Dewing Grain Podcast

This week Andrew is in London interviewing Sam Watson Jones from the Small Robot Company - an agri-tech start-up focused on revolutionising the way that technology is used to farm. Sam is a fourth generation farmer, inspired by the work of Simon Blackmore in the National Centre for Precision Farming at Harper Adams and his vision for replacing much of the work done by tractors in fields with a ser...

In part two of Andrew's interview with Sam Watson Jones of the Small Robot Company, Sam paints a picture of the future where farmers use the small precision robots on their farm as a service, allowing them to get on with other elements of farming and diversification better suited to their skills. He explains in more detail the potential he sees in these robots even potentially harvesting crops eve...

This week Andrew is over at AF (formerly Anglian Famers) to meet with CEO Jon Duffy. They talk about AF, how his first two years there have been and the excitement of being able to share £1million with its 3,500 shareholders this year. With Jon Duffy having formerly been business director for Frontier, Andrew sees it as very opportune to ask him about Frontier taking over the selling of the grain...

This week Andrew and producer Claire review their recent visit to the Norfolk Farming Conference organised by AF. They realise their age and cynicism and so have interviewed a few young guns from the conference to give a more balanced view. Overall, however, they are very complimentary of a fascinating conference and a good opportunity to catch up with others. They test out their plan for redirect...

Today the tables are turned as Andrew swaps seats to be interviewed by Ben Eagle, presenter of Meet the Farmers podcast. Andrew tells Ben how he set up Dewing Grain and his thoughts on recruiting a top workforce and they discuss the need for diversity within the grain trade by bringing in skills from other sectors, as well as the need to promote the story of British food as we face the prospect of...

Paul Temple - chair of AHDB cereal and oilseeds has made the long journey from Yorkshire down to Norfolk to see Andrew. They talk about Paul's work at AHDB and how to instil the appreciation of where food has come from in the next generation. Brexit is a recurring theme, along with the delights of Norfolk over Yorkshire and the downsides of tweeting after two glasses of wine. The market report for...

Today we hear the first of a two-part interview between Andrew and miller David Wright of Wright's Mills based down in Essex. Andrew chats with him about other milling companies, how they show the provenance of their flour and they look at the relationship between millers, traders and farmers. They also cover claims and why they are made, in an attempt to demystify another area of trade.  And...

Andrew is back at Wright's Mill for part two of his interview with David Wright, complete with background noise from the odd heavy vehicles passing through. They chat about Brexit and David's legacy - especially his new mill in Harlow that will be opening soon. They also discuss the problems of supply chains and 'no shows' of wheat deliveries, with bakers chomping at the bit for more flour to meet...

This week Andrew has a chat with Nick Hood who farms cattle and mixed arable. Nick talks about his contracting work, diversifications and being chairman of Yaregrain where he works closely with Andrew as board members together. They also chat about the carbon capture advantages of cows and whether he would want his children to take on his farming business.  Ian Websters presents the market re...

We are surrounded by barley and so it seemed like a good time to go and find out more about what happens to the grain, much of which is malted around these parts of Norfolk. So this week producer Claire went to meet Bruce Ash who is a beer sommelier at local brewer Moon Gazer. She found out what is involved in what sounds like a dream job and how you become one. She also hears about mash ups, Jump...

This week Andrew is on the search for an ordinary farmer, but quickly realises that Mark Gill aka Sparky is far from ordinary; with a diverse farm including a bio-digester which uses the byproduct of his brother's large dairy herd, plenty of contract work, alongside a very positive approach to engaging with the public.    Andrew gives you his latest insights in the market report for week...

With harvest underway, the market report for week commencing 22nd July 2019 is brought to you by Andrew, giving you his latest insights into what the markets are doing.  In Farmchat Andrew and Webby are joined by Robert Brown of Peters Commodities. Robert explains the dynamics of the global pulse trade, and talks about charting while Webby and Andrew debate the finer points of falafel burgers...

