Dominique Wishart

The three families arrive and settle into their purpose-built yurt village, complete with chicken coop, vegetable garden, and pigpen, all of which they will have to maintain during their farm experience. Then traditional Welsh farmer Gareth Wyn Jones gives them a crash course in sheep farming, from gathering and shearing to training sheepdogs and selling ewes at the market.

This week the families head to neighboring farms that produce food on a large scale. The Burtons come to grips with a dairy operation that milks 400 cows twice a day. The Morgans head to a free-range egg farm that provides 60,000 eggs a week to one of the UK’s biggest supermarkets. And the McNultys get down and dirty on a pig farm that delivers sausage and bacon to shops across the country.

Having experienced the large-scale side of the farming industry, the families turn to smaller operations that are trying to take control of the supply chain and sell their own artisanal products, from prime pork to high-end ice cream and pick-your-own fruits and vegetables. They also visit the Eglwysfach Show, where some of the families are challenged to enter the competitions.

As summer on the hill farm draws to an end, the families put everything they’ve learned to the test. A sheepdog trial challenges the bonds the aspiring shepherds have forged with their dogs, while the families endure another kind of trial when they must select pigs to be sent to slaughter. Then, after harvesting the crop, they must decide whether any of them will take up farming full-time.