SPRING IN THE LIFE OF A FARMER
Words & Imagery By Sam Hutchinson
Now then and welcome to farming life… that’s how I normally
start my videos anyway but it doesn’t quite work in written
form does it, I should probably introduce myself before we get
to into this article any further . My name is Sam Hutchinson,
17, and I run a YouTube channel called “the Swaley man” (go
and check it out!). I make roughly 4-6 videos a month which
include the ups and downs of being a hill farmer in the fells of
the Howgills (nestled between a town called Sedbergh and
Kirkby Stephen). From the wildest and wettest winters to the
brightest and driest summers, we get it all!
The videos are shot on the family farm that my grandparents
started after moving from being farm manager at farm called
Marshaw near Lancaster almost 37 years since. Starting initially
with a lambing flock of 400 ewes of mixed breeds my
grandparents with the help of my dad grew the farm to around
800 pedigree swaledale lambers and a herd of 50 sucklers cows
including some pedigree blondes, after a period of buying and
selling calves. But now, as my grandparents are semi-retired,
we run a modest pedigree flock of 350 lambing swaledale ewes.
They are an extremely hardy sheep bred for life in the fells. The
tup sales happen every year in October and attract massive
audiences with the breed record tup being sold for £101,000
back in 2003.
Anyway less about the sheep! I decided to start making videos
about 3-4 years ago and to be quite honest I don’t know why. I
remember making one going around the farm and filming it on
my iPod and uploading it and the next day it had about 500
views. I was Blown Away! That video, which is still on my
channel and still embarrassing for me to watch, has so far
amassed 7.8 thousand views which still amazes me. Since I
uploaded that video I’ve been really into it. 3 and a bit years on
I’ve got my Channel to 8500 subscribers and altogether about
1.4 million views. I think my main inspiration for doing these
videos would probably be my dad who is a agricultural
photographer and breed photographer for a number of breeds
including Swaledale, limousin, Belgium blue and Texel just to
name a few. Although my grandfather was once in the medias
eye as he won Shepard of the year quite a while since featuring
on blue peter and other tv shows.
Swaledales are one of the most popular hill breeds in the
country with attributes such as being great mothers, easy
lambers, high yielding sheep which make them great for
breeding NEMSA ( North Of England Mule Sheep Association
) mules. These are some of the best producers of fat lambs in
the UK and consist of a swaledale ewe and Blue Faced Leicester
tups. The swaledale breed itself is a massive deal in the north of
England especially in the hills around Hawes, Muker, Durham,
Kirkby Stephen and of course Swaledale itself.
24 | Rural Life