This week Andrew gives you his latest thoughts and insights in the market report for week commencing 29th July 2019.  In Farmchat this week we hear from Jason Borthwick about how he has continued a family tradition of diversification by developing his family's 650 acres, Deepdale Farm, into a multi-stranded business including a backpackers' hostel campsite, as well as being a landlord to the...

We start this week with Andrew Dewing's market report for week commencing 15th July 2019, which gives you the latest insights into what the markets are doing.  This week Will Love from Walcott Farms joins Andrew and Josh for Farmchat. Will shares his findings from a trip to America to look at potato farming on a huge scale. It isn't long before Andrew gets on to his favourite subject with Wil...

We kick things off this week with our regular market report in which Andrew gives you his latest insights into the market for week commencing 8th July 2019.  In Farmchat Andrew and Webby are joined by Will Sargent who left his career in journalism to run his family's farm in Morningthorpe. Following on from last week's discussion about succession planning, Will talks about his own experiences...

The market report for week commencing 1st July 2019 gives you Andrew's latest insights into what's happening in the market as harvest draws near. Whilst in Farmchat Andrew chats to farmer Ed Salmon - who is thinking about the future as he approaches the age of 30 and has taken on most of the running of the family farm in Fransham. His father Robert has dealt with succession planning and handed ove...

This week Ben Bullen from David Bullen Ltd a multi-disciplined, building-surveying and architectural-design company joined Andrew and Ben to chat about opportunities on the farm. Ben shares his thoughts on how we may not know how envied the countryside is how opening up to ideas of glamping, wild swimming and tree-houses might be another diversification to add to your armoury as well as converting...

This week we hear from Tom Dye, MD of Albanwise Farming Ltd., who talks about 'good farming'. Tom and Andrew discuss the problems of black grass, how livestock are used in rotation and how the agronomy sector needs to evolve. They also discuss what it takes to recruit and retain the right sort of staff.  In our newly tweaked format, there's no separate Farmchat, but Tom joins Andrew and Webby...

This week Andrew heads over to Mannington to meet up with Organic farmer Keith Pigott. He moved up from London 16 years ago and started up his organic farm where he has had varying success with a variety of different crops. He is sure a more diverse farming approach will be the future and better for the environment than monoculture fields.     The market report for week commencing 1...

This week Ian Webster meets with John Gill from Coston Hall Dairy to talk about his raw milk, how a successful network has developed amongst dairy famers and animal welfare. John also bemoans those relentless early mornings that are part of the package when looking after a dairy herd.    The market report for week commencing 3rd June 2019 is presented by Ian, as Andrew's away an in Farmc...

This week Andrew Dewing gives us some more trading gems in the second of his education series. This time it is on cash settlements, covering the terms of default and the conditions for when to sell and buy back later. As usual, Andrew demystifies these processes with the aim of giving everyone the confidence to get the best price for their crops. The market report for week commencing 6th May 2019...

This week producer Claire heads down to the John Innes Centre to meet Dr Laura Dixon. She has uncovered new evidence about the agriculturally important process of vernalisation in a development that could help farmers deal with financially damaging weather fluctuations. Vernalisation is the process by which plants require a prolonged exposure to cold temperature before they transition from the veg...

In this week's feature producer Claire went down to the John Innes Centre to meet up with Brande Wulff to hear about his latest discovery - speed cloning. This new technique is about recruiting resistance genes from wild relatives of crops to make modern crops more resistant to disease and less reliant on pesticides. Claire and Brande manage to find an analogy that involves a donkey's whiskers and...

This week Andrew meets up with Julian Scott of Clarkson Port Services in Ipswich who oversees the site importing and exporting grain and animal feeds. He explains what it’s like trying to manage the organisation of what goes where, the implications of Brexit for him so far and helps Andrew demystify what happens to grain at the port. The market report for week commencing 11th March 2019 gives you...

This week producer Claire went to see professor of value chain management Andrew Fearne at the University of East Anglia (UEA). Having heard him do a great talk at the Norfolk Farming Conference (NFC), she went to learn more about what a value chain is compared to a supply chain. Claire tried to find out what Professor Fearne would do if he was a Norfolk farmer growing the typical crops of this ar...