Locals on small screen sharing their love for life on the farm

Locals on small screen sharing their love for life on the farm

12 January 2022

A NUMBER of local farmers take centre stage in a popular TV series which has returned to UTV screens.

Rare Breed – A Farming Year features 14 farmers and their families from across Northern Ireland giving us an inside view of the ups and downs of the farming year in 2021.

Among them is 23-year-old Áine Devlin who looks after over 400 sheep on her family sheep farm in the Mournes.

The family is busy herding their sheep down from the hills to check them before lambing season. They couldn’t do this job without their sheep dogs, Fly and Mist. 

As the sheep come down from the picturesque landscape of the Mournes, Áine comments: “This is my favourite place in the whole world”.

Áine also has her own pedigree Texel sheep to tend to with her boyfriend John and she admits they are both learning as they go along. 

Also featured is Richard Orr, who runs Meadow Farm near Downpatrick, Co Down. 

The Orr family have been working the land for three generations and while the farm started with livestock, Richard now grows potatoes and cereals like oats for porridge.

The programme Richard as he completes the important task of soil sampling. Richard explains that the samples are sent for analysis so they understand what they’re working with.

He says: “The soil’s our number one asset on the farm.”

In Comber Trevor Gabbie who is the leading supplier of young plants to growers across the island of Ireland.

Trevor produces more than 50 million seedlings a year and is as passionate about his plants as any farmer is about their livestock.

Also included in the series are the Elliott family, who are turkey farmers based on the shores of Strangford Lough near Portaferry.

The family has reared free range poultry on Marlfield Farm for the last 40 years. At the helm of the farm is Olive Elliott, who studied at Loughry and runs the farm with the help of her two sons, Mark and David.

Rare Breed – A Farming Year is on UTV on Tuesday evenings at 7.30pm.