Prince William has revealed he "loves the countryside" at a roundtable discussion during a visit to a farm in Scotland. The Duke is raising awareness for community-led organisations that help support those facing isolation in rural areas. Report by Kennedyl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Good morning.
00:02Good afternoon now.
00:04How are you?
00:06I know, lovely.
00:08Yeah, this is a good place, yeah.
00:10All good.
00:12Got some giant strawberries today.
00:14Give them to him while he's on the mic.
00:18Good afternoon.
00:20Green Wellies.
00:22Yes, Green Wellies, exactly.
00:24Thank you very much, lovely to have you here.
00:26It's a real pleasure to actually have you here.
00:28We've got 150 young farmers already sat down and talking.
00:30Good.
00:32They're warmed up.
00:34Oh yes, they're very warmed up.
00:36And they're not too backward in coming forward.
00:38So come on ahead.
00:44I'm on this roundtable to talk about the issue of rural isolation and tackling homelessness.
00:50And I know that's something that you're really interested in.
00:54Can you tell us why you're interested in these issues?
00:56So, some of you may know too or not, mental health is a particular thing I care about.
01:02Young male mental health particularly, although not exclusively.
01:06And I love the countryside and I love farming as well.
01:10And I'm conscious that it's an area that needs a little bit of maybe support in understanding that there's access and support out there for young farmers,
01:22aged farmers, as well as making sure that we are breaking down any taboos and stigmas around mental health.
01:32Because I think in the farming world it's maybe not talked about as much as in other sectors.
01:38And yet we know it exists.
01:40Isolation and mental health is all there.
01:42And so I particularly wanted to hear a little bit today about how all of you felt and fared,
01:46and hear it from the horses' mouth really as to whether we're getting better at talking about it,
01:50whether you feel the support is out there, what your recollections and feelings are around it.
01:54People as well.
01:56We've got a lot of angry influencers, is that the right word?
02:01We could start new words all the time.
02:05We'll go with angry influencers.
02:07And a lot of them are very forthcoming about, oh well, this is what I've been going through.
02:12And they're good at sharing points of contact for you to go to.
02:18It must be an awful lot.
02:20And there's a lot of change coming.
02:22So how does that feel? Is that exciting for some of you? Is that a bit daunting?
02:26Well, we were speaking earlier, we're all optimistic.
02:29We have to be optimistic in this industry.
02:31It is daunting.
02:34What age were you, Robbie, when you started?
02:36Young Farmers?
02:37Yeah, I was 15.
02:39I was a drag along.
02:41Supportively.
02:44And actually, you're still a member of Eurovision.
02:59Straight towards me, that's brilliant.
03:02Thanks very much.
03:03Brilliant, thank you.
03:14Hi, good afternoon.
03:16Nice to see you.
03:17Nice to see you.
03:18Yeah, thanks for coming.
03:19Not at all, that's your story, by the way.
03:21Yeah, well, wrong time to be here, I know, sorry.
03:24Maybe you can come back in the summer.
03:35And did you just get one with the family?
03:37Yeah, yeah.
03:38Oh, okay.
03:44All part of the family business.
03:46I'm not bossing you about.
03:52But we basically, in a way, it's good that you're actually
03:58going to see a bit of family.
04:00Yeah, we had to.
04:03Okay, guys.
04:05So this is a variety.
04:07We only grow Magnum, which is our own variety.
04:12So do you want those shoes?
04:16Just here, just here.
04:18That's fine.
04:19This one?
04:20It's like a right mess now.
04:22Anyway.
04:23But this is all the family.
04:25Yeah.
04:26So basically, this looks like all of them.
04:33Yeah, and we'll go right through to October,
04:35which is the same variety.
04:37Just by manipulating the growing seasons,
04:39keeping some in the freezer.
04:41If we had time, I'd show you them packing our own plants
04:44and putting them in a freezer now.
04:46But I mean, particularly in Agriculture,
04:49it's very, very high-tech.
04:51This is where all the feed and water comes from.
04:55There's little holes in there all the way up.
04:58And it's obviously being raised off the ground.
05:00Yeah, it means we can control it.
05:02The quality's better.
05:04That's actually coir from Sri Lanka.
05:07We're not using any feed.
