Harvest2012

HARVEST JOURNAL 2012 • ISSUE 239

www.thefarmersclub.com

Farmers Club INSIDE Future fertilisers p8 Chamber of Agriculture p10 Hampton Court flowers p12 Henley Royal Regatta p13 Farming education p14

BOOKING FORMS Royal Day Out Harvest Festival War Horse Shakespeare Exhibition New Year Eve Dinner

Norfolk’s finest Club tour links farming, royalty and wildlife p4

Farmers Club Over 160 years of service to farming 3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL Patron – Her Majesty The Queen

FRONT COVER Royal land agent Marcus O’Lone (right) and his team hosted a Farmers Club visit to Sandringham as part of a splendid summer tour of Norfolk

Contents

Disclaimer: The articles published in The Farmers Club Journal do not necessarily reflect the views of The Farmers Club. No responsibility for the quality of goods or services advertised in the magazine can be accepted by the publisher. Advertisements are included in good faith’. All rights reserved.

4

3

Chairman’s Comments Norfolk farming sets the tone

4

Norfolk’s finest Club tour connects farming, food processing, royalty and wildlife as two great estates provide the core to the visits

8

Fertiliser futures There’s no silver bullet to halt spiralling fertiliser costs. Instead farming needs to make better use of what is available

10 Chamber of Agriculture

8

This farming body ceased in every county but Shropshire, where a vibrant organisation still serves farming well

12 Hampton Court flowers Stunning floral displays catch the eye of Club members

13 Henley Royal Regatta Messing about in boats took a decidedly elegant turn at a glorious Farmers Club event on the banks of the Thames

14 Next generation

17

Educating the next generation about food and farming is the goal for a major AHDB initiative

16 Henr y V Wonderful evening at London’s Globe theatre

17 Livestock artist Bright images from a Scottish stockyard

18 Under 30s Summer event success

19

19 Estate diversification Under 30s member builds new business venture

20 Farming Olympics Rural Britain features in Olympic opening

21 Whitehall Court Ramblings Club’s Leadership initiative, plus Horse Guards Avenue update

22 Information and Diar y Dates

02 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012

Chairman’s Comments • Paul Heygate

Chairman’s Comments Club expansion plans: It is not the news that we would like to have heard, but we will still continue to hold a watching brief.

IN the last journal I opened my comments by saying it was finally raining and how that was good news for farmers. Well for some areas it seems not to have stopped since then. We could see the benefits when the Club visited Norfolk at the end of May. In fact since my last article I have travelled to Yorkshire preparing for our September visit, Norfolk and Northern Ireland and the crops looked very good in all these areas.

Whilst visiting Northern Ireland for the Balmoral show I was fortunate to be invited by Campbell Tweed, a committee member, to look round his farm and I took the opportunity to see how the rams he had purchased from my neighbour in Northamptonshire were doing.

If ever one needed a lesson on how to manage grassland on hills this was it. I came away very impressed, but with no feed order as he gets everything away off grass.

Irish hospitality is always excellent and this year was no exception with nearly 70 people attending our dinner, where Sir Nigel Hamilton, the former head of the civil service in Northern Ireland gave an excellent and witty after dinner speech.

When I was planning my year as chairman and thinking of themes for my visits I wanted to concentrate on family businesses involved in the food industry and also to look at some of the new uses for agricultural products. Our visit to Norfolk took us to the British Sugar plant at Wissington, part of the Weston Families ABF Global Food Group. We soon realised this factory does a lot more than just extract sugar

from beet. We continue with this theme in September with a visit to Yorkshire.

We were very fortunate to have John Shropshire speaking on the first night of our Norfolk visit and what an excellent presentation and discussion we had. The Shropshire business supplies fresh produce, so I asked John to give his views on the supply chain and how we can get “points of difference” to help us be the “supplier of first choice”. An important point he made was to always know your costs, as it is only then that you will know when to say no or, if you still wish to supply, what it will cost you. How important that is and how often we are not sure of our full costs, so make decisions with only half the facts.

Bill Jordan, who with his brother David built Jordans Cereals into a major brand, gave us an insight into the future of the food industry. Bill has been a friend of my family for many years and his enthusiasm, evident in the time he spent talking to all of our groups, is unbelievable.

On our third day we visited the Sandringham Estate of our Patron Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II where our host was her land agent and club member Marcus O’Lone. The editor has written an excellent summary of this visit (page 4) and it only remains for me to say how fortunate and lucky I was to be allowed to arrange the visit. It was a marvellous end to our three days in Norfolk.

In September, continuing with the theme of new uses for agricultural products, we will visit Vivergo in Hull, again part of the ABF Group.

We will also visit Aunt Bessie the Yorkshire pudding manufacturer (20m per week) part of the Wm Jackson Group, as well as Brocklesby Bio Fuels, which recovers edible fats and oils from the food industry for use in biodiesel, and an anaerobic digester plant. We will finish with a visit to JSR Farms for a tour of one of its farms and a cookery demonstration.

During our Norfolk visit we informed members present of the latest situation concerning Horse Guards Avenue and subsequently an e-mail and letter has been sent to all members. It is unfortunate that it is not the news that we would like to have heard but we will still continue to hold a watching brief.

Finally, I and many members with their families attended a lunch at the Club to watch the river Pageant on the Sunday of the Diamond Jubilee weekend. It was so rewarding to see so many people of all ages enjoying the Club and its facilities and I am sure you all join me in thanking Haffa Benhacene, head chef Jeff Plant and their teams for the magnificent job they did in looking after us. As Chairman I felt extremely proud.

Thank you for your support.

Paul Heygate

www.thefarmersclub.com • 03

Charles Abel • Summer tour

Norfolk’s finest Efficient food production, countryside sport and nature conservation were the focus of The Club’s summer tour. Charles Abel reports

(Above) Marcus O’Lone Club member and Sandringham land agent (Main picture) State-ofthe-art kit underpins Sandringham’s arable operations

IT was a tale of two great Norfolk estates as over 100 Farmers Club members gathered in East Anglia under bright summer skies. Both estates have strong family values, both produce premium quality foods and both have a keen eye on the environment.

In the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year Sandringham was always going to be a popular choice, as the rural retreat, sporting estate and home of the horse stud of Farmers Club Patron, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It was perfectly complimented by the meticulously managed estate at Swaffham of Club Chairman Paul Heygate’s family. Further visits to top food processor British Sugar and wildlife campaigner Bill Jordan’s Pensthorpe nature reserve completed this impressive tour.

Host for the Sandringham visit was the Queen’s land agent in charge of the estate, Marcus O’Lone, a member of The Farmers Club ever since he hosted a similar visit to Windsor Farms 17 years ago.

The estate came into the Royal Family as a 7000 acre 21st birthday gift to Edward VII. Now expanded to 20,500 acres, it accounts for most of the land within a ring fence measuring 12 miles across and 6 miles deep, beside the Wash in west Norfolk.

Owned by the Queen and managed by the Duke of Edinburgh it is a private estate like Balmoral, not part of the nation’s Crown Estate. This largest and most important asset of the Queen’s comprises 3500 acres of forestry and 6500 acres of in-hand farming, the rest being farmed by a number of tenants.

Income stems from property, tourism and farming, the three generally balancing well, Mr O’Lone

04 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012

explained as he provided a fascinating insight into the workings of this famous estate.

Efficient management ensures it is self-sufficient and able to finance its own capital requirements.

Both SFP and ELS payments are claimed, but not HLS, on the basis that applying for a competitive payment would mean taking it away from somebody else.

As a sporting estate Sandringham employs 15 gamekeepers, tasked with managing one of the nation’s foremost shoots. Since 1947 it has been a wild shoot and thanks to 700 acres of game crops, numerous game feeders and stringent vermin control maintains 2500 English wild partridge pairs, producing up to 15,000 birds on the ground for fantastic autumn shooting.

Partridges “Feeders are key to holding partridges on the estate and ensuring birds are in wonderful condition for laying, ensuring a large brood size,” explained Mr O’Lone, clearly a passionate game enthusiast.

Walled gardens nearby, built with Edward VII’s Derby winnings, once supplied fruit and vegetables to the Royal Palaces. Today arable farming and fruit enterprises are purely commercial, although the Royal connection adds value to the 65 acre apple orchard, which successfully markets eight varieties of Sandringham Apple Juice – “juice fit for a King.”

