What was farm life like during the Second World War?

Jan 26, 2016

TVO program answers the question

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

A show on TVO, Ontario’s publicly-funded educational television station, is combining the topics of agriculture and life during the Second World War.

Wartime Farm re-enacts managing a British farm during World War II, when supplies may have been scarce and the threat of a Nazi bombing was looming.

The show may be on TV, but the characters aren’t necessarily actors. Historian Ruth Goodman, along with archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn, immerse themselves by using period equipment, wearing period clothing and even dealing with army recruitment all while trying to run a farm.

“To avoid defeat, one battle would become more important than any other,” the narrator, John Simm, says as the first episode airs. “The battle to produce food.”

At the time, most of the food coming into Britain was imported and due to Nazi activity, farmers were under enormous pressure to try and double the amount of food produced.

Currently seven episodes are available for viewing:

Episode 1 – The team reclaim badlands to grow new crops

Episode 2 – The team faces the challenges associated with rationing and the threat of a Nazi raid

Episode 3 – Goodman, Langlands and Ginn celebrate Christmas in the 1940s

Episode 4 – The team realizes the government will repossess their house and land if they aren’t productive enough

Episode 5 – Hitler’s U-boats bombard British ships, cutting imports and creating major shortages across the country

Episode 6 – As tasks on the farm increase, the team turn to young children to help out on the farm

Episode 7 – Britain has been at war for five years and the fields are filling up with troops, making it increasingly difficult to farm

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.