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Scotland’s love affair with Curling is thought to go as far back as the 16th century and throughout its history the sport has been popular with the farming community. Matt Baker is in Perthshire to meet a pair of farming brothers who are hoping to bring home the gold at this year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Tom and Glen Muirhead are passionate curlers who recently started their own businesses on their farm in Crieff. They come from a long line of curling stock so the pressure is on to rank high at the games. Matt will find out how the brothers find time for their farm and their rigorous training schedule. 

The animal welfare charity, One Kind, has called on the Scottish government to ban the culling of mountain hares. Gamekeepers cull these animals when they think the numbers are too high, they say the hares eat too much vegetation and carry ticks that can be fatal to grouse, but welfare campaigners say it is cruel, unnecessary and even dangerous as no one knows how many hares there actually are. Tom investigates the new science that aims to tell people exactly how many hares there are and whether this species is in danger or not. It will all feed into the Scottish government’s final decision.

Caber tossing, the throwing of a tapered tree trunk, has been an important part of the highland games for as long as anyone can remember. Many Scottish sports have their origins in the land and nature and with miles of green hilly forest Perthshire’s title of ‘Big Tree Country’ is certainly well earned. Charlotte Smith is on the Drummond estate to meet the organisers of the Crieff Highland Gathering and to choose a tree for a new caber. After receiving training from champion tosser, David Colthart, she takes him on head to head but Who will emerge victorious? 

Countryfile is out with the rural vets again this week. This time we meet 30 year old Morrow, the horse who cannot get up and a cow who is struggling to give birth. Once again the vets are on hand to help at all hours throughout the day and night, with no idea what emergency is coming next.     

Adam’s in Cornwall this week meeting Ryan Came-Johnson and Steve Penberthy, neither of these two have farming backgrounds, in fact they only started a few years ago. But thanks to the mild Cornish climate, lambing is already well underway and because the grass grows pretty much all year round here, their first lambs should be ready for market by February. That’s long before many farmers have even started lambing!

Nestled between Munros lies loch Tay, Perthshire’s largest loch. For chocolate maker Charlotte Flower the banks of this place are perfect for finding the natural ingredients used to produce seasonal and local flavours for her chocolates. Charlotte put her roots down here 18 years ago and used her passion of foraging and chocolate to start her own artisan chocolate business. Charlotte Smith drops in for a taste test and to learn a bit more about what flavours can be found this time of year. Now schooled in her wild ingredients Charlotte heads to the kitchen to try her hand at making the sweet treats herself. 

The opening of the National Curling Academy in August last year meant Britain’s Olympic  curlers finally had a dedicated rink with state of the art facilities to train. Here Matt meets the entire Men’s team, including another set of farming brothers! Kyle Smith and his brother Cammy are just as keen as the Muirheads to bring home the gold. Their combined efforts will hopefully see Matt improve his brushing technique and perfect his delivery, but as Matt slides down the ice he finds curling isn’t as easy as it looks.