Elan Valley hill farmer Erinna Rogers will be narrating and featuring in a new BBC Wales show next week.

The “World’s Most Expensive Sheepdogs – Our Lives” looks at what it takes to breed and train the exceptional sheepdogs from Wales that can sell for the same amount as a family car.

Erinna’s family have relied on sheepdogs for generations. Now with her mother as tenant on the farm, Erinna and her four-legged friend Glen help herd the sheep on the open mountains for marking and pairing up.

Wales Farmer: Dewi Jenkins, Erinna Rogers and Kevin Evans.Dewi Jenkins, Erinna Rogers and Kevin Evans.

“You can’t do it without them”, Erinna says of the sheepdogs. “And that’s what makes them so valuable to us.”

The demand for sheepdogs from Wales is worldwide. With farmers looking for good working sheepdogs as well as others looking for competition dogs- they’re willing to pay big money for the right skillset.

The programme also looks at two masters in the field of training based in Powys.

Online auctions now transforming the way sheepdogs are marketed. The programme will look at how Kevin Evans, from Libanus in Powys, ensures his dogs are presented in the best way possible to stand out to buyers including taking high-quality photographs of them working.

It will also look at Talybont’s Dewi Jenkins. In 2021, Jenkins re-wrote the record books when his sheepdog Kim sold for £27,100.

It will follow Dewi as he prepares for an online auction in Dolgellau, with bids coming in from all over the world including North America, South Korea and Germany with one of his dogs, Kelly, being the sister of the record-breaking Kim.

Both Kevin and Dewi must then set their sights on their first live field sale since before the pandemic. Taking place in Bala, with hundreds of spectators, it involves new fields to work on and a new flock of sheep to herd.

The World’s Most Expensive Sheepdogs – Our Lives will air on BBC One Wales on Monday, August 22 at 8.30pm.