Another diversification introduced by the Duke of Edinburgh is a truffliere, planted with infected oak and hazel six years ago. In January truffle hunting dogs found the area’s first truffle, as well as wild

Summer tour • Charles Abel

Sweet success

Magnificent Sandringham, a rural retreat for four generations of Royals Photo courtesy of Nick Gray

truffles in woodlands elsewhere on the estate, to the delight of the Duke.

The Royal Sandringham Estate Sawmill, overseen by larger-than-life ex-navy manager Peter Bourner, produces 175 timber products for retail direct to the public, ranging from fence posts to garden furniture.

Although the estate harvests up to 4000 tonnes of timber a year, using continuous cover to encourage natural re-growth, most of the sawmill’s timber is bought in.

In-hand arable cropping includes sugar beet for British Sugar, feed wheat, malting barley, vining peas, beans, up to 800 acres of organic crops, plus 85 acres of blackcurrants for making Ribena cordial. All the usual farming challenges are experienced, including worsening blackgrass on very heavy marsh land beside The Wash.

By contrast Sandringham House is the unique and much-loved country retreat of the Queen, a private home to four generations of British monarchs since 1862. Set in 24ha of stunning gardens it is surrounded by 240ha of free access Country Park, which attracts 500,000 visitors a year.

What a privilege Club members had to be invited behind the scenes to see the workings of the wider estate. A really Royal treat!

WISSINGTON is not only British Sugar’s UK flagship, it is the world’s largest beet processing factory, converting 3.5 million tonnes of beet into 500,000t of sugar each year, at lower cost than any competitor.

Starting at Britain’s busiest intake weighbridge, where 1,000 lorries deliver 20,000t of beet a day at the peak of the season, Club members were given a detailed insight into this fascinating factory.

British Sugar is a key part of the Weston family’s £11.1bn turnover ABF global food ingredients business, which has 102,000 employees working in 46 countries. The beet crop has changed a lot in its 100 year UK history, significant rationalisation seeing the 18 original factories of the 1960s reduce to four today, and 10,000 growers in the 1990s fall to 3,500 now.

Intake sampling and analysis in the £1m on-site lab is critical. “We’re effectively buying £2m-worth of beet per day through that lab,” commented BS’s Mark Culloden. Significantly, UK beet is the cleanest in the EU. Grower contracts range from 10 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes, with an average of 2000 tonnes, enough to keep the factory working for just a few hours.

Juice from the sliced beet is concentrated using energy from the on-site combined heat and power plant, purified using slaked lime and carbon dioxide, stored in ten huge tanks, each holding up to 40,000t of beet juice and finally converted into granulated sugar, up to 98,000t of which can be held in the seven huge concrete silos that dominate the Fenland landscape.

An on-site ethanol fermentation plant produces 55m litres/year of sugar-based bioethanol for blending with petrol off-site. “It is effectively a petrochemical refinery, hence the foam pumps,” Mr Culloden noted.

Wissington is clearly so much more than just a sugar factory!

• www.britishsugar.co.uk • See next issue of the Farmers Club Journal for details of British Sugar’s impressive 18ha glasshouse, which uses heat and power from Wissington to produce one in seven UK-grown tomatoes.

• www.sandringhamestate.co.uk Tour report continues on p6 World-beating Wissington sugar factory

www.thefarmersclub.com • 05

Charles Abel • Summer tour

(Main picture) Superb summer weather greeted Club visitors to chairman Paul Heygate’s family estate at Swaffham (Below) William Gribbon – connected with the farm both man and boy

Customer king of Swaffham estate ARRIVING at the Heygate family’s 5686-acre Norfolk estate on a gorgeous summer’s day, with temperatures topping 26C, refreshment in a blessedly cool insulated farm building was very welcome indeed.

More evidence of meticulous attention to detail was manifested by the Sands self-propelled sprayer preceding the tour trailers, dosing farm tracks with water to dampen down the dust. It worked, and highlighted a recurring theme: “give customers what they want.”

This impressive estate, nestled in the Brecklands south of Swaffham, has been in the Heygate family since 1957 when Snailspit Farm and The Manor House Estate were acquired. Reflecting a strong family business commitment to continuity, day to day management has been with the Gribbon family since 1971, first with Mervyn, and latterly with son William.

He has been on the farm since he was six years old and is a finalist in the 2012 Farmers Weekly Arable Farmer of the Year Awards.

Cropping is dominated by 1096 acres of potatoes grown for all the main supermarkets and for Lamb Weston for French fry production. Elsewhere in the rotation 891 acres of winter and spring barley are grown for mainly malting outlets, 589 acres of sugar beet for ABF’s nearby Wissington factory and 501

06 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012

acres of oilseed rape. Over 640 acres are rented out for carrots, parsnips, onions and outdoor pigs. Wheat occupies just 216 acres – surprising on a miller’s farm, but a reflection of the very light soil.

The farm’s prime focus is to make a margin above the basic commodity crop price, with potatoes setting the pace. The estate produces 25,000t for all the major retailers.

William had created the brand Norfolk Peer new potatoes, supplied to 22 East Anglian Asda stores with distinctive Heygate Farms branding and a strapline of “nature’s finest unearthed”. The bright white-fleshed loose skinned crop competes well with Jersey Royals and Cornish new crop, he enthused.

The same branding will be applied to Estima bakers later this year, with mashing, chipping and roasting options to follow.

Premium prices “We’re commanding a premium of £100/t over the basic contract price” William explained.

Evidence of the estate’s close customer relationships was evident as the Farmers Club group met buyer commentators at each field stop. Richard Dannatt from Lamb Weston explained the crucial importance of spacing to ensure Fontaine potatoes achieve the ideal size for producing fries for fast food

Summer tour • Charles Abel

outlets. Bob King of nearby Crisp Malting explained the growing trend for malt to be shipped to Scotland, to support the newly buoyant distilling market there.

But while marketing is important, water is essential. “Water is vital. With no water we’d have no crops to market,” observed William. The dependence on irrigation is almost complete. Even cereals were irrigated when rainfall fell from a normal 22-25 inches to just 16 inches last year.

Irrigation extends to every acre through a comprehensive system of underground mains, fed by nine bore holes producing 216 million gallons and three reservoirs holding 80 million gallons. A new 30 million gallon reservoir will allow cropping to expand onto an additional 500 acres, including virgin potato land. “We’re collaborating with neighbours, and have had the business model accepted, so feel confident we’ll get 40% Defra grant funding,” commented William.

Water use Efficient water use is a priority, with 24 irrigators, mainly hose-reels, working on runs of up to 650m to minimize downtime. Water-saving boom applicators are also being introduced.

Cost control is a key theme, the 12 tractors averaging 2000 to 2500 hours/year each. The Claas Lexion 750 harvests 2000 acres a year.

Environmental protection is also important, the entire farm lying within Nitrate Vulnerable Zones and Environmentally Sensitive Areas. Over 56ha has been taken out of arable production for buffer strips, field corners, wild bird mixtures and permanent grassland with no inputs.

It paid off. Survey work shows the estate has considerably better than average results for declining and rare species, including skylark, grey partridge and lapwing, with six stone curlew nesting sites and an unprecedented flock of 95 woodlark seen last winter.

A range of ESA schemes have been pursued, but will end in 2013, switching to ELS instead. “All that ESA land can be irrigated, and with current prices that is worthwhile,” William explained. The move is in preparation for 2014/15 CAP reform. “A lot of people seem to be rather complacent at present.

I think they’re going to have a big surprise. We need to be preparing for the future”.

Retail Focus A FASCINATING insight into the role of cost control and innovation in G’s Marketing’s European fresh produce business was provided

by CEO John Shropshire, guest speaker during the Club Tour after Monday dinner which was taken in the wonderful oak beamed Great Barn at Knights Hill Hotel in Kings Lynn.

Identifying new points of differentiation, to de-commoditise products and command a price premium, is the goal. But it is not easy, he noted. It can feel like running to stand still. But as Tesco’s Sir Terry Leahy noted: “Your competitor is the best management consultant you can ever have.”

