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The Farmer is the owner of Mossy Bottom Farm where the whole series of Shaun the Sheep takes place, and a main character (as well as a minor character in Series 6).

The Farmer usually goes about his daily business unaware that his sheep are anything but normal animals and Bitzer is determined to keep it that way. Although he means well, the farmer is a very ambitious man, often pursuing random flights of fancy such as new sports, forms of art, competitions and modern technology, despite his lack of comprehension. His endeavors have more than once inadvertently risked his own safety, as well as that of his farm animals, which the Flock often end up resolving with him none the wiser.

He does not communicate verbally, as he only speaks gibberish. His intentions are therefore usually communicated to the audience through the use of body language, and through the use of props in the show, as can be seen in Who's the Caddy.

Background[]

The Farmer as a child.

Not much is known about the Farmer's background, until it is revealed that he has lived on Mossy Bottom Farm ever since he was a child.

His family may have owned the farm for generations as seen on a shelf above his fireplace which shows photos of himself and some of his relatives; him and Bitzer along with the Flock, his father alongside an unnamed dog (possibly Bitzer's father), and then his grandfather. In the episode The Shepherd, a photo of the Farmer's great-grandfather was revealed.

  1. As shown in Who's The Caddy, the Farmer was once a prized golf player. The photo of him as a golf player also shows that Bitzer has been on the Farmers side for his entire life, as Bitzer was just a puppy at the time.
  2. In the episode Karma Farmer, it's revealed that the Farmer has a twin brother, a hippie who enjoys "new age" music and feels animals should never be confined. When the Farmer leaves to cool off his anger, he placed his twin brother in charge of the farm. The farm animals were at first oblivious that he is not the Farmer they know and didn't understand why he acts so strangely until the real farmer comes back, which left both Shaun and Bitzer baffled. Upon seeing the look on their faces, the Farmer showed them an old picture of him and his twin brother when they were a little younger.
  3. The Farmer has a sibling with a young niece, who sparsely visits the farm much to The Flock's displeasure. Not much is known about the specifics of their relationship.

The Farmer appears to be in his late 40s or early 50s, and has a very stocky build. He has faded red hair, which is balding by the series' present day, and very prominent sideburns. He has a very large lower lip, which juts out far when viewing him in profile. His most frequently-seen outfit involves black-framed glasses, a cream-colored knitted sweater, blue jeans, a green jacket and perpetually muddy boots.

The Farmer's appearance has changed in very subtle ways throughout the show. In Season 2, he started sporting light stubble (demonstrated in the Season 2 intro by his electric razor breaking), though this was removed at the start of season 3. His glasses also changed from rounded lenses to squared lenses, and his remaining hair now spikes upwards.

In his youth, the Farmer's appearance was very consistent with his present day appearance, with the exception of a full head of hair, gold-tinted sunglasses and no sideburns.

Personality[]

The Farmer can best be described as courteous and well-meaning, but at the same time clumsy, short-sighted, clueless, sometimes uncaring, easily-foolish and at times selfish. He is not above delegating his daily tasks to Bitzer, with the loyal canine always eager to please him while he lounges in comfort. He is also quick to lose his temper should things not go his way. When it comes to money, especially when he sees he has the chance to earn it for himself, even if it's not the right way to do so, this shows that he is really greedy and will do anything to get a lot of money. Despite this, the Farmer is an honest man who can always be depended on to do the right thing.

Family[]

Twin brother

Hobbies[]

The Farmer has over the course of the series been shown to have several hobbies, ranging from sports, to music, television and gardening. His savant-like behavior constantly pushes him to look for new ways to improve his otherwise dull farming life.

Shaun the Sheep Movie[]

The Farmer is first seen when he was just a teenager and when the Flock, and Bitzer were young and growing each day until today. Throughout the day, the farmer goes about his daily business, in which he follows a schedule. Weary, Shaun wants to have a day off but has to distract The Farmer by putting him to sleep, as well as placing him in a caravan. When Shaun and the Flock gets caught by Bitzer, he tries to open the door to the caravan where the Farmer is, in attempt to tell him of what happened, but he mistakenly broke the door handle, which resulted in the Caravan go down the hill into the big city with the Farmer. The Farmer finally wakes up like how he normally does but upon seeing on what is happening outside, he screams in terror. When the Caravan skidded to a complete stop, the Farmer steps out, only to get his head hit by a hard object (which was a street lamp globe) and was taken to a hospital.

