BULMER farmer Gareth Barlow has been chosen to present a new farming show on Radio York.

Yorkshire Farming begins at 6am on Sunday and Gareth and his team will be heading out and about as they meet members of the farming community, exploring the region to look at the challenges, debate the issues and celebrate the successes which North Yorkshire's farmers and rural businesses currently face.

Gareth, who has no family connection to farming, bought six rare breed Hebridean sheep at the age of 17 after selling his Xbox.

Fascinated by farming and owning livestock, he worked as a butcher for three years, then ran a flock of 500 sheep and supplied around 30 restaurant customers, including Andrew Pern of The Star inn, at Harome, and Marcus Wareing in Knightsbridge.

Gareth said: "It's a huge privilege to have the opportunity to talk about farming and food each weekend on BBC Radio York. The food and farming industries are facing a future of vast change and to be in position to profile, report and share that journey is extremely exciting. I'm thoroughly looking forward to working with the team at BBC Radio York, alongside the people of North Yorkshire, to develop an interesting, engaging and enlightening Yorskhire Farming programme."

Sanjiv Buttoo, managing editor at Radio York, said he had noted a growing appetite amongst the audience for agricultural content.

"We have always covered rural issues and farming in our news programmes and following recent listener interaction and with the sheer number of people in North Yorkshire employed in this industry I decided to produce a programme aimed at them specifically," he said.