With shoppers becoming increasingly cost conscious he foresaw huge consolidation amongst producers in pursuit of economies of scale. Twenty years ago 21 retailers supplied 67% of the market; now seven supply 83%. “That’s the world we live in. We’ve got to structure ourselves accordingly.” He felt it unlikely that the supermarket ombudsman would help.

• www.gs-fresh.com

Nature links LINKS between food and nature will become as important in food marketing as nutrition has been until now, Bill Jordan, owner of Pensthorpe nature reserve near Fakenham told the Farmers Club tour.

He should know. He built Jordans Cereals into a major brand, only recently selling it to ABF, by embracing nature-friendly Conservation Grade farming. “The rest of farming has thumped the land pretty hard and got some good yields from it, but it has lost a lot of the wildlife at the same time,” he noted. That needs redressing.

“Food brands are becoming increasingly involved with where their basic ingredients come from, whether it is imported or whether it is doing good things for the UK countryside.”

The 660 acre Pensthorpe estate, home of BBC’s Springwatch for three years, has wildlife at its very heart, a huge diversity of habitats, including quarry lakes, supporting a phenomenal variety of wildlife, including bearded tits, bitterns, corncrakes and great cranes.

• www.pensthorpe.com

• www.heygatefarms.co.uk

Norfolk Peer new potatoes command a healthy price premium

Habitat diversity is Pensthorpe’s greatest asset

www.thefarmersclub.com • 07

Andrew Blake • Plant nutrition

Fertiliser futures Soaring fertiliser costs point to the need for a fresh focus on plant nutrition.

Andrew Blake reports

FARMERS seeking new ways to reduce their reliance on manufactured fertilisers must appreciate that alternative sources of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are likely to prove more expensive. But much can be done to make better use of what is already available, according to two recent Nuffield scholars.

After worldwide studies neither Yara’s Mark Tucker nor Nik Johnson, Lincolnshire farmer and fertiliser supplier seem concerned for future supplies of N and P. But the environmental downsides of over 150 years’ use of artificial fertilisers are stimulating renewed interest in developing other methods of supplying crops with key nutrients.

NITROGEN In the case of N the science behind such methods is well understood. In theory farms could already be producing their own anhydrous ammonia on site using wind power, says Mr Tucker. “The technology is out there to do it if the economics eventually become right.”

It all boils down to the supply of energy, he explains. Making fertiliser consumes only 1-1.5% of global energy, and fossil fuels are likely to be the main source of that energy until at least 2100.

“But by definition products manufactured using non-renewable resources will eventually run out; so future N inputs for crops will need to be based on economic renewable energy plus a supply of hydrogen to combine with plentiful atmospheric nitrogen.”

08 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012

Just how dark is the future for manufactured fertilisers? New technologies can do a lot to help, say Mark Tucker and Nik Johnson

Plant nutrition • Andrew Blake

The viability of innovations in this area increases as the price of energy and fertiliser rises. “The great advantage is their low carbon footprint; but they don’t overcome the environmental issues associated with our loading of active N into the global nitrogen cycle. That’s doubled since we started using artificial fertilisers.”

So, strange as it may seem coming from a manufacturer’s representative, the pressure is on to make better use of all alternatives before resorting to bagged fertiliser.

Bio-digestate, the residue from bio-energy plants, is becoming a more valuable source of N especially where it does not need to be transported far, he points out. “Production at the moment is equivalent to about 125,000t of 34.5% N fertiliser and worth £55-60m as a fertiliser. That’s 4% of UK N demand – small but useful.”

Growers should be more willing to exploit green manures –”a fact of life before fertiliser manufacture” – and rotations including pulses. He calculates that UK growers’ near halving of the pea and bean area since 2001, for obvious short-term economic reasons, means an extra £2.42m has been spent in the long term on nitrogen fertiliser.

NIAB TAG trials have shown that using a green manure mixture including lucerne to draw nutrients from depth has boosted yields even where N rates were considered optimum, he notes.

Re-introducing livestock, “N-factories on legs” – such as so-called bed & breakfast pigs – to all-arable farms is another option. But it has its logistical limits, he acknowledges. “Replacing the bagged N applied to East Anglia’s wheat and oilseed rape would require 1.2 million cows.”

Mr Tucker believes breeding, including GM methods, will have a big impact on crops’ N fertiliser needs within a decade. And remote sensing and soil DNA fingerprinting should help growers improve management of both nitrogen and phosphorus.

PHOSPHORUS Although re-cycling of phosphorus is in its infancy, Nik Johnson believes legislative pressure, mostly linked to water quality, will encourage development of P nutrient sources other than the main current one, namely mined rock phosphate.

However, the industry’s prime aim should be to develop ‘closed loop systems’ to recycle P removed in crops and livestock wastes back to farms, he believes.

“There needs to be a wider recognition across all stakeholders – the public, industries and governments – of the value of wastes as a viable and strategically important supply of all nutrients, especially phosphorus.”

Although the British Survey of Fertiliser Practice shows that UK arable growers have been failing to replace the P removed in crops for a decade, overapplication in many countries through animal wastes has led to pollution of water systems, he notes.

“This environmental impact must not be underestimated. The structures of entire farming systems may have to change as a result of legislation regarding the use of P. “The pressure from legislation with reference to water quality specifically will be the driving force for P

Nik Johnson (above) and Mark Tucker (below)

use and/or recovery over the next 10-20 years.”

The viability of recycling is bound to increase as the costs of producing P fertilisers rises in that period, and in theory there is plenty of raw material to process, he notes.

“England produces over 50m tonnes of housed animal waste a year, mainly in the west. That contains the equivalent of over 400,000t of triple superphosphate fertiliser.”

If the P could be captured from all such waste, it could meet over 70% of the country’s demand. But transport costs currently make moving it to areas which need it uneconomic. A similar ‘disconnect’ exists between the livestock and arable areas of the US and other countries.

One way to try to address this problem is being developed by Canadian company Ostara based on technology from the University of British Columbia, which Mr Johnson visited during his Nuffield travels.

The firm’s first plant, in Durham, Oregon extracts magnesium ammonium phosphate from 400,000litres of sewage a day producing 500t/year of a granular product called struvite and marketed as Crystal Green. “Unfortunately it’s not economically viable even with TSP at £400/t,” he says.

Likewise the 150t/yr Ostara plant recently built in partnership with Thames Water at Slough will have no significant impact on the UK’s supply of mineral P fertiliser, he acknowledges.

A microwaving concentration treatment being developed to extract more of the P from dairy slurry is as yet also uneconomic, he notes. “A 500-cow dairy would produce only 6t/yr of struvite.

“The economics of recovering P in this manner mean it’s still not feasible.”

However, he believes the system could be made more viable by employing the energy from on-farm bio-digesters.

“This process is clearly at the beginning of its development phase, and this particular university has a proven track record in taking ideas through to the commercial world.”

In the immediate future Mr Johnson foresees a pressing need for a better understanding of how plants obtain P from the soil and how farmers can manipulate the process to best effect.

To that end he hopes to attract 100 arable farm volunteers from around the country willing to devote 0.4ha of a field for three years for a series of soil testing and yield monitoring trials with the main aim of improving RB209 advice. Growers keen to take part should email: Nik@jseco.co.uk

MESSRS Johnson and Tucker presented findings from their Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust travel studies at a major conference at Harper Adams University College organised by Fusion Events with a contribution from Yara. Their scholarships were sponsored by a bursary in memory of Lincolnshire farmer Frank Arden and supported by The Crown Estate and Frank Parkinson Agricultural Trust. Closing date for applications for NFST awards is 31st July see: www.nuffieldscholar.org/how-to-apply/

www.thefarmersclub.com • 09

John Sumner • Farming Organisations

Shropshire Chamber of Agriculture In the spotlight: Shropshire Chamber of Agriculture attracts media interest as member company Oaklands Farm Eggs wins the Judges’ special award for growth, innovation and excellence in the Heart of England Fine Food Awards. Pictured (l-r) are Gareth Griffiths, Suzanne Virdee from BBC Midlands Today, Aled Griffiths OBE, Elwyn Griffiths and Paul Hebblethwaite from Sustained Advantage, representing the HEFF judges

The Shropshire Chamber of Agriculture is a unique organization, as honorary secretary and Farmers Club member John Sumner explains

Chamber Honorary Secretary, John Sumner

AGRICULTURE plays a vital role in Shropshire, one of Britain’s most rural counties. Indeed, Shropshire is well known for its rich and varied landscape, developed as a result of its diverse geology and centuries of changing agricultural practices. Less well known is that it is home to the nation’s only remaining Chamber of Agriculture.

