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CLA Game Fair

Joe Crowley and Anita Rani explore the Country Land and Business Association's annual game fair, one of the highlights of the rural calendar.

The Country Land and Business Association's annual game fair is one of the highlights of the rural calendar. This year it comes from the magnificent setting of Harewood House near Leeds. Joe Crowley and Anita Rani are there, soaking up the atmosphere and taking a peek behind the scenes to give Countryfile viewers a flavour of what's on.

Joe tries his hand at the latest craze to hit the angling world - kayak fishing - before hooking up with the junior gun dog handlers going all out to be top dog at the fair's gun dog competition. Even Joe's own dog Oscar gets in on the action, but is he any match for the stars of the show? Anita strides out with the lady clay pigeon shooters taking the boys on at their own game. And she meets the conservationists who are bringing the endangered grey partridge back from the brink.

Adam's also in Yorkshire with another of his looks at our county breeds, and Tom is in Scotland investigating controversial plans to reform land ownership north of the border.

1 hour

Last on

Mon 24 Aug 2015 01:05

The CLA Game Fair

The Country Land and Business Association鈥檚 annual 鈥楪ame Fair鈥 is the biggest of its kind in Europe and a staple of the rural calendar. Taking place on the grounds of the magnificent Harewood House in West Yorkshire, this year鈥檚 event sees over 130,000 visitors revel in a host of countryside pursuits whilst also engaging in the hot topics effecting today鈥檚 land owners. Anita Rani speaks to CLA Game Fair Director, Tony Wall, about the background of this grand event, whilst Joe Crowley takes a whistle stop tour around Harewood House to catch a glimpse of its treasured collections.聽

Grey partridge conservation

Covering 4,500 acres of land, Harewood House has become a natural haven for wildlife thanks to the conservation efforts of its management team. Anita meets Christopher Ussher, Harewood鈥檚 estate manager, who shows her the measures he has put in place to boost game habitat and increase the biodiversity of local species. On the other side of the estate, game manager Tim Rothwell has a more unusual way of preserving the numbers of one of Britain鈥檚 most endangered native birds, the grey partridge.聽聽

Milk money

John Craven introduces Becky, a 26-year-old dairy farmer from Gloucestershire. Becky has only been in the industry for a year, but in the time the price she gets for a litre of milk has fallen from 31 to 21 pence. Even with the latest robotic milking machine it still costs her 26p to produce a litre. Becky explains why she鈥檚 determined to stay in the dairy industry and why she decided to take action against British retailers.聽

The Himalayan Gardens

Joe steps into one of Harewood House鈥檚 most surprising treasures - the Himalayan Gardens. Originally created as a rock garden for Princess Mary and the 6th Earl of Harewood in the 1930s, the early 2000s saw the garden take on an exotic reinvention after Harewood鈥檚 head gardener came back from a tour of China and the Himalayas. The current earl, David Lascelles, tells Joe a little of the history behind this grand design and shows him a monument that is particularly close to his heart, Harewood鈥檚 very own Buddhist stupa.聽聽

Scottish land reform

Tom Heap looks at government proposals for land reform in Scotland. It has been reported that half the private land in the country is owned by just 432 individuals. The SNP wants to introduce new legislation that could potentially force the sale of land, if landlords are seen to be standing in the way of positive development. There are also proposals to remove tax breaks from big shooting estates. Tom meets concerned people from the islands to the highlands to see what the proposed bill would mean to them.

Anita鈥檚 shotgun challenge

A haven for game and clay shooters, the CLA Game Fair hosts the largest collection of gun makers in Europe and at its peak sees 4000 shots fired every hour on its vast clay shooting line. After taking a trip down the fair鈥檚 Gunmakers Row, Anita sees how sharp her own shot is with the help of Mark Winser, three-time England champion and one of the best clay shooting coaches in the country. Trained up and ready to go, Anita meets with Femmes Fatales an all-female clay pigeon shooting group from Yorkshire who are determined to blast apart the traditionally male and 鈥榯weedy鈥 image of the sport by opening it out to women of all ages and backgrounds. But how will Anita鈥檚 skills fare against the other members of the group?

Adam鈥檚 Yorkshire breeds

In the second聽 鈥淎dam鈥檚 County Breeds鈥 film, Adam Henson is in Yorkshire.聽 He鈥檚 looking at seven animal breeds that originated in the county 鈥 including pigs, sheep and even dogs. In the Yorkshire Dales National Park he meets shepherd Roy Nelson, who has been farming Swaledale sheep all his working life. And in the outskirts of Tadcaster he meets father and son team Ron and David Fieldhouse and their herd of Large White pigs. At its height the breed was exported to many countries, and became known as the world鈥檚 favourite pig. Adam also comes face to face with one of the smallest county breeds 鈥 the Yorkshire terrier.聽

Gun dogs

Each year the CLA Game Fair sets a number of challenges to test gundog and owners鈥 retrieval skills. Accompanied by his golden retriever, Oscar, Joe finds out whether his family pet still has the instinctive skills of a gundog breed under the guidance of dog and 鈥榩eople鈥 trainer Pippa Williams. Joe then meets local junior handler, Siobhan, who at just 11 years old has more trophies than most adults could dream of. Siobhan is training with her dog Sammy for the Game Fair鈥檚 first ever International Junior Handlers competition and shows Joe and Oscar how it鈥檚 really done. 聽聽

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Joe Crowley
Presenter Anita Rani
Presenter Adam Henson
Presenter Tom Heap
Executive Producer William Lyons
Series Producer Joanna Brame

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