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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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On Your Farm

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Getting to the heart of country life with a look at individual farming endeavours

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On Your Farm: Shetland's Budge Sisters

Shetland's Budge Sisters

BBC Radio 4 - On Your Farm, Shetland's Budge Sisters

Meet the extraordinary Budge sisters, winners of the Countryfile Farming Hero award.

Travel to Shetland to meet the extraordinary Budge sisters, inspirational winners of the Countryfile Farming Hero award.

Two extraordinary young women who picked up the reins of the family farm when their father was killed in a tractor accident four years ago were voted the BBC's Countryfile "Farming Heroes" earlier this year.

Sisters Kirsty and Aimee Budge, who farm on the west coast of Shetland, won the accolade for their spirit and determination which the judges said were an inspiration to all farmers, young and old.  Alongside coping with personal tragedy and grief, they had to battle all the farming challenges posed by these northern isles - the frequent bad weather, distance from markets and the long dark winter months. 

The women, who are still in their early twenties, weren't satisfied with running the business the way it had always been done, and instead signed up to be one of Scotland's nine Monitor Farms which aim to share best practice in the farming community - and their picturesque farm of Bigton is now a hub for new ideas and practices. 

Nancy Nicolson hitches a lift on a quad bike with Aimee and Kirsty and heads out across the stretch of sand that links their mainland farm to the sheep grazing on stunning St Ninian's Isle.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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