?Further tales of ingenuity in the face of the crisis in farming come from Devon. David Kennard, faced with declining profits and a young family, decided to avoid bed-and-breakfast and holiday lets on the farm and instead decided to film the life of the sheepdog and shepherd. Mr Kennard, a shepherd all his working life, farms 250 organic ewes which graze on The National Trust land at Mortehoe and 650 more which are farmed conventionally on his own land nearby. A yearlong collaboration with the Exeter-based VideoEx and the help of narrator Christopher Timothy produced a video: The Year of the Working Sheepdog starring Greg and Swift, his own working dogs. It shows them gathering sheep on stormy winter cliff-tops, the lambing season and the arrival and training of Swift?s pups. ?The video uses much of The Trusts spectacular Atlantic coastline as a backdrop. With the farming climate likely to become even more challenging in the post foot-and-mouth era, this video offers a positive message about farming and show the realities of the life of sheepdog and shepherd in the 21st century,? Mr Kennard says................? Leslie Geddes-Brown - COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE, July 2001 www.countrylife.co.uk
