Field Day

So, here's the Jimmy Doherty interview in full. The next episode of the show is on Tuesday, 9pm on BBC2.

What's it been like making the TV show?

It's been a lot of fun, but a lot of hard work. We must have been to over 60 farms - it's been really difficult to choose which ones to pick.

The whole series isn't about showing, say, great organic or free-range producers - or the kind of things I'm doing - it's about showing the reality of farming and what really goes on out there and just how diverse it is. It's absolutely outstanding what goes on.

I showed a clip to a friend of mine who's farmed in this area for a good couple of generations and he said: I can't believe what goes on and he's farmed all his life.

The general public, when they sit on the train or go along a motorway, just see green fields or tractors or black-and-white cows. They're not sure what really goes on.

We go to the West country. There are lots of small farms there and lots of them have gone organic. We're not saying: Organic, this is how you should be, or any righteous kind of thing, but asking: Why are you organic? What benefits do you get?

It about not putting any assumptions on anything. That's quite important. So many programmes are like that.

There will be an organic farmer who's frank about why we should be organic. That's a valid opinion and it should be out there, the same as how we've increased wheat production by conventional means and why we've had to do that.

For a lot of farmers out there, doing it day in day out, there's no one saying: Look what these guys are doing. No one's saying: It's amazing, look what's been achieved over the years. Well done.

When you arrive at a farm, there's always a little bit of suspicion at the cameras and how's it going to be portrayed. Once you show that you're open and interested, farmers are so excited to tell you about what they're doing.

We went to this Aberdeen Angus breeder and his father started singing about them in the kitchen - he was so enthusiastic to talk about it. And I think it's important that farmers get a chance to do that.

I've just done all the voiceovers. That knackers you out - sitting in a room for 10 hours talking non stop.

The worse thing about the programme is that we can't put everyone it. It would have been great to have had an hour on red tape - but people wouldn't have watched that.

The idea came up two years ago. There was a discussion of what we could do, what would be viable, what channel would be interested in it. We wondered: Will this work and will the general public be interested? You soon realise the huge matrix of interesting stories out there.

It nearly didn't happen, but once the stories started coming through, the BBC said: This is amazing.

A straight documentary about farming - at first you'd think it was a hard sell, but once you start talking to someone about it and the importance of it, they realise this is essential rather than having to try to sell it.

It's almost an issue that's been skirted round for a long time. Think about a programme like Coast. We've had three or four series of it and now gone round the UK God knows how many times. But no one's looked at the interior and the majority is farming landscape. We need to know what goes on.

Filming alone, it's about three weeks per region and that's when we've decided which farmers we're going to see and what stories we're going to show. The research beforehand is vast and the preparation. Once I've done my bit, they go back and do all the aerials with the helicopter.

Why do you see food production as so important?

Without organised agriculture, we just wouldn't be here. It's the basis of civilisation. Once you view it like that, it's very humbling.

If you go to other countries - and I'm doing a documentary about GM at the moment and have been to Uganda and Argentina and the US - it's interesting because in Uganda, for example, 80% of people are involved with it. It's like: These are the guys who make the world go round. But here we seem to have forgotten that.

I farm this way because this is how I want to farm. This is my particular choice. There shouldn't be a 'them and an us' approach.

It's a bit like the organics people. There's a big divide between them and the conventional; producers. It's the wrong attitude. Because at the end of the day, everyone's in the same boat of producing food that people want for whatever niche it is - or indeed mainstream.

Continue reading "Jimmy Doherty... the full story" »

Been having a think about some of the noises I love and loathe in the countryside. Here are three of each:

Love:
* The sudden silence after you switch a combine or tractor off after it's been running for hours
* Woodpigeons in the evening
* A dog's bark from a distance

Loathe:
* A fox screeching
* Fireworks (especially when it's not even the right time of year)
* Hot-air balloons

Wow, beavers have been born in this country - the first time it's happened for hundreds of years.

Snails - if you don't want to eat the caviar, you could always try your hand at racing them.

Saturday saw the World Snail Racing Championships at Congham in Norfolk. This annual event is part of the Congham Fete and sees the slimy creatures slug it out.

Up to 300 snails enter the race, in the hope of winning the title, Fastest Snail in the World. They race over a 13-inch course - and the winner receives a silver tankard stuffed with lettuce.

This year's winner was a snail called Heika, owned by 13-year-old Georgia Brow.

The current record-holder is Archie, who completed the course in just two minutes back in 1995.

Well, I got to see Jimmy Doherty on Friday. Spent a couple of hours with him at his farm. It was a fascinating afternoon - I've just got to finish writing the article up now! Full chapter and verse on him will follow shortly...

He's a really nice bloke and he gave me some delicious grub to take home - some Ipswich Super Blue Pork Sausages, some Old Colchester Forest bacon and a couple of bottles of Flying Pig beer. Lovely. Who says the press can't be bought!

After a mad flurry of calls and emails between me and his PR firm, I've managed to fix up the interview with Jimmy Doherty - the guy whose new series Jimmy Doherty's Farming Heroes started on tv this week. 

I'm really looking forward to meeting him. Only problem is, it's tomorrow. Ah well, nothing like short notice to focus the mind. If you've got any specific questions you'd like me ask him, just let me know...

This is a good idea for an article (that's another way of saying I wish I'd thought of it!)

This week's Country Life has done a feature on the rural noises we love and hate. You can even listen to them.

I'll have a think about my favourite and least-liked ones. In the meantime, I notice the frontispiece in this week's mag, Miss Rosie de Pelet, is the "younger daughter of Comte and Comtesse Michael de Pelet". Anyone know what the hell a Comte or a Comtesse is?

According to the National Trust, kids are increasingly out of touch with the countryside. They're far more likely to be able to recognise a Dalek than an oak leaf. 

Looking at this photo of a Dalek now, it's seems extraordinary that they once terrified me as much as they did. I mean, all you'd need to do to outwit them is walk up some steps.

They couldn't conquer anywhere - except, I guess, the Fens.