2 days ago
Labour of love for three generations of Cornish farming family
It takes up to 100 hours a week to run the Jones family dairy farm on the Devon and Cornwall border. BBC Spotlight's Victoria Graham spent time with them to find out what keeps them going.
Jayne Jones never imagined farming was going to be such a huge part of her life when she met her husband on their farm near Launceston, on the Devon and Cornwall border, is a far cry from when she worked for women's tailoring brand Jaeger on Union Street in Plymouth."You can't help who you fall in love with," she now works alongside Andrew on the farm with their two sons, Harvey and Oscar, as well as Andrew's father, Roger."It's in our blood," says Andrew as he heads out to do the milking.
The Jones' are not only a family, they come across as a tight-knit and her sons talk me through a typical day and, the truth is, there is no typical example, they rarely eat together, they eat when their job is done."They all need feeding," she says, referring to the "boys" in her family."They come in for breakfast, whenever that may be."Oscar chips in: "There will always be a plate waiting in the oven for tea, and when one plate goes out another one goes in."
Then there are "the girls" - in other words - their cows. The livestock comes first - the cows cannot wait, they have their the herd at the heart of it, monitored 24/7 on CCTV around the farm, the family is always on there is the weather, if that is not on side they still have to get the job done, particularly at harvest time.
"If that means getting your head down at 3am and then rising again at 6am, so be it," son Harvey says."Sometimes you'll just work through the night. You have to stay on top of things."Harvey, the elder of the brothers, returned to his roots after university to work on the family farm."You can't just clock off at six, it just doesn't work like that, you can't just call it a day," he says."The more you do, the more responsibility you take on, the more enjoyable it gets."
As well as the manual labour, the feeding, milking, harvesting and maintenance, a lot goes on behind the scenes - something Harvey's younger brother Oscar is heavily involved includes farm assurance, welfare standards, a passport for every cow to track movement and health records."This is what sets British produce ahead of other countries," says Oscar. "There may be a lot of paperwork, but we pride ourselves on adhering to the incredibly high standards that are set."It's not a chore, it's a necessity."
What is the secret to working together as well as living together?Jayne and her sons agree some time apart is healthy."It's nice to have space to be honest – when you're working together all the time you just need to get away," she have smiles on their faces."There is tension, we work together, live together," Jayne says."We have to compromise on things and just adapt and make things run well for the sake of the farm."
There is no-one on the farm who knows the value of hard work more than Harvey and Oscar's grandad, 80, he still works on the farm six days a week and has a work ethic the boys have huge respect for."You can't keep him away," says Harvey. "He works from before seven in the morning until after seven in the evening and is still a very important part of keeping the farm going."
Oscar says: "It's an honour for three generations to work alongside each other, not many people get that opportunity."It is not the life Jayne ever imagined herself to be a part of, but the pride she has in the family is clear to a love story, to a labour of love. It is the love that keeps this farm ticking.
