Meet the Farmers

Today we're heading to Monmouthshire in south Wales to meet Dan Smith who is Farm Manager at Jamie’s Farm in Monmouth. Jamie's Farm have a four-winged approach – farming, family, therapy and legacy and they have 6 farms across England and Wales on to which they invite these young people to stay on the farm with the team for five days. Dan himself grew up on various farms across England and Wales a...

Another hundred episodes has gone past and we’ve been all over the British Isles from the north of Scotland to Cornwall and the Isle of Man to Sussex and met farmers from pretty much every sector - dairy, pigs, poultry, horticulture, cereals, potatoes, sheep and beef. We’ve discussed the environment, politics, culture, new entrants, challenges, inputs, policy, trade and profiled some amazing perso...

Today Ben is heading across the Irish Sea to speak to Irish dairy farmer Bruce Thompson who milks 300 cows at the foot of the Slieve Blooms in the heart of the island of Ireland. Over time the farm has shifted towards dairy but it used to be more of a mixed farm with sheep, beef and dairy enterprises. Bruce has always worked in agriculture although he has a diploma in automobile engineering and is...

Today we’re in Devon with new entrant to farming Adam Short. Adam’s primary professional background is in the IT sector and indeed his primary line of work today, alongside life on the farm, is in agri-software, a subject that I’m sure will be of interest to many of you, which is partly why I’ve asked him on the podcast. He’s had a varied career prior to moving into the agricultural community and...

Today we’re heading to Cambridgeshire to meet grower Calixta Killander who founded Flourish in 2017 which focuses on producing unusual produce for chefs. Initially a market garden Calixta’s enterprise has now grown to include fruits, vegetables, herbs, heritage grains, salads and flowers on 56 acres. Her ambition is to produce nutrient dense food and supply directly to her customers as well as cre...

Open Farm Sunday is just around the corner and organisers LEAF are still encouraging as many farmers as possible to sign up. The official date for this year’s event is Sunday 11th June. But if you’re a farmer, why should you consider getting involved? Well to find out Ben is joined today by LEAF’s Open Farm Sunday Manager Annabel Shackleton and poultry and arable farmer Jenny Olds from Cornhill Fa...

Today we’re heading to Derbyshire to speak to dairy farmer Jessica Langton. Despite only being in her 20s Jess already has an impressive CV and bags of passion, enthusiasm and drive for a career in agriculture. As well as working on the family dairy farm, she studied Animal Science at the University of Nottingham and is currently on a grad scheme with Genus who she worked with on a part time basis...

Today we’re heading to Lincolnshire to meet arable farmer and runner Charles Anyan, who farms 346 hectares of land at Springthorpe near Gainsborough in the north west of the county. Cropping includes a fairly standard rotation of wheat, barley, oil seed rape and spring beans. Charles also runs a small DIY livery yard and is involved in a couple of mid-tier stewardship schemes. He’s been back on th...

Today we’re on the Isle of Man for the first time, to speak to father and son Ean and Harry Parsons. The Parsons’ sheep and beef farm is at Laxey on the eastern side of the island. It’s around 5000 acres in area with 3500 of that moorland. Ean is also the current President of the Manx NFU, and a former Chair of its Meat and Livestock Committee. Harry is a student at Harper Adams studing for a BSc...

Ben meets Caithness based mixed farmer and Nuffield scholar Ranald Angus. Episode Notes Today we’re heading up to Thurso in Caithness on the northernmost coast of Scotland to meet mixed farmer and 2021 Nuffield scholar Ranald Angus. Ranald is a partner in his family’s mixed farm with beef, sheep, arable and forestry enterprises. His Nuffield focuses on carbon and his working project title is 'Brid...

Ben meets Cumbria based cheesemaker, sheep and goat farmer Martin Gott.  St James Cheese Episode Notes We’re up in the Lake District today, in Cumbria to meet farmer and cheesemaker Martin Gott who runs Holker Farm and St James Cheese with his wife Nicola. Martin and Nicola have rented the Cumbrian farm since 2006 after moving up from Somerset. They established a flock of milking sheep and began m...

Helen is the third generation of her family to farm at Longridge Farm in Gloucestershire, which is 100 acres in area. Originally a dairy farm along with sheep and traditional orchards, Helen now runs a 50 head sucker herd with Dexters, 120 breeding ewes, a dairy goat rearing system, a small pig rearing unit, 100 turkeys for the Christmas market, a livery yard and the orchard. She is also a part ti...

Flavian manages 130 sows from farrow to finish on a mixed farm in Hampshire which also has sheep, beef, arable and a farm shop. Before he started this role in 2021 he managed the pig unit at Plumpton College in East Sussex.  Flavian moved to the UK at the age of 15, having grown up in Kenya. The plan was to go to university to study veterinary medicine, but instead he ended up taking a year out af...

Putting Down Roots with Sarah Langford Sarah Langford is a best selling author, communicator and public speaker. For a decade she worked as a defence barrister but in 2017 she moved to Suffolk and, together with her husband, Ben, took on the running of his family’s small farm. They have converted the farm to organic production and have planted hundreds of metres of new hedgerows.  The paperback ve...

How to Fail at Farming Ben speaks to Josh Heyneke in this episode who farms ducks for eggs with his wife Abi in Pembrokeshire. Josh and Abi left their city lives to go farming, and have experienced many trials since then. Last year Josh made a video called How to Fail at Farming and launched a crowd funding campaign to save the farm. This is his story.  Parc Carreg is the farm.  The link to their...

Luke farms at Daintree Farm in the Cambridgeshire fens, just outside of Ramsey. He grows wheat, barley, oil seed rape, potatoes and sugar beet.  Luke on Twitter here Luke on Instagram here.   00:18 Introduction from Ben. 01:41 Luke enters. 02:27 Luke talks about his part of Cambridgeshire. 04:26 Luke talks about Cambridgeshire County Council tenant holdings and how he got his own tenancy. 06:06 Lu...

You can find out more about Ben Taylor Davies on his website   regenben.com Discover more about Nuffield Farming scholarships at Contact | Nuffield Farming Scholarships (nuffieldscholar.org) 00:18 Intro from Ben Eagle 03:18 How would Ben Taylor Davies desribe himself? 05:00 Ideas 06:55 Ben Taylor Davies talks about his friendship with James Smith 09:14 What is an average week for Ben Taylor Davies...

Link to JB Farming Life on youtube - click here 00:18 Ben introduces the show 01:40 Jen comes in 01:48 Jen talks about her life in Lincolnshire 02:26 Jen explains the challenges of their arable rotation over the last few years. 06:10 How did James and Jen meet? 08:00 How has Jen's perception of farming changed, having not coming from a farming background? 10:58 Jen talks about her career in PR and...

Regenerative Agriculture - Knepp Pasture for Life – Certified 100% grass-fed meat, milk and dairy The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett | No.1 Podcast  

List of all the winners from last year's Cream Awards available here. 

Home | Oxford Farming Conference (ofc.org.uk) Oxford Real Farming Conference (orfc.org.uk)  

Ben is joined by Emily Norton, Guy Smith, Gareth Wyn-Jones and Sophie Gregory to look back on the year in farming and have a bit of fun along the way with the annual quiz!

Ben meets Karl Franklin aka 'The Pretend Farmer' on Instagram, who left his career as a chef to take up sheep farming.

Farmwilder.co.uk The Lakes Free Range Egg Company Forestry Commission

Forestry Commission Grascott Farm Case Study Chatsworth Estate Case Study   Tree planting and woodland creation overview Read some inspiring woodland creation  case studies  Find out more about England Woodland Creation Offer   www.chatsworth.org