Shropshire Chamber of Agriculture was formed in 1866, 25 years after the Farmers Club started. At that time, in response to the almost complete lack of unity in agriculture, Chambers of Agriculture were being formed in many counties. Spurred by the difficulties facing agriculture, landowners and tenants recognised the need for some coordination of effort.

A central Chamber of Agriculture was formed in London to which the Shropshire Chamber and others had a direct union. Within a year there were 67 chambers and Shropshire, with a total of 612 members, was the largest. The object of the Central Chamber was to “watch over all matters” affecting the agriculture industry, both in and out of Parliament. County Chambers initiated discussion groups, promoted agriculture shows, encouraged experimental work and did agricultural education work.

Chambers were the forerunners of the farming

10 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012

unions, which followed in the early twentieth century and went on to assume the functions and purpose of the Chambers. The transition did not, however, go entirely smoothly, with significant dual membership, rivalry and mutual criticism.

During the first few years of the twentieth century, the Shropshire Chamber developed very close links with Harper Adams College, making an annual visit and becoming involved in field experiments and investigations. That close relation continues today.

The Chamber visits the college every two or three years to be briefed on current research work, and some staff are members of the Chamber.

The Shropshire Chamber, now the UK’s sole surviving Chamber of Agriculture, is in good heart, with almost 300 members, mostly farmers, plus representatives from the agriculture supply and service sectors, show societies and education establishments. Strong NFU links remain.

300 members The basic aim of the Chamber today is unchanged from the original one of 1866: the promotion of agriculture. That includes recognizing the importance of young people to the future of the industry, and the Chamber is successfully attracting younger members.

Farming Organisations • John Sumner

(Below) President David Millington of Wroxter Vineyard discusses the Chamber’s 146 year heritage with Vice-President Richard Downes who farms at Green Oak, Clive, near Shrewsbury (Bottom) Chamber bursary recipients Selena Harries (left) and Hollie Savage undertook a YFC discovery trip to live and work with Kenyan farmers

As new member Helen Cork, an NFU environmental policy adviser in the West Midlands, says: “The Chamber offers me and other young people in the industry inspiring learning and networking opportunities with experienced farmers.”

The annual programme focuses on knowledge exchange with visits to farming, food and related businesses to see and discuss best practice. For example, the 2011 programme included vegetable production, cereals and combinable crops, cattle and sheep, a timber producing business, and visit to the well known rose breeder, David Austin.

The programme also included Knolton Farmhouse Cheese, near Wrexham, run by Jonathan and Russ Latham and son Stuart. Looking to improve on what the domestic cheese market offered, the Lathams identified an opportunity to supply a variety of milk products to the food industry both here and in Europe. Buttermilk, skim milk and whey concentrates and butter are produced for further processing by others on an industrial scale. It was a fine example

of spotting a market opportunity, adapting a business, and delivering.

The 2012 events programme began with a visit to the egg producing business of Farmers Club member Aled Griffiths, OBE, who is also a member of the Shropshire Chamber. Oaklands Farm Eggs is a well established family business based in the heart of Shropshire. Established some 60 years ago, this family business is managed by Aled and his sons Gareth and Elwyn. With over two million colony hens producing 750 million colony eggs this year and employing over 150 people, Oaklands is recognized worldwide as a centre of excellence, setting the highest levels of hen welfare and product reliability.

This year’s programme concludes with a visit to the Duchy Home Farm, Highgrove in Gloucestershire, to discuss the benefits of an organic, sustainable form of agriculture.

Chamber President David Millington of Wroxeter Vineyard highlights the benefits of the visits: “They are an opportunity to see and discuss best practice in diverse sectors of farming and food, and to keep up with modern techniques. Equally importantly, they provide a means for members to network and exchange information, and the social benefits of such gatherings – namely good fellowship with like minded people – must not be overlooked”.

Charitable bursaries The Chamber enjoys charitable status and directs surplus funds to support the Midlands Air Ambulance and the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution each year. It also grants bursaries to worthy members of the Shropshire County Federation of Young Farmers Clubs for personal development. Last year bursaries were awarded to Selena Harries and Hollie Savage to support their YFC discovery trip to Segalla, a small village in Kenya.

The Chamber continues to enjoy links with the Farmers Club as many Chamber members are also Farmers Club members. In 1989, former Chamber President and farmer, John Beynon Brown, was a recipient of the Farmers Club award for his Nuffield Scholarship. The scholarship looked at how farmers organize themselves to exert influence in countries such as Germany and Austria, plus a number of eastern European countries. Intriguingly, John found that in Northern Germany and Austria the support system was still based on Chambers of Agriculture.

A key event in the Chamber’s calendar is its annual luncheon at which this year’s guest speaker was John Shropshire, CEO of the G’s Group of companies. John, who has long standing family farming connections with the county, addressed the 180 members and guests on the theme of sustainable food.

In reality the annual lunch is a celebration of the Chamber’s continued existence. It is an existence that is a tribute to those visionary Shropshire farmers who, 150 years ago, recognised the need for coordinated effort, for science and education, and more importantly, did something about it.

• John Sumner Honorary Secretary sumner_john1@sky.com

www.thefarmersclub.com • 11

Summer event

Hampton Court

NFU exhibit once again provided a stunning Gold Award-winning display of Britain’s best seasonal produce, in association with Waitrose www.nfuonline.com

Hampton Court Flower Show was a splendid day out for Club members and their guests You’re beautiful! Handsome as Farmers Club group leader Charles Notcutt (right) and member Tony Pexton may be, it’s the 2013 Rose of the Year that bears the name – You’re Beautiful. Bred by Gareth Fryer of Knutsford, Cheshire this bushy but neat Floribunda bears an abundance of chic, brightpink, lightly scented flowers in well-spaced clusters, complemented by luxuriant, healthy foliage. Suitable for borders and containers and also a winner of the Gold Standard award in the British Association of Rose Breeders / National Institute of Agricultural Botany rose trials it goes on sale this October. www.fryers-roses.co.uk

A rare heritage variety of dahlia. www.rhs.org.uk

Club members Sìne and Roger Wyatt seek map guidance from Secretary Stephen Skinner

Star in the making – 18 year-old designer Jack Dunckley of Birchfield Nursery, Henfield, West Sussex came within a hair’s breadth of Gold at Hampton Court 2012 with “The Italian Job”.

“I wanted to create a contemporary space combining the geometry of a formal Italian garden with extra colour and some more informal planting.” Natural limestone pavers combined with teak timber walkways and a t-shaped water feature, with Chilstone upright cylindrical sculptures and espaliered hornbeam adding height. Plantings included Ajuga reptans ‘Burgundy glow’, Campanula poscharskyana, Origanum vulgare ‘Compactum’, Salvia superba rose and Verbena rigida. A Silver Gilt award this year follows two silvers previously. Gold is his goal for 2013. See www.jackdunckley.tv for his story

12 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012

Summer event

Henley Regatta Selina Sawheney, Reem Kipling and Katie Webb

Johnny and Anna Clayton

Helen and Andrew King, Linda and Mervyn Hutton

FINE SUMMER entertainment was enjoyed by 110 members and guests in the exclusive Farmers Club Henley Regatta enclosure, directly opposite the iconic Temple Island at the start of the course, courtesy of Club member Tom Copas.

The private facilities right beside the River Thames offered fine views of crews as they competed into a stiff headwind along the first quarter mile of the one mile and 550 yard course towards Henley Bridge.

Members who had stayed at the Club in Whitehall Court enjoyed a luxury coach transfer direct to the enclosure in Remenham Meadows, where a champagne reception awaited. The morning’s racing was followed by a fine four course luncheon in the marquee, before a sun-bathed boat ride along the entire length of the course on the Caversham Princess, affording spectacular up-close glimpses of international rowers in action.

Upon returning to the private enclosure a cream tea awaited. What a wonderful way to spend a midsummer Sunday!

