A farming family are showcasing the beauty of the Cairngorms National Park on the new series of BBC’s This Farming Life.
Robert Mackenzie and Jenni MacDonell, of Lochbuie Croft in Newtonmore, along with their sons, live and work within the spectacular surrounds, at Newtonmore.
Robert is the fourth generation to run Lochbuie Croft, taking it on from his dad five years ago. He spent 15 years away from farming working in construction.
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Dad Donald is still on the scene and chips in with advice when he can, but also spends a lot of his time caring for toddler grandson Donnie.
Robert’s partner Jenni grew up just over the hill and has always been involved with farming.
In these challenging economic times, she understands the growing importance of diversification.
A year ago, Jenni took a bold step towards safeguarding the croft’s future, in the shape of four alpacas – Rocky, Cloud, Kevin and Teddy.
While different to the animals they’re used to seeing on the croft, she wants to upscale the alpaca trekking business to bring in more income to the farm.
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They have both seen firsthand how the industry has changed over the years and have experienced the challenges of dealing with inflation and the rising costs of feed and fertiliser.
“We used to be able to just croft the farm but now to do what we love to do we’ve had to do something different and diversify,” Robert said.
Their newest business venture, Cairngorm Alpaca Trekking, can be booked online to take part in alpaca and miniature donkey walks, as well as meet and greets with Pygmy goats and sheep.
Jenni said: “We’re happy to change and adapt and think it’s important to show the difficulties.
“We hope being part of the show will help to promote the alpaca diversification and our new business.”
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Last year, the family stepped out of their comfort zone by applying to appear on the BBC Scotland series to share the highs and lows of farming life.
Miss MacDonell said: “We thought it would be really good for advertising the business and the diversification.
“We thought we’d just give it a go but never expected to be selected.”
They started filming with the show in September, with Mr Mackenzie admitting he found quite daunting to begin with.
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He said: “It was nerve-wracking having the cameras there and it was a shock how close they had to be.
“But after a week or so we’d just be chatting away and by the end we were really enjoying it.”
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