You send the problem. We attempt it badly. Charlie explains what we got wrong.
Members submit an actual problem — a wet corner, a gateway that floods, a hedge nobody has touched in fifteen years — and we attempt it on camera, usually incompetently, with somebody qualified narrating the mistakes.
Why the format works.
Most farming content shows somebody competent doing something correctly, which is reassuring and teaches almost nobody anything. The useful information is in the failure, and failure is the thing nobody films.
This inverts it. The problem belongs to a member, so it is a real problem rather than a demonstration. The attempt is made by people who are honestly not very good at it. And the commentary comes from somebody who can see exactly why it is going wrong while it is going wrong.
The single most-watched thing this estate has ever made was eleven minutes of failing to unblock a field drain, and the reason is that everybody watching has a field drain.
How a submission works.
You send it, with a photograph and a location
One paragraph. What it is, how long it has been like that, and what you have already tried.
It goes on the board
Members see every submission and vote on which one gets attempted. Not the best problem — the most common one.
We attempt it
On the estate if it can be recreated here, or at your place if you will have us, which about half of people will.
Charlie narrates the mistakes
Live, unkindly, and in enough detail that the explanation is the actual content.
You get told what would have worked
Including the boring answer, which is frequently "ring a contractor and pay them".
What has been attempted so far.
| The problem | Submitted by | What we did | What we should have done |
|---|---|---|---|
| A field drain blocked since 2019 | A member in Shropshire | Rodded it from the wrong end for eleven minutes | Found the outfall first, which takes ten minutes with a map |
| A gateway that floods every winter | A member in Devon | Put stone in it, which sank | Dealt with the water uphill of the gate, not the gate |
| A hedge untouched for fifteen years | A member in Norfolk | Attacked it with a flail, badly | Laid it properly over two winters, or cut it with a saw head |
| A stone wall with a bulge | A member in Cumbria | Rebuilt four metres, which took a day and a half | Roughly this, actually. The only one we got broadly right |
| A paddock full of docks | A member in Kent | Topped it, twice, achieving nothing | Addressed the compaction and the pH, which is why the docks are there |
| A leaking water trough | A member in Ayrshire | Replaced the valve, then the float, then the trough | Started with the trough. It was the trough |
The bits people send each other.
Three lines from six attempts. All of them are somebody being told, kindly, that they started in the wrong place.
What can be submitted.
Yes
- Any member can submit, at any tier including the free one
- A photograph, a location and one paragraph is the whole submission
- Members vote on which gets attempted
- A written answer whether or not yours is filmed
- Your name only if you want it
No
- Anything involving animal welfare
- Anything requiring a qualification we do not have — electrics, gas, tree work at height
- Anything that is really a dispute with a neighbour
- Anything where the honest answer is a solicitor
- Any guarantee that yours will be filmed, because most will not
The other thing members decide.
Live votes on real farm decisions, with an agronomist holding a veto.
What people actually ask.
The two questions this page gets most, answered without a support ticket.
The words are ours. The brands are not, and nothing here is licensed.
The cast page names every person and what they are actually responsible for, which is not always what the programme implies.
