Springtime is already in the air on the Farm

Spring is in the air, and thousands of farmers across the land will be taking on the mantle of midwife as they attempt to deliver lambs, calfs, goat kids and foals successfully.

To witness this busiest and most unpredictable season, Adam Henson, Helen Skelton and Jules Hudson are once again in the midst of the action at Cannon Hall Farm in South Yorkshire.

They will be providing viewers with an insight into working farms, and they’re also on hand to help, should the precarious joy of new life turn into a dramatic battle for survival.

Indeed, although lambing season is the most exciting time of the year, it can also one of the most emotional.

Last year, Helen admitted to getting upset on a number of occasions.

“It really does put you through the wringer emotionally, doesn’t it?” she asked while chatting to her co-stars Rob and David Nicholson.

“Because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Helen’s co-presenter Jules replied: “Yeah, it’s exhausting emotionally isn’t it? And of course physically you’re not getting all the rest you’d normally expect, it’s full on!”

Farmer Rob replied: “It keeps you young Jules, I love it, it really gets my blood pumping.”

Tonight, we meet some of the cutest newborns at Cannon Hall, from piglets to buffalo calves, as they open their eyes and take their first steps,.

While Rob and Dave will be working night and day to bring this year’s record number of lambs – as well as hundreds of other animals – into the world, Helen and Jules are shoulder to shoulder with them in the stables and stalls.

Stars from The Yorkshire Vet are also featured throughout the week – and with more than 1,500 spring births expected at the Nicholson family farm, their skills will be in high demand.

Adam reports from his farm in the Cotswolds as he carries out timely tasks with his rare breeds, and we discover how springtime farming in the heart of England compares to other regions, meeting the farm’s next generation of rare breed goats as they’re born.

Springtime on the Farm’s filming teams are also embedded across some of the UK’s most spectacular and extreme landscapes – including the mountains of Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands, the Lake District and the Highlands of Scotland – to capture the springtime highs and lows of the farmers who work these remote and often inhospitable lands.

These include 10-year-old Joe – thought to be Britain’s youngest farmer, as he awaits his first ever lambs, due to arrive on his 10th birthday.

We also meet a farmer in the Black Mountains – who is harnessing the medicinal magic of the humble daffodil to create a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease – as well as a young family managing a 1,700-strong flock of ancient-breed sheep on their farm overlooking Loch Tay, and a mountain farmer for whom dealing with snow blizzards is a regular part of his springtime routine.

Finally this week, JB Gill explores how farmers are diversifying to stay afloat,and, like his co-presenters, lends the heroes a helping hand.