Molly Goodliffe, Lynn and Roger Bartlett

www.thefarmersclub.com • 13

Diane Symes • Farm education

Initiatives like AHDB Potato Council Grow Your Own Potatoes really grab young minds

Education, education and education New strategy will serve up tastier, better value portions, says Diane Symes, chair of the AHDB Education Group

Diane Symes, chair of AHDB Education Group

THE farming community is looking to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) to deliver expertise and good value for money. This calls for quality as well as the need to work efficiently and cost-effectively. That’s firmly understood. It’s why AHDB was set up.

There are a growing number of areas where cross-sector focus, shared by the different divisions within AHDB, is putting a more modern way of working most firmly on the table. One example is the crucial business of educating the next generation of consumers.

For all the celebrity TV chefs and accepted value of healthy eating, only 3 out of 10 children are said to cook on a regular basis, while 41% of children think farmers are ‘dirty, smelly, muddy and lack business skills’.* This presents some communications challenge.

AHDB has recently launched an Education Strategy, backed by each division, which looks to pool activities and resources to provide a stronger, more supportive service for teachers, students and pupils.

The key aims of the strategy are to raise awareness of where food comes from and how it is

14 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012

produced by levy payers (farmers, growers, processors and manufacturers), with care for the environment and with reference to seasonality; to explain the nutritional value of levy payer produced food within a healthy balanced diet; to develop a positive image of farming that supports a sustainable and thriving industry; and to support the development of basic meal and food preparation skills, in line with national competencies.

Each AHDB division (covering: milk; pigs; horticulture; cereals and oilseeds; potatoes; beef and lamb) has its own track record of providing high quality education resources based on sound research, knowledge and experience of the education sector.

The AHDB strategy builds on this and takes a long term view of education, setting out a five-year plan for cross-sector working that will develop young consumers’ understanding of farming, food production and horticulture.

The strategy also embraces the need to work collaboratively with other like-minded industry organisations offering support in the education sector. This includes specialist delivery organisations such as Farming and Countryside Education (FACE),

Farm education • Diane Symes

British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) and Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET).

Our industry needs to take full advantage of the limited opportunities to feed into school curricula by complementing well-respected initiatives, like these, coming from the commercial, charity and voluntary sectors.

A very visible and increasingly popular example of collaborative working can be found in the online website www.foodafactoflife.org.uk It is a comprehensive, curriculum-based teaching resource aimed at 5-16-year-olds. Made possible by a partnership between BNF, AHDB and the All Saints Education Trust (see ‘Food is Fun’), the site generated nearly three million downloads last year.

By combining divisional activities within AHDB and working smarter with other industry bodies, we can deliver more effective, longer lasting communications programmes. This is a strategy for today’s challenging times. Not only does it look to project a positive image of food, farming and horticulture to the customers and stakeholders of tomorrow, it’s shaped to do so in a more modern, business-efficient and cost effective way. * Research carried out by Farming and Countryside Education (FACE) and Childwise, commissioned and part-funded by AHDB.

Food is fun – and that’s a fact FROM pre-school to primary to secondary school, any teacher looking for great ideas for lessons on food life skills and healthy eating simply needs to get online at www.foodafactoflife.org.uk. It provides food facts and worksheets, activities, recipes, podcast videos on cooking, interactive games, illustrated stories about healthy eating, cooking and where food comes from, plus the ‘From farm to fork’ board game.

Last year 1.3 million visitors dipped into the website, created by British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) and co-funded by AHDB and All Saints Education Trust. Resources available on the site cover food production through to consumption, cooking and nutrition, growing and the environment, explains BNF Education Programme manager Roy Ballam.

Planting the seeds ‘GROW your own potatoes’ (GYOP) from AHDB’s Potato Council is now in its eighth year. It has well over a million primary school children learning all about spuds – how they’re grown, where they come from and how healthy they are – by growing their own produce.

Schools that register online at www.gyop.potato.org.uk receive a free growing kit so pupils can plant and harvest their own crop using the seeds and grow bags provided. Linked to UK school curricula, the programme inspires children to compete for prizes for the biggest crop. Former winner Askern Spa Junior School, in Doncaster, won with just short of 5kg of Rocket grown from just three seed potatoes. Winning class teacher Yvonne Fermin says: “The project is very hands on; looking after the plants for four months meant the children really got to understand what they needed to grow.”

Potato Council has now launched ‘Cook Your Own Potatoes’ to give secondary school pupils the know-how to prepare healthy and tasty meals.

Young chefs show there’s more to mince BUDDING chef Charlotte Heath (15) was a fan of James Martin’s Saturday Kitchen but never thought she would be in the studio for filming, or be taken by her hero for lunch and dinner at two of the capital’s top restaurants.

But that was the prize for the Stratford-uponAvon teenager named Red Tractor beef and lamb ‘Make it with Mince’ champion 2011 James Martin and 2011 winner by the celebrity chef and Charlotte Heath TV presenter.

The free-to-enter challenge, launched by AHDB’s Beef and Lamb division (EBLEX) and now in its sixth year, is open to 11 to 16-year-olds and complements the curriculum.

Students serve up their own original recipes using beef or lamb mince, with Charlotte’s Lamb and Date Patty Pan Tagine wowing James and the expert panel.

“The Challenge was launched to inspire students to get handson cooking experience and appreciate the importance of good nutrition, quality ingredients and where their food comes from,” says Jane Ritchie-Smith, AHDB/EBLEX consumer marketing manager. See www.simplybeefandlamb.co.uk/young-chefs

www.thefarmersclub.com • 15

Farming Views

Farming Views

Cushions and Kings Henry V staging puts audience in thick of the action (Below) Cushions at the ready for Globe Theatre spectacular

Jubilee Figures

10,745%

Rise in the value of English farmland during the 60-year reign of Queen Elizabeth

113 acres Area of wheat yielding today’s average of 3.2t/acre worth £168/t to pay for a current top-selling tractor, such as a £60,951 137hp John Deere 6630

10.5 acres Area of wheat yielding 1952’s average of 1.2t/acre worth £29/t to pay for best-selling tractor of the day, a £365 24hp Ferguson TE20

0.43 acres Area of wheat required to purchase 1hp of tractor power in 1952, compared with 0.82 acres today

300,000

Number of horses employed on UK farms in 1950s

12-fold

Average rise in farm commodity values since 1952 (18x cows lw, 15x prime cattle lw, 15x lambs dw, 11x potatoes, 6x wheat, 5x clean pigs dw)

Data from: Farmers Weekly, Knight Frank and AHDB

16 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012

(Bottom) Dinner in the Club beforehand

IT had been a week of bunting and balconies and the House of Windsor had put on a sterling display of duty and destiny. So now, an evening contemplating the make-up of monarchy seemed a suitable end to the Jubilee.

The Club had put it all together for us, too; an early supper, a coach to the theatre and a ticket pressed into our hands. Henry V at the Globe - easy!

Naturally, we were seated up with the nobility. Our stomachs were full from our vittles and our senses were livened by a few cups of wine. Some, like her Majesty, used a blanket to keep out the chill and cushions provided a little extra comfort.

There were a few initial disappointments; I would have liked the odd urchin selling oranges, a few buxom wenches from the local taverns and, perhaps, maybe, a small fight to break out amongst the groundlings. But the Home Secretary was in the audience that night and, presumably, any ruffians had been turned away at the door.

Actor Jamie Parker has travelled the whole distance of Henry’s transition from wild youth to dedicated sovereign, as he played Prince Hal in previous Globe productions of Henry IV,

Parts One and Two. Along with Richard II, these plays recount how Henry Bolingbroke usurps the crown from the self-obsessed Richard II to become Henry IV. Civil war is averted but, to his distress, his son shows no desire to succeed him as king. Instead, Hal fritters his time away in the company of heavy drinkers and petty criminals until sense prevails and, on his father’s death, he accepts not only the crown, but also the responsibility of kingship.

Although still youthful, Parker’s Henry is now focussed and driven. In Henry V, we see him at the zenith of his power, leading the English troops to victory at Agincourt. Without hesitation he can dispense traitors to immediate death and clinically end the fighting by passing the order to kill all prisoners.

