It's flock and roll for farmer Gareth Barlow as he hosts new show on BBC Radio York

SINCE the millennium, life for sheep farmers has been a roller coaster ride. Who could forget the burning pyres of animal carcasses when foot and mouth struck in 2001.

Even after things returned to normal, prices and costs fluctuated wildly – often in opposite directions, accompanied by heartbreaking stories of hill farmers in dire straits.

To cap it all we had the two wettest years on record, the Schmallenberg virus hit and the price of lamb collapsed.

So what on earth made Gareth Barlow think sheep farming would be a good way to make a living?

"I saw a product that was undervalued," he says. "Hebridean lambs were being used for conservation grazing, but at market, they went for ten quid apiece. The Hebridean Sheep Society said they had good eating qualities, so I decided to tap into that and try the restaurant trade."

Within six years, Gareth's flock numbered 500 and he was supplying leading restaurateurs, including Michelin starred chefs Andrew Pern and Marcus Wareing.

Surprisingly, Gareth doesn't come from farming stock. He started off aged 16 with six ewes and a ram bought with the cash he got from selling his Xbox. They were kept on a neighbour's paddock in Bulmer, near Castle Howard.

"We have friends who ran a hill farm and for a small kid it was perfect," says Gareth. "I couldn't shake it off; I didn't want to be an astronaut or train driver, I just stuck at wanting to be a farmer."

Gareth didn't know how to become a sheep farmer, which is another reason he opted for Hebrideans. They were hardy and he didn’t feel confident enough to be able to spot signs of illness in more 'prima donna' types.

“This breed was resistant to things I didn’t know about," he says. "Thankfully for the first couple of years I didn’t manage to kill anything off.”

However, that's hardly a successful business model, so Gareth decided to write to Prince Charles asking if he could do work experience on the Duchy of Cornwall Farm, which had a rare breeds flock including Hebrideans.

He did well and secured a paid summer job the following year, which proved to be a turning point. Bored with university Gareth realised where his real passion lay.

But there was the small matter of funding this new venture, so he became a trainee butcher at the Castle Howard Farm Shop, where he was also able to sell his own lambs.

Soon the flock grew and Gareth was selling his premium meat to local customers and butchers.

The big break came when his mother spotted a blog about how difficult it was for young people trying to get a foot on the farming ladder. She added a comment and the following day Gareth was invited to take part in a BBC radio series, which in turn led to an appearance on Countryfile.

"The programme is watched by eight million viewers and it gave me a profile, which is a great help when I deal with restaurants or farm shops," he says. "People recognise me, they know what I do, they have seen the sheep grazing and they know where the lamb has come from."

But that's not the only reason for Gareth's success and it wasn't by chance that he gained work experience on the Prince of Wales' estate or that he got in with Michelin-starred chefs.

"People of my age expect things to come to them. It doesn't work like that; you have to work for it and you have to ask occasionally. I simply say please."

No wonder he is often called a closet 40 year old. But surely that's no bad thing in business.

To prove how far he had come, Gareth won Deliciously Yorkshire’s Outstanding Newcomer Award in 2012. Now he is an outstanding newcomer at BBC Radio York, where, in the wake of his runaway success, Gareth has been invited to present a new weekly farming programme.

The first episode airs on Sunday and will feature him heading out and about to meet members of Yorkshire's agricultural community, looking at the challenges they face, debating the issues and celebrating their successes.

"We will also go from farming to food, posing some of the questions people don't get the chance to ask," he says. "It isn't good enough to be told to try things, you need to know why. We are advised to eat hung meat because it's better. But why is it? Consumers are only being given half the information."

So the new radio show is also part of Gareth's mission to do something about it. He is taking a sabbatical from day-to-day farming because he is concerned with just how few facts are made available regarding food.

"If you are going to do something I believe you have to do it with all your time and passion. Having 500 sheep and then trying to do something like this wouldn't work. Something had to give."

So for now, you will find him recording films for TV, writing articles, blogging and talking about food and farming on his weekly radio show. He is particularly concerned with where what we eat comes from, how it's produced and how it ends up on our plate.

"We need to ask more questions when we buy food. Not only to learn, but to force the industry to be better. This can be as simple as how, why and where."

It seems some need a bit more help than others. Gareth tells a story from his days at Castle Howard where he was carrying a whole pig carcass to be butchered. A man watched him with curiosity, turned to his son and then said: 'the man is going to cut up that lamb'

"There was no joke and I thought if you can't even recognise a pig's head we're in trouble," says Gareth. A couple of days later a woman asked him how to cook a burger.

"I got slightly disenchanted with all this lack of understanding and thought I could either sit at home and moan or do something about it."

So while Gareth's new radio show is designed to be one that farmers will respect, it has a wider remit to inform, educate and entertain.

"This programme is for anyone who eats food," says Gareth. "It's one of the few things that connects everybody."

Yorkshire Farming on BBC Radio York will run every Sunday from 6-7am, and will be available on iPlayer for 30 days afterwards.