THE new series of Rare Breed – A Farming Year has been following seven farming families, including a Fermanagh farming family from Tempo, showing an inside view of the ups and downs of farming life in 2020.

Rare Breed is the ground-breaking year-in-the-life documentary series charting the reality of farming in Northern Ireland.

In the first episode, which aired on UTV on January 12, audiences were introduced to five of the seven families in the series, including Andrew and Margaret Little from Tempo, where they run a progressive dairy enterprise.

Andrew is a second-generation farmer working alongside his dad, Raymond. Former nurse Margaret is busy rearing calves in the farm’s ‘maternity’ unit, driving during silage season, and vaccinating, among many other jobs.

She also has several Simmental cattle, and later in the series we see her and Andrew’s mum, Katherine, developing the vegetable garden for the family.

In episode three of the popular series (to air on January 26), viewers will see how Covid-19 causes huge changes to everyday life as the first lockdown is brought into force in Northern Ireland last March.

Some of the farmers turn their hand to camerawork to keep video diaries, with a couple of familiar faces from previous series popping up!

However. animals still have to be looked after; silage, grass and crops grown; and milk, vegetables and meat produced.

The first port of call for the upcoming episode is Tempo, Co. Fermanagh where dairy farmer Andrew is doing one of his favourite jobs – cow pedicures!

He comments that while some farmers love being out on tractors, he could work at the cows’ hooves all day: “I love this oul’ craic!”

He has invested in specialist training for himself and a smart new piece of kit to make it easier on the cows and him.

But while he’s working, he’s very aware that there are reports of a new virus – Covid 19 ...

UTV’s Mark McFadden narrates the series. Sponsored by Moy Park, Rare Breed – A Farming Year continues on Tuesday, January 26 at 7.30pm on UTV.