Some of the earlier speeches were perhaps a little hurried, but I found Henry’s moments of self-doubt convincing and his clumsy wooing of Katherine (the French princess with a surprising vocabulary of VERY rude words) quite engaging.

Then at the end, after the drums and the trumpets and the dancing ended, we were left, as surely Shakespeare intended, to ponder … was the man in the crown still ‘one of us’? Or had his duty and destiny now set him apart forever?

As I said at the start – a suitable end to a week of bunting and balconies.

Rural Art

Inspired farm art LOOKING into the eyes of an 1800 pound prime specimen of the Highland Cattle breed is not the easiest thing to do when he’s grumpy, hasn’t had his breakfast and his fringe is a bit too shaggy.

But textual artist Sarah Spofforth McOuat says its the only way to get a glimpse into an animal’s soul, a crucial first step for creating striking paintings.

Hamish the Highland Cow, who lives on the neighbouring farm, is one of Sarah’s top models. “He’s the Kate Moss of the Highland Cow world,� she says. “He always looks good even on a bad hair day.�

Sarah, 33, hails from the Wirral and trained as an interior designer before creating McSpoff-Art. She now specialises in personalised large scale artworks, including stunning canvases of the animals who live on the family’s mixed beef and sheep farm near Dunblane in Perthshire, Scotland.

Her work has sold as far afield as Australia, Spain and Egypt and hangs in a local castle too.

She regularly attends the RHS Highland Show and countryside festivals, and had her best ever month this spring with more than 20 commissions.

Although her painting started in humble surroundings – the corner of the cow shed – she now has a studio on the 400 acre Scottish farm where she lives with famer husband Tom and sons Jamie and Archie. “A year ago I painted in the spare room, on the cooker and when I was recreating a full size Highland Cow I used the kids trampoline. Now I’ve got a studio on the farm with the most amazing views across the fields and up towards the ruin where Tom proposed to me in his wellies surrounded by cow pats six years ago.�

Many ideas for new paintings stem from the farm. “If I see a really nice cow I will stop and take photographs of it. Highland cows are great because they have so much expression, but I’m also working on paintings of a really whiskery pig with lots of personality and a depressed looking hare who looks like he needs cheering up.�

Every painting gets a name – whether it’s Doreen the Cow, Rocky the Cockerel, Doris the Pig, Tyson the Bull or Young Pekin, named after a character in the film Chicken Run. As well as farm animals, Sarah regularly takes commissions for pets, including everything from a favourite dog to a frog and a chameleon on a hot pink background. “I’ve been told my animal paintings put a smile on people’s faces and they can see right into an animal’s soul through their eyes. What more could you ask for?â€? • www.mcspoffart.com

Scottish artist Sarah Spofforth McOuat gains inspiration from the livestock on her Dunblane farm

Scottish artist Sarah Spofforth McOuat gains inspiration from the livestock on her Dunblane farm

Top prices Paid for parcels of 10 or more trees. Best quality replacement willow sets supplied as standard.

Free advice always available.

Courteous and friendly service.

More details at www.cricketbatwillow.com/treeswanted.php

! " # ! ! "

www.thefarmersclub.com • 17

Rhydian Scurlock-Jones, Chairman; Jeremy Dyas, Vice Chairman; MaryAnne Salisbury, Secretary • U30s

U30s Chairman’s Jottings WITH summer fully upon us we were delighted to sponsor the Alumni Drinks reception at the Royal Agricultural College on the 31st May which provided us with an excellent opportunity to meet a great number of students and inform them of the opportunities that membership of the Under 30s offers. The Alumni team led by Jane Currill always lays on a great event which attracted over 100 students.

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff at Pollybell Organic Farm for hosting us for an excellent and informative farm walk. Our thank you also goes to The Earl of Yarborough’s Brocklesby Estate for the welcome provided us at their Country Fair.

In early July we hosted a very successful joint seminar on Young People in the Industry with the Addington Fund at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Full report in next issue.

We have decided to profile some Under 30s members who have a story to tell on the facing page of the Under 30s section over the coming issues. This provides us with a great insight into the opportunities we have to learn from each other and see the diversity of influence our young members achieve.

An excellent range of events are planned for the remainder of the year and I very much hope you will join us and ensure that potential new members get in touch.

contact Rhydian for more information Rhydian Scurlock-Jones 07807 999177 rsjones@savills.com

18 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012

Pollybell Organic Farm THE June farm walk started with a fine dinner at the Crown Hotel, Bawtry, before moving on to Pollybell Organic Farm, part of Loveden Estates on Saturday morning. The management team of James Brown and Peter Cornish explained that the farm on the Isle of Axeholme, an area at or below sea level in North Lincolnshire, amounts to 5,000 acres, of which 4,000 acres is certified organic by the Soil Association.

A wide range of organic vegetables is produced for the mainstream consumer market, with a Tesco Organic Grower of the Year award recognising its painstaking innovation into organic veg through the Pollybell Way™ sustainable cycle.

Our farm tour in the back of a ‘Unimog’ saw conservation projects employing two officers to implement ELS and much more besides. The planting of 21,660 metres of hedgerows and 2,934 trees has assisted in fast growth of wild bird numbers on the farm; 190 species of birds have been counted in the past decade.

We then saw pointed cabbage being harvested by hand for immediate packing and despatch to Waitrose and Sainsbury’s. The aim is year-round vegetable production, with automatic planters planting three rows at a time and an automatic harrow which uses cameras to detect the plants and cut weeds on nine rows at a time!

Over lunch, Ian Cooper of Sykamore Small Wind gave us a presentation on his company’s development of small on-farm wind turbines. Pollybell plans

to use small scale wind energy to power its cold stores and ring main irrigation system.

A highlight was listening to Tom Brown explain his new honey bee business. Over 80 acres of the farm have been planted with borage and other flora favoured by bees. The 20 hives produce fantastic quality honey (as tested by the U30s!) and provide an essential pollination service for the rest of the farm.

Before saying goodbye to the Pollybell Team, we had a guided tour of their newly constructed cold store, a prime opportunity to dress up in very fetching uniforms.

Dinner was taken in Bawtry on Saturday night, followed by a Country Fair on the Earl of Yarborough’s Brocklesby Estate on Sunday morning.

Estate manager and Farmers Club Member, Kit Read, provided us with an intriguing insight into the 27,000 acre estate and how it is managed. The estate is structured traditionally with let farms, residential let properties and an 8,000 acre in-hand farm, which is predominantly arable, save for a herd of approximately 300 Lincolnshire Reds.

An incredibly interesting and fun weekend which raised the bar yet again on the farming ventures visited.

Many thanks to all involved.

• Further information: www.pollybellorganicfarm.co.uk www.sykamoresmallwind.co.uk www.brocklesby.co.uk

U30s • Rhydian Scurlock-Jones, Chairman; Jeremy Dyas, Vice Chairman; MaryAnne Salisbury, Secretary

maintenance and firewood sales.

So where does Green Cow Days fit in? Having had groups of university friends to stay over the years, it struck me that it is a relatively easy place to create fun. So we are appealing to the leisure market, to make better use of the whole estate, and especially our self-catering accommodation and the facilities associated with a successful commercial pheasant shoot, which I recently took back in hand. A dining room, kitchens and vehicle, are all under-used during the summer closed season.

The Green Cow name was something Keeley and I came up with some years ago. We thought it sounded honest, wholesome and outdoorsy. But I don’t hold too much store in the power of a brand name alone – we need to get the proposition behind it right to make it successful.

Rural adventure

Green Cow lift off Time in international banking is helping Under 30s member Joe Evans develop a new on-farm diversification in Herefordshire Green Cow Days aims to make greater use of Whitbourne Estate’s assets

MOVING from a career in international banking to the launch of Green Cow Days has been quite fascinating.

My last two banking jobs were based in India and The Philippines so “re-entering” rural life in leafy Herefordshire required some adjustment, despite having grown up on the farm.

Since returning with my fiancée Keeley last autumn I have taken over the management of the family estate, just off the A44 between Worcester and Bromyard. It had a wide range of enterprises already, but was not necessarily making full use of all its assets. Hence the creation of Green Cow Days.

