First Time Farmers

Episode 3 (1x3)

Air date: Jan 25, 2013

At 25, Ally from Herefordshire has taken over the sole running of his own farm - an opportunity that most farmers' sons don't get until middle age, if at all. He's now responsible for 500 acres of arable land, which his family have rented from The Duchy for 45 years. He has swapped houses with his parents, who have retired, and is now living on his own in the six-bedroom, 400-year-old farmhouse that he grew up in, where he sleeps in his parents' old master bedroom. The question of inheritance is less straightforward for James Hole from Somerset: a ninth generation dairy farmer who is preparing for his wedding to the local vet. The family farm is owned by James' grandfather, his uncle and his dad Steve, but James and his two brothers all have designs on it. And Alex from Cheshire faces his biggest challenge yet when his father goes on holiday, leaving him to run the family farm and carry out a £30,000 cattle deal at the market, unsupervised for the first time.