. Cheers, I appreciate it.
Cut off in her prime, David's not only lost her,
but the future calves she could have had.
His priority now is to save the orphan she's left behind.
Got a little calf in there, it's dependent on me now to get it a mum.
So that's going to be the focus over the next few days.
Across to the north-east of Scotland...
Mel is also counting her livestock losses.
She's checking on the 600 sheep that belong to the estate they rent from.
There's 201. There she is.
This extra contract work has brought in a good income
over the last few years.
Everything's finished lambing at home and at the estate,
so it's just a case of me coming up and checking the sheep and seeing
everything's OK and making sure no-one's stuck on their back
or stuck in a fence or dead, which has quite often happened.
Like David, she knows some livestock won't survive.
The youngsters are particularly vulnerable.
I'm just looking for 226, which was a triplet,
and I'm afraid to say that I think it's gone down to twins now,
which is a shame.
There's 226, there.
See the red one.
226, and she's only got her two.
She's doing a good job with the two,
but she was doing a really good job of the three, but...
Fox and badgers got to eat, I suppose,
which is more disappointing for me, really.
Right, I'm going to just keep going and see what else I can find...
LOUD BAAING
..if they move. They think they're getting fed.
With all this grass, they think they're getting fed.
This is one of Mel's last visits to the sheep.
For the last four years,
the sheep contract has brought in an extra £15,000 a year,
but with baby Erin now one,
Mel and Martin's priorities have changed.
We finish in the next four weeks or so,
so, yes, it's just a case of, you know, when we think,
"Oh, I'll not be doing this next year, so..."
It's a shame, because we've got the sheep to where we wanted them,
but it's just too much for us,
so you've just got to be good to yourself
and not work yourself too hard, which we're kind of doing.
For Janet and Alistair on Mull,
giving up their contract work is not an option.
They hope to earn £4,000 from the sale of livestock this year,
but it's subsidies and working for other farmers and landowners
that keeps their farm afloat.
Up. Good boy, all the way in. Good, in.
Good job.
All right?
Tons of room!
Seven months ago, Alistair took on three deer management contracts,
which should bring in an extra £9,000 a year.
With the shooting season over,
his responsibility now is to keep the deer healthy.
It's really magical doing it just now.
It's just like seeing all these wild deer come right up to you,
it's amazing.
There are over 6,000 red deer on Mull.
That's two for every human resident.
How many do you think are here?
30? There's more coming.
The island can't sustain a bigger population...
Hey, girls.
..as any more will decimate wild vegetation and farmers' crops.
So with no natural predators,
Alistair's job is to control numbers.
No, stay, stay.
But, for part of the year,
he helps to keep the deer in good condition by feeding them.
We're managing the herd really for quality.
We're wanting to see good, strong animals coming through.
Much like you would do with your farm livestock.
We start feeding them when the season finishes
and then feed them every other day
and they get their carbs like this and then they get lick tubs as well
to help keep them going with minerals and things in it.
It's, you know, something quite special, feeding them,
because they're completely wild animals.
It's not like it's a deer park or anything like that
where they're used to seeing people.
The only other time they see me is when I'm shooting them.
Feeding's a lot easier!
Nice to see the deer alive!
It's a job in addition to everything else.
Financially, it's not a huge moneymaking scheme.
We do get a bit more.
All three estates pay me differently,
so, one estate I get a monthly salary,
one estate I get a lump sum
and one estate I get the money from the deer I shoot.
So, none of it's huge money,
but it is just a bit of help to Janet and I
and the estate that has the monthly income,
I also get a second vehicle and a few other things like that,
which is very useful.
But even with contract work, their farming future on Mull is uncertain.
It's hard. What farming's doing at the moment is worrying
and, you know, whether we can keep going, doing what we're doing,
making as little as we are,
it's debatable what's going to happen, really!
I think there's a lot of farmers all over
that are having the same thoughts.
But we love it. We've got to carry on farming.
We've just signed our next lease
and that's us tied in again for another five years.
I'd like to see by the end of that five years us have our stock up to
where we're happy with it.
Put a bit more money into the silage fields,
cos it could do with a lot of money spent on it.
It'll just depend on how much we make from the livestock.
Money's always the thing that holds us back.
And then, after that five years...
..I don't know. Is it another five years here?
Is it a bigger farm? I just don't know.
Go home now, cup of tea. Yeah?
Watch your nosey.
Whilst Janice and Alistair are unsure
if they can lay down roots long term...
..Mel and Martin on the mainland are committed to making their farm
a success for their growing family.
Go!
She loves it. The faster, the better.
She's definitely like us.
As soon as we could reach the pedals, well, before we could
reach the pedals, we were driving tractors and a quad bike.
So she'll get every chance that I did.
Family farms are maybe the way forward.
Me and Dad, none of us take a proper wage out of the farm.
We do take a wage, but just enough to live on.
It's a way of life. I think that's maybe the kind of farms
that are surviving now, the family farms,
because you're not having to take a big wage out,
which puts pressure on the business.
I've got enough money to look after myself, Mel and Erin.
I'm happy enough.
And I get to spend all day with smiler here.
Who's a precious? We've always said that we would want quite a...
..not a large... Yes, a large enough family.
So, yes, I would like to have another one.
Another baby. But everyone tells me that she's been so good
that the next one will never be as good as her, so...
..don't know.
She's a wee star.
In Appin, David has been trying to get to the bottom
of what caused the milk fever outbreak in his herd.
He suspects that the fine balance of minerals
that his cows need at this time
was upset by a slight change in diet.
This is what we call draff.
It's from one of the local distilleries
and it's a by-product of the making of whisky.
It's the remnants of the barley mash.
And we use it in the cattle feed and it's absolutely brilliant feed.
It really is an important part of the diet.
But there was a breakdown at the local distillery
and we didn't get our monthly load of draff for four days,
so the cows were without draff.
Then we got it for a week
and then we had the problem with the milk fever.
So, in essence, probably what's happened,
it's probably the perfect storm
of calves have demanded a lot from the cows in terms of milk,
the slight change-over in the diet,
when we were four days without the draff
and then the draff being reintroduced.
So that's probably a combination of a lot of things
that has meant that it's just one of these rare occasions
everything goes wrong.
David's run of bad luck isn't over.
He can't get any of his cows to adopt the orphaned calf.
It just didn't go as we planned.
And now we are left with this lovely little orphaned calf,
which we have to make a decision about.
Whoa, girl, whoa.
Whoa, lass! Whoa, whoa!
She's too young to graze,
so David and Sandra now face having to feed her themselves,
a job that will be a lot easier
if they can wean her off the bottle and onto a bucket.
The only problem is, when you confine her,
she's not really used to being handled,
so when you confine her and try and entice her face into the bucket,
she's probably going to struggle and push against us.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa, girl! Whoa, whoa.
I know, I know, I know.
Put her nose in the bucket. I will, but she's...
David, look at her. She's still too scared.
It's not even warm. Gee, how tasty, cold milk!
Come on, cowy. Smell my fingers.
Smell that. Don't move.
I didn't move. You did!
Want a taste?
There you go.
You're sucking my finger.
Want to try some?
Come on, get your little face in there.
Look, she's drinking!
Good.
That's tasty. Want some more?
Well, if she'll drink out of a bucket, at least that's something.
I mean, you can just leave the bucket in
and she can feed herself, basically.
You think I'm your mummy now.
Feeding the calf for the next few months will be a big commitment.
But David and Sandra aren't going to give up on her.
She's very resilient.
We'll give her the best shot. That's the bottom line.
We'll feed her. She'll be all right, she'll live. Yeah.
She's fought all the way to here, so...
Yeah, she's a survivor. Even fought with me today.
We should change her name to Sassy - Sassy the survivor.
THEY CHUCKLE
In Fife, no longer needing their mothers' milk...
Morning, guys.
..Stevie's calves have become adjusted to life without their mums
and are eager to explore the outside.
They're the last of the buffalo to head out to summer grazing.
They seem very happy despite it being so windy, so all good.
The calves are settled,
which means their pregnant mums can take it easy
before they give birth again.
DOG BARKS Shut up.
Don't think she'd be barking at them if there wasn't a fence in between!
See, they're our friends.
They're our friends. Yes.
But Stevie's got an extra treat up his sleeve.
Hey, buddy. Have you got the quad handy?
I was thinking about just letting the buffalo down into the...
You know down by the boathouse at the loch?
Just for an hour or so, give them a swim.
Just the thing for hard-working mums.
A trip to the buffalo spa.
It's weird to think, cos buffalo are from a hot country,
that they actually have less sweat glands than cows,
so that is their way of controlling their temperature.
And hence where they get their name.
It's actually possibly one of my favourite things about having
water buffalo is getting to see just how happy they are
when they're getting to thrash about in the water.
Obviously, the loch's quite clean.
It's really funny when some of the fields
have got some really muddy wallows
and it's what water buffalo should be.
You can definitely see the sheer contentment on their faces,
so, very rewarding to watch.
Next time...
..David tries a novel approach to bird scaring.
LOUD BANG
I do enjoy it every time. It's good fun, but...
..hopefully, we won't see them for a few days.
Robin and Penny take action when a fox gets into the hen run.
So the plan is - Robin to the rescue!
And Stevie takes his favourite bull, 007, to his first country show.
Hey! Behave!
Stop that!