Although my father is encouraging me to start doing things in my own way, we are still very much a family team. He continues to manage our 300 acres of mixed forestry, and is a great source of wisdom. My mother runs the home farm, as well as Longlands Care Farm, which helps disaffected young people. Other family members look after our self-catering holiday cottage, estate property

So the concept is to combine rural adventure days, featuring activities such as paintballing and clay pigeon shooting, with rural skills like a butchery masterclass (in our on-farm cutting room) and a wide range of catering options, from fireside pizzas to spectacular banquets in the grand dining room at Whitbourne Hall, as featured on Channel 4’s Country House Rescue.

Setting up such a new enterprise brings many challenges: public liability insurance, planning consent considerations (although no permission is required provided I run fewer than 28 events per year), risk assessments, and of course investment in the equipment and training.

But maybe the most pivotal issue is marketing.

So far, the only advertising I have done is through social media. Facebook is quite an extraordinary tool, allowing us to pinpoint exactly the type of customer we are seeking.

Online template Clearly, we need a great website too. But they don’t come cheaply. So, for the time being, I have built my own using an online template. I am keen to have it upgraded, but will wait until I have more bookings before such a substantial investment. As a former banker, I have seen too many businesses struggle by over-stretching themselves early on.

Whilst there are lots of companies out there offering similar activities, I believe we are building something rather different. We do not aim to be another estate thronging with members of the public. Instead, we aim to offer something rather more bespoke for smaller groups of friends or colleagues, something special.

Just last week I had a group of ladies enquire whether they could book a morning learning professional butchery skills, followed by an afternoon of pampering and a vintage tea party! Responding to that sort of very specific enquiry is exactly what our new enterprise is all about.

• Further information: Joe Evans, U30s member Whitbourne Estate, Herefordshire joe@whitbourneestate.co.uk www.whitbourneestate.co.uk

www.thefarmersclub.com • 19

Stephen Skinner • Ramblings

Ramblings Windsor Leadership Trust Bursaries FOR the second year running, and courtesy of the very great generosity of Mrs Stella Muddiman, The Farmers Club Charitable Trust was recently able to offer four bursaries to attend the Windsor Leadership Trust at Windsor castle.

A panel consisting of Mr Iain Fergusson, senior non-executive director at Defra and past CEO of Tate & Lyle, Mr James McCalman, CEO of the Windsor Leadership Trust and myself, interviewed prospective candidates and selected three high grade candidates to attend this prestigious course.

The individuals selected were Alex Godfrey of RJ & AE Godfrey; Alistair Butler of Blythburgh Free Range Pork;

and Alan Laidlaw of the Crown Estate in Scotland.

While there are many different leadership/management courses for those within the agricultural sector, they are almost all attended by those from within the industry. By attending the Windsor programme, individuals selected by the Farmers Club Charitable Trust will be among the very brightest and best within other sectors – both public and non-public, and be able to both listen to the thoughts and ideas of others, while at the same time, talk about farming and its associated issues.

The FCCT bursaries are open to the very brightest and best within the agricultural sector, who are 40 years old or under.

Horse Guards Avenue I SINCERELY hope you have by now received either my e-mailed Newsletter or the hard copy version through the post explaining the position with regards the proposed acquisition and development of One Horse Guards Avenue.

Can I thank all of you who have expressed or given so much support in various ways. This was never going to be simple and most certainly could not be achieved without the majority of you getting behind it.

While I am now developing ‘Plan B’, I can promise you, I have not given up hope on Horse Guards and will not leave any stone unturned.

Post Olympics Opportunities As I have mentioned before, while we are ferociously busy during the Olympics, for the period afterwards (13th August to 16th September), your Club has plenty of space available should you consider visiting London.

In truth, I suspect many hotels will be experiencing much the same, as people have yet to commit to the Paralympics or the period between the two sets of games.

We will be open throughout the period, offering our breakfast, teas and coffees and of course, the bar and our summer menu. The dress code throughout will be the more relaxed weekend code.

Club packed for Diamond Jubilee Flotilla THE Club was hugely busy for the weekend of the Jubilee Celebrations.

Indeed, we have never seen so many members in the Club at any one time.

For those that came, I hope you were able to enjoy the atmosphere, which was pretty unique. And for those that we couldn’t squeeze in, I am sorry.

Olympics RURAL Britain is taking centre stage for the opening of London’s 2012 Olympics with farming and the countryside at the heart of an immense set in the main stadium, writes the Journal Editor.

With an expected total television audience of 4 billion ‘Green and Pleasant’ portrays a traditional, idyllic view of the British countryside, says Academy Award-winning artistic director Danny Boyle, of Slumdog Millionaire fame.

The entire field of play is being transformed into British countryside, with meadows, fields and rivers, family

20 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012

Committee Elections – Your Club Needs You! picnics, village green sports and farmers tilling the soil. Live farmyard animals will include horses, cows, goats, chickens, ducks, sheep and three sheep dogs. If scaled up to ‘real size’ the specially created farm could be worth up to £2.5m, suggests Chesterton Humberts’ David Pardoe.

The idyllic scene is not expected to last though, transforming into a representation of Britain’s vibrant modern society. “The Ceremony (from 9pm on Friday 27 July) is an attempt to capture a picture of ourselves as a nation, where we have come from and where we want to be,” Mr Boyle says.

YOU will have all received in our last Journal the form for the Nomination of Committee Members. Can I ask that you give very serious consideration to either standing yourself or, getting other members to put their names forward.

To be able to advance the Club we need good people who are prepared to give a little of their time and contribute their experience and views. In the four years I have worked at The Farmers Club, I have to say that the Club’s Committees are not the stodgy bureaucratic ones you may imagine them to be. They are decisive.

The debate is wide-ranging and intelligent.

And they don’t drag on endlessly.

Ramblings • Stephen Skinner

Jubilee Flotilla FARMERS Club colours were carried in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames by Wossname, a boat crewed by Farmers Club Members (pictured below left-right) Richard Davies at stroke, Martin Redfearn at number two, Gareth Davies at bow, and Leo Davies at cox .

From Battersea Bridge, where the thousand boat procession commenced, the river banks were lined with hundreds of thousands of spectators shouting and cheering, writes the Wossname crew.

Progressing from the Royal salute, Wossname moved around within her section, as she jostled for clear water, usually keeping boat and crew out of harm’s way, although this was not always possible. On one occasion our blades overlapped with the boat next to us, though no damage was done.

It was only later that we discovered the cox of the neighbouring skiff was none other than the cox of the Oxford boat in this year’s calamitous Boat Race, when an Oxford oarsman snapped his blade in a tangle with the Cambridge boat! Her crew were two Atlantic rowers, one of which was Ben Fogle and the other a Blue Peter

presenter who has kayaked the length of the Amazon.

The last four miles to Millwall was a challenge as the heavens opened and temperatures dropped. With marshals threatening to take stragglers in tow, we determined not to suffer this indignity, and increased our pace to arrive at the slip drenched and frozen – but triumphant.

Hot showers and dry clothes back at the Farmers Club raised our spirits immeasurably. A truly memorable day!

Livestock Show

Sheep Sustainable intensification was debated at the National Sheep Association’s Sheep 2012 biennial event at Three Counties Show Ground, Malvern, by government chief scientist Sir John Beddington, NSA chairman John Geldard, marketer Rizvan Khalid and new entrant Sion Williams. “The event gave the sheep sector the opportunity to get to grips with sustainable intensification, or increasing output with less impact, an issue the industry is on the cusp of getting to grips with,” said event organiser Helen Davies. See Autumn edition of Farmers Club Journal for full report.

REBRANDED Livestock 2012, the UK’s largest business event for producers of dairy, beef, sheep, pigs and poultry takes place on Tuesday 4 and Wednesday 5 September, at the NEC, Birmingham. Over 480 exhibitors will be divided into 13 clear product zones, including the Farmers Club stand in the main hall. www.livestockevent.co.uk

Milling Focus at Cereals Event GROWING demand for industrial grain poses little threat to the milling sector and may provide greater stability in the trade than exporting an equivalent tonnage of grain, visitors to the Farmers Club reception on the NFU stand at the Cereals 2012 event in Lincolnshire were told.

With up to two million tonnes set to go for ethanol production George Mason, chief grain buyer at Heygate’s believed that was a better prospect than exporting an equivalent tonnage.