When the Farmer wakes up in the hospital and has "memory loss", he leaves the hospital without being noticed because he knows that it is something important and walks into a stylist's shop. There he gets a little bit of memory of himself shearing Shirley and does the same to the a local celebrity. Horrified by what the Farmer is doing, the celebrity's bodyguard immediately stops him. Though grumpy at first, the celebrity took a liking of his new hairstyle, which looks identical to Shaun's hair. Due to this unexpected success of the hairstyle, this made the Farmer famous and he became a city icon under the name Mr. X.

Much later, Shaun finally finds The Farmer, unfortunately, since the latter didn't fully regain his memories, he immediately got scared and tried to shoo Shaun away. The latter, believing that the Farmer is trying to make him go away and not knowing that he had lost his memory, he was left in tears. As he fled with the flock, Shaun sadly looked at the Farmer, who immediately returned to work.

A little while later, while the Farmer was doing about his work, he hears Shaun and The Flock singing "Feels Like Summer". Intrigued, he steps into the supply closet and opens the window to listen better. A memory is then immediately jogged, and he starts to question on whether he has another purpose out there instead of being a stylist to the snobs of the world. He then pulls out the chart that he had gotten from the hospital out of his pocket and looks at it, reminding himself that he really doesn't have an identity yet. He was then interrupted by his boss, who tells him to get back to work. The Farmer then scrunches up the chart and throws it out the window, deciding to go back to the one thing he knows he can do.

Later the Flock made a plan to bring The Farmer home by doing the counting the sheep method which what made him gone to sleep in the first part of the film. Though the plan worked, it worked too well as people who watched also fell asleep, including the staff in the Stylist Shop. The Flock puts The Farmer on top of the horse costume that the Flock uses to avoid getting Trumper's attention. The Flock then made it back to the Farmer's caravan where they hid from Trumper. At the same time, the Farmer thinks of having a back massage. They make it back to Mossy Bottom farm and they hid in the shed. Unfortunately, however Trumper finds their hiding place and tries to kill them. The Farmer wakes up but is still amnesiac. Upon seeing the flock again, along with Bitzer, he freaked out backed into a wall. As Trumper was attempting to throw the shed over the ledge of a rock quarry, The Flock and Bitzer, carrying and scared, embrace the Farmer and when the latter sees his reflection on a window, this caused him to remember the time he had spent with them when they were little, which also allowed him to regain his memories. When The Farmer learns that Trumper is trying to tries to throw him and his animals in a quarry and exit from the shed to stop him but nearly falls off the edge. Fortunately, he was helped back into the shed by Bitzer and the Flock.

When Trumper threw Shaun into the quarry in a final attempt to kill him, the Farmer saves him from falling off the cliff. As everyone was celebrating, Trumper tries to escape but is stopped by Slip, who bit his foot. The Farmer then sees Trumper and proceeds to vent his anger out on the latter. Trumper who is now scared of the farmer, tries to reason with the him, but ended up getting head-butted by the bull because of his red underwear, which causes Trumper to fly over the Quarry and then landing into a big pile of manure. With everyone now at peace, The Farmer goes back to his house to sleep. The next morning, everyone wakes up to business as usual, but they are going about it more happily and with more of a spring in their step. The Farmer and Bitzer open the barn and the sheep happily gather round the Farmer, glad to have him home again. The moment is almost ruined as the farmer sadly looks at the schedule, clearly wishing that they don't have to do it for once. Bitzer then makes the decision for him by grabbing the paper, scrunches it up, and kicks it to the goat for him to eat it, which amuses the Farmer.

During the credits, images are shown of the farmer, Bitzer, and the Sheep enjoying a day off in the country. In the post-credits scene, The farmer turns the news on to see something about Mr. X having disappeared on horseback, which left him in complete shock and confusion along with Bitzer and the Flock.

