Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture

brian_t · 29-07-2012 11:23pm #1

Starting on Tuesday 31st July at 10.00pm BBC4 is repeating the four part series "Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture"

The documentary series looking at the history of 20th-century farming in Britain opens by focusing on milk. In the early years of the century, 150,000 dairy farmers milked by hand and sold milk door to door. By the end of the century, the 15,000 that were left were breeding cows that increased yields by 400 per cent and milk was sold through supermarkets. This episode features the home movies and stories of two dairy farmers who survived to tell the story of how and why the revolution happened.

The second episode (Tue 7th Aug) will look at Fruit & Veg.
The third (14th Aug) will look at Wheat.
and the final episode (21st Aug) will look at Beef.

I enjoyed watching this series when it was first shown in 2009. Plenty of good quality archive footage.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jzjf8/episodes/guide

oldsmokey · 31-07-2012 8:48am

youre right, top class stuff from the bbc...the beef episode is edifying..shows how the Angus breed evolved over the years..anyone involved in the industry would learn a thing or two from it.

Bizzum · 31-07-2012 10:02pm

Just happened across the programme, it was brilliant. It made me happy and it mad me sad. Well worth a look!

Muckit · 01-08-2012 7:59pm

Anyone know what number bbc4 is on sky??

kerryjack · 01-08-2012 8:34pm

Great program, wont mind having a wife like that , the one that milks the 95 cows and you man looks after all the feeding thats a great setup i wonder where i could find one of them, they recon women make better milkers than men they have a more gentle touch with the cows,

The prowler · 01-08-2012 9:03pm

Thanks for posting this reminder,as soon as i saw it i hit record on the old box. Very interesting program,makes me mad tough about how much control processors and supermarkets have over milk prices