05:10And why is this soil so good?
05:13It's just a good balance of air and water.
05:18They'll hold it very well.
05:21Do you want quite a moist soil?
05:24It needs to be not too moist.
05:26It just kind of balances it.
05:31And then the other thing we're doing
05:33is we put a lot of predators in.
05:37They love this ground.
05:42I'm trying to get his hand.
05:50Have you heard of them?
05:51Yeah, I've heard of them, yeah.
05:52People put them now in their attics.
05:54Yeah, that's what I was reading about.
05:57So you put them into blocks?
05:59Yeah, well, when they're covered,
06:01they can't handle it when it's like this.
06:04And they kind of fly around
06:06and they parasitize the aphids.
06:10We put, through the drip line,
06:12we put tiny nematodes that control vine removal.
06:16And we do use biopesticides as well.
06:20We've done a lot of technology to make it better.
06:24I guess the biggest challenge is labor.
06:27But we can't really do anything about it.
06:30Because everything's hand-taped as well?
06:31Everything has to be hand-taped, yeah.
06:33So there's no ways of getting around that.
06:36That's what we always think about.
06:37We've tried robots,
06:39but we haven't had any success.
06:43It's so difficult.
06:45I remember one of your friends said,
06:47have you tried monkeys?
06:49They've eaten a whole lot probably.
06:52So yeah, there's a lot of technology thing going on,
06:56but we can't really use it to fix that problem.
06:59But basically we're just taking it all out now.
07:02We've spent the last two days
07:03filling up these containers with polythene
07:06that came off.
07:07We had to cut the polythene and drag it out.
07:09Do you get many storms like that up here?
07:11Or is that a rare one?
07:12No, but we've had a few bad ones.
07:14But you can't...
07:16I wish we could give you some of this.
07:18Oh no, don't worry.
07:19Once a year, if you want.
07:20We have got plants for you.
07:22Oh, that's very kind of you.
07:23Fantastic.
07:24I don't know if you've got someone to give a chat to.
07:25I'm always by your side.
07:26I know.
07:27Look at this flower.
07:32Yes, exactly.
07:33No, no, no.
07:34Can I just very quickly show you this?
07:36Just a little bit of technology.
07:37Are these your robots?
07:38Yeah, they're these.
07:39This is Fred.
07:40Fred the Frenchman.
07:42You're not driving them, Fred, are you?
07:43Good.
07:44Fred is with the Titanic.
07:45They're really ominously driving themselves.
07:46Yeah.
07:47So these robots are basically robots.
07:50They're usually light to make jump cars.
07:53We don't have any tunnels.
07:55We don't do it at night.
07:56That's why it's better at night.
07:58When it's summer, it's a bit more difficult.
08:01It's a bit more noisy.
08:03It's a bit more noisy.
08:05So we don't have any space on the water.
08:07No, no, no.
08:09And what would we do?
08:10What would we do?
08:11I don't know.
08:12Well, we used to also.
08:14Sistine was one of them.
08:16Sistine?
08:17Sistine.
08:18Sistine.
08:19Sistine.
08:20Yeah.
08:21Yeah.
08:22Yeah.
08:23Yeah.
08:24Yeah.
08:25Yeah.
08:26Yeah.
08:27Yeah.
08:28Yeah.
08:29Yeah.
08:30Yeah.
08:31Absolutely.
08:32Yeah.
08:33There's lots to do.
08:34Yeah.
08:35Good.
08:36Well, thank you for showing me around.
08:37You're nearly ready for planting strawberries.
08:38Yeah, yeah.
08:39Yeah.
08:40And let me know when you get on with strawberries.
08:41Yes.
08:42Yes.
08:43We'll see you at the end.
08:49And then you kind of do the purpose. Growing flowers is different, you're growing plants.
08:56Yeah, they're like plants.
08:58Well, they do do, covered in flowers.
09:06Okay, very nice to meet you.
09:07Jane, thank you very much.
09:08Pretty good to see you. Thank you so much.
09:09Bye-bye.
09:10Thank you very much.
09:12Thank you very much.
09:13Lovely to meet you.
09:14Will you say thank you to all the farmers as well?
09:15I will indeed. Thank you very much.
09:19Bye-bye.