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon[]

The Farmer was first seen driving his harvester to harvest his big wheat field. Later, he is watching TV with a cup of coffee, unaware of the Flock's chaotic shenanigans. That night while he is looking through a harvester catalog in which his interest fell on a big harvester called the Wheatchopper 5000. He was then interrupted when Bitzer came in with two pizza boxes, having confiscated them from Shaun and the Flock. The Farmer was happy and excited that his loyal canine had gotten him pizza, he was shocked when he discovered that his pizza box is empty. When an angry Bitzer was seen with the two pizza boxes around his neck, this shows that the Farmer got mad at him, thinking that Bitzer had gotten him nothing but empty pizza boxes and that it is a joke. However, he was unaware that a small alien named Lu-La had eaten his pizza.

The next day, the Farmer read through a newspaper that contains an article that Farmer John had seen a UFO, which actually belong to Lu-La. The Farmer didn't believe it at first, but he eventually became interested when he saw that some people have a love for aliens. When the Farmer suddenly noticed that everything is shaking around him, he noticed from his window that his harvester is going at full speed, which was being driven by Shaun and Lu-La, much to his chagrin. After Bitzer confronted Shaun over the false belief that he was the one responsible in crashing the harvester, the Farmer proceeded to angrily head over to the wheat field. As he falsely thought that Bitzer was responsible, he was began screaming at the canine until he noticed something in the field. The Farmer strode over to see what it is, and to his shock, it is a strange symbol. Knowing that it is from an alien, he Immediately rushing back into his house, and he began to rapidly flew through the newspaper he was reading.

When he reread the UFO craze as well as seeing a British pound sign, he came up with the idea of establishing a space/alien theme park named "Farmageddon" at Mossy Bottom Farm, so he can earn enough money to buy the Wheatchopper 5000. He enthusiastically began to gather stuff he would use to build the park. A little while later, the Farmer called Bitzer to the basement, where he proceeded to show the canine his plans as well as a diorama on the theme park, though Bitzer was unsure if it would work. When the Farmer had him build the entire theme park by scratch, the latter, after being unable to build the park, due to not having knowledge on construction, proceeded to call the Flock.

As he was giving them instructions, the Farmer called him again. This time, he had Bitzer send out posters that he printed on the Farmageddon theme park. Before the canine would go off to do his duty, the Farmer stopped him and he made Bitzer wear an alien space suit costume. Meanwhile, back inside the farmhouse, while the Flock was busy building the theme park, the Farmer is seen using his typewriter to type in a script for a show that he is gonna present called Farmageddon, which is gonna be based on Farmer John's witness of the arrival of Lu-La's spaceship. Later, as he was watching the news, in which UFO craze grew along with more alleged sightings of UFOs, the Farmer got really enthusiastic. Taking out the harvester catalog, he proceeded to kiss a picture of the Wheatchopper 5000, since he's gonna use the money he'll earn to buy it. A few hours later, as he was preparing for the show, he called out to Bitzer. However, when he heard the canine's screams, as he was onboard Lu-La's spaceship, which was flying out of control, the Farmer just carried on.

A little later, he is seen preparing and demonstrating an electronic keyboard, which is going to be used for the show's sound and music effects. When he pressed on a button on the keyboard, he heard a loud crashing sound and, thinking that it came from the keyboard, he expressed delight over the thought that it worked, though he had no idea that the racket came from Lu-La's spaceship, which crashed into the wheat field, as a result of Shaun's recklessness. A few minutes later, the Farmer noticed some alien fans coming to the Farmageddon theme park through binoculars. He then immediately turns on the theme park's lights, which caused a complete blackout in a nearby town. Dressed in a spaceman costume, the Farmer proceeded to welcome the people as well as increasing the amount for entry to 30 pounds, though it was originally 20.

When the people entered the Farmageddon theme park, they were dismayed by what the Farmer had prepared and displayed. Moreover, the latter had put up a sign that says "No Refunds", which is to let the people know that they can't get their money back. As he welcomed the last person to enter as well as receiving the money he got, the Farmer proceeded to fill up a fundraising progress bar to a half. Shortly after, he was stunned upon seeing the arrival of three junky-looking robots. However, the robots are actually and some of the Flock in disguise. Shrugging it off, the Farmer made them pay to gain entry. After they entered, the latter was left speechless upon seeing the money that the disguised Shaun gave him, which are buttons, a nut, a puzzle and chess piece. The farmer then later seen practicing his lines for the show while walking on the stage. As Bitzer was helping Shaun get up the Farmageddon theme park tower via the stage's rope system, he was interrupted by the Farmer, who was dressed up as Farmer John, the main character of the show. He then proceeded to lock Bitzer up in a UFO prop and at the same time ignored the canine's cries. After lifting him up via the same rope system, the Farmer locked the handle in place.

When the show began, he activates one of the sound effects and proceeded to bring in a cardboard UFO prop through the stage via a rope, however the audience noticed that the rope also held some of the Farmer's laundry, much to their disgust. Noticing this, the Farmer quickly withdrew them. When he began to do his roles, his portrayal of Farmer John upsets the real Farmer John. Eventually, due to the cheesy props that were being used during the show, this caused the Farmer to receive jeers from the dissatisfied audience. When Agent Red arrived on her mech, this got the Farmer's attention and when the mech got onstage and it ripped Bitzer out from the UFO prop, the Farmer, after flipping through his script, thought that it is part of the show's special effects. When the UFO prop was dropped on him, the Farmer called for someone to get him out. Later, as Lu-La and her parents, Me-Ma & Ub-Do, were returning home, shortly after reuniting with each other, the Farmer woke up and entered the spaceship's control room. It turns out, he had accidentally boarded the ship. The Farmer then expressed awe upon seeing Lu-La's home planet.

When Me-Ma and Ub-Do noticed that the Farmer, who also noticed them, is in their spaceship, they began to freak out along with the latter, with Lu-La even mimicking the Farmer's scream. He was immediately returned home afterwards. Due to the stunning success of both the Farmageddon theme park and the show, the Farmer was able to earn enough money to buy the Wheatchopper 5000. He is then seen driving it while at the same time enjoying the music that is playing on harvester's speakers. When the Wheatchopper 5000 was destroyed when Bitzer accidentally flung a frisbee into the machine's mechanism, the Farmer is seen among the remains of his new harvester while at the same time holding the steering wheel. He then began screaming in fury, which scares both Bitzer, Shaun, and Timmy.

Shaun the Sheep: Adventures from Mossy Bottom[]

The Farmer returns in the series, this time as a minor character, in which he develops a rivalry with Ben, his new neighbor.

Relationships[]

Shaun[]

Despite Shaun's prominent role in managing the Flock, he and the Farmer have little personal interaction throughout the course of the series. In the film, the Farmer was seen caring for a baby Shaun, personally feeding him from a bottle.

Bitzer[]

Having raised him from his days as a puppy, Bitzer is the Farmer's loyal canine companion, and the Farmer tends to treat him with the same level of respect as an employee. At rare times, the Farmer will treat Bitzer as a member of the family, displaying a deep level of trust between them.

Bitzer takes his job on the farm quite seriously, and proudly acts as the Farmer's coordinator in his absence. Despite this, the Farmer will often unload his duties onto him, no matter how trivial or unreasonable they may be. Although Bitzer is usually loyal, he is not above calling the Farmer out on his behavior should he feel taken advantage of, which usually ends with his master's actions coming back to bite him.

During the events of the first movie, Bitzer is inconsoluble due to the Farmer's disappearance, risking his very life by travelling to the city to find him.

The Flock[]

Like Shaun, the Flock have very little personal interaction with the Farmer, as he sees them as little more than farm animals. But he has shown to care about them at certain points.

The Pigs[]

Unlike the Flock, the Pigs are often on the receiving end of the Farmer's wrath, due to their constant mischief and bullying ways. The Pigs are usually able to easily outsmart the Farmer, and can mislead him into blaming Bitzer or the Flock for troubles on the Farm. Despite this, their true nature is typically exposed in the end, with the Farmer unleashing his rage upon the Pigs.

Trivia[]

  • Despite being unaware of the true depth of his farm animals' intelligence, the farmer seems to not mind Bitzer's human-like behavior, by letting him look after, reporting, doing his chores or ignore that he can walk on 2 legs.
  • The Farmer is very fond of modern music. Very frequently, techno music will blare while he is driving his truck, which often serves as his leitmotif when he appears.
  • The Farmer requires glasses to see, though his actual eyes to date have never been seen, with his eyelids always being shut.
  • He is shown to have dentures.

Gallery[]

Main article: The Farmer/Gallery
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