The pair work 12,000 acres of the most productive land on the planet — and do it with just 'three full-time guys'.

Historically, the waders' decline was caused by the rise of industrial agriculture, in which farmers drained meadows and wetlands to create productive land.

Huge tracts of productive land were smothered for housing, industry and the curse of 'leisure' - really just a crass euphemism for mindless forms of expensive idleness.

Larger holdings were allowed for less productive land.

These ingenious irrigation systems transformed the original wetland into extremely productive land, farmed until the late 1950s.