“I’m quite happy to have industrial demand there. It is actually going to be more stable than exports, where prices can be very volatile from month to month, and particularly vulnerable to currency swings.”

Low milling premiums this season may have encouraged more growers to vote with their feet and look to more group three and four varieties, he noted. “But that is not a new challenge.” Premiums had already risen from £5/t to £20/t, with further potential for upside once harvest quality is known.

The worst thing for the industry would be a small crop, leading to deficit, and imports. “We like English wheat and we buy on provenance and like to know where our wheat comes from, which isn’t so easy when buying crop imported from centralised stores,” he said.

THANKS NICKI Quayle and family would like to express their heartfelt thanks for all the support and good wishes they have received by way of cards, letters and telephone calls following the sad loss of past chairman David Quayle. They have been hugely appreciated and a source of great comfort during this sad time.

George Mason

www.thefarmersclub.com • 21

The Farmers Club • Club Information

Club Information 020 7930 3751 DIARY DATES Please check the dates carefully as they are sometimes changed and new dates added for each issue. Details of Club events circulated in the previous issues are available from the Secretariat at the telephone number shown above.

SEPTEMBER Livestock Show incorporating Dair y Event, NEC Birmingham (Not a Club event) Tuesday 4th & Wednesday 5th

Visit to Humberside

HARVEST FESTIVAL SERVICE AND BUFFET SUPPER TUESDAY 2 OCTOBER 2012 The Club will be holding its annual Harvest Festival Service at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Tuesday 2 October. The Service starts at 5pm; our Preacher this year is the Revd Canon Dr. Samuel Wells, Vicar, St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Do please come and join us for this sociable occasion in the Club calendar. All Club members and their guests are most welcome.

Our traditional Harvest Festival Supper will be held afterwards in the Club from 7pm, costing £33.00 per person, including wine. You can either apply on line at www.thefarmersclub.com or complete the booking form below. Applications will be accepted on a ‘first come first served’ basis.

Please complete in CAPITALS WITH FIRST NAME and return to Mrs Lauren Wade, Secretariat, The Farmers Club, 3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL

Monday 10th – Wednesday 12th

The Royal County of Berkshire Show Reception

Tel. 020 7930 3751 email: generaloffice@thefarmersclub.com

Saturday 15th Booking form in this issue

Honorar y Members’ Lunch at the Club Tuesday 18th

I would like to reserve …… tickets for the Buffet Supper (Maximum 4 places).

Cheque enclosed for £ ………. [payable to The Farmers Club] or you can pay by Debit or Credit Card (Visa/Mastercard or Maestro accepted)

Royal Day Out – Visit to Buckingham Palace

Card Holder

Friday 28th Booking form in this issue

Card No.

OCTOBER Har vest Festival Ser vice at St. Martin-in-the-Fields with Buffet Supper at the Club Tuesday 2nd at 5pm Preacher – The Revd. Canon Dr Samuel Wells, Vicar of St. Martinin-the-Fields. Application form for Buffet Supper opposite.

NOVEMBER Theatre Evening – War Horse

Start Date

Expiry Date

Security No.

Signature Member Guest (s)

Address

Friday 2nd

Shakespeare Exhibition, British Museum Friday 23rd Booking form in this issue

Postcode

DECEMBER New Years Eve Dinner at the Club

Tel. Email

Monday 31st Application form in this issue

Club prepared for the Olympics The Club will be extending its opening hours during the Olympics to provide the following services to members and their guests from Friday 27th July until Sunday 12th August.

Reception

7am – 11pm

Food & Beverage Breakfast – Continental Cooked

6.30am – 9.30am 7.00am – 9.30am

Bistro menu

12 Noon – 9.30pm

Sandwiches

11.00am – 10.00pm

Bar: – Monday to Friday Saturday and Sunday

11.00am – 11.00pm 11.00am – 10.00pm

A widescreen TV will also be set up in the Cumber Room for the whole of the Olympic period.

If you are staying or visiting the Club during the Olympics and Paralympics it may be advisable to visit the following website which has a wealth of information about public transport and travel to the venues. www.getaheadofthegames.com

22 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012

NEXT ISSUE WATCH out for your Autumn issue of the Farmers Club Journal, due out in mid-September, packed full of content, including a fascinating insight into the UK’s largest tomato growing facility, reports on Farmers Club receptions and dinners at the key summer shows and exciting developments with the FCCTbacked Windsor Leadership course.

Club Information • The Farmers Club

Further information is available on The Farmers Club Website www.thefarmersclub.com Obituaries It is with regret that we announce the death of the following members: Mr A Barfield Surrey Mr B Blower Suffolk Mr A Burt Dorset Revd R Collins Worcestershire Dr B Cooke Somerset Mr J Davidson OBE Gloucestershire Mr T Fenwick Durham Mr N Hubble Kent Mrs S Kennedy Cumbria Mr E Malcolm Dorset Mr G Milligen Norfolk Mrs P Reid Kent Mr S Southall Herefordshire Mr G Thompson Northamptonshire New Members UK Members Mr D Allison Mr J Atkinson Ms J Baker Mr C Blakey Mr M Broom MBE Mr G Clifton Dr Z Davies Mr N Dellicott Mrs C Green Countess J Harrowby JP Mr K Hollinrake Mrs A Hopkins Mr G Jibson Mr J Lister Dr R Longstreet Mr N McTurk Mr M Miles Mrs C Milligan Mr G Pinkerton Mrs S Purves Mr H Shaw Mrs C Spencer Ms K Truelove Mr S Turner Mr A Ward Under 30s Mr H Booth Miss R Chell Mr F Clarke Mr T Clayton Mr R Day Miss C Hayselden-Ashby Miss C Radcliffe

Cornwall Derbyshire Worcestershire Buckinghamshire Norfolk London Warwickshire Sussex Norfolk Staffordshire Yorkshire Devon Yorkshire Wiltshire Devon Essex Kent Yorkshire Essex Devon Cornwall Somerset Isle of Wight Northamptonshire Lincolnshire Lincolnshire Berkshire Cornwall London Kent London Shropshire

Honours and Awards The Chairman and Members of the Club congratulate the following members whose name appeared in the Queen’s 2012 Birthday Honours List: CBE Professor Christopher John Gaskell Gloucestershire OBE Anthony Edward Redsell Kent Website Registering for the Members area at www.thefarmersclub.com is straightforward.

The following steps will allow you to validate your membership and setup a username and password.

Firstly click on the Member Login at the top of the home page and go to the Member Registration area then enter your membership number, as shown on the journal address label, your first and last name and select validate. If your details match the Club’s database you will be allowed to create a username and password of choice.

A confirmation email will be sent to you once the process is complete.

However, if the information entered is not the same as your membership record you should contact Mark Fairbairn, Membership Secretary (020 7925 7102) membership@thefarmersclub.com or Hamid Khaldi, Club webmaster (020 7930 3557) accommodationmanager@thefarmersclub.com at the Club for assistance.

Dress Code Members are requested to advise their guests of the following: • Gentlemen must wear formal jackets and ties on weekdays. Polo or T-shirts, jeans and trainers are not acceptable.

• There is a Club jacket and a selection of ties at Reception which may be borrowed in an emergency.

• Ladies should be dressed conventionally.

Trousers are permitted but not casual slacks, jeans or trainers during the week.

• Smart casual dress may be worn from 6pm Friday to midnight Sunday, with smart clean jeans and trainers permitted.

• Children should conform with the above guidelines.

• Members must advise their guests of the dress regulations.

Business Suite This is situated on the Club floor and gives Members an opportunity to use a laptop or a Club PC in a tailor made environment. The use of a laptop therefore is no longer allowed in the public rooms and is restricted to the Business Suite only.

COMMITTEE MEETINGS F & GP Committee – Wednesday 3rd October.

General Committee – Tuesday 13th November.

THE FARMERS CLUB Over 160 years of service to farming 3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL

Patron – Her Majesty The Queen HONORARY VICE PRESIDENT Sir David Naish DL VICE PRESIDENTS Mark Hudson, Peter Jackson CBE, Roddy Loder-Symonds, John Parker, Norman Shaw CBE THE COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT OF THE CLUB FOR 2012 PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN Paul Heygate TRUSTEES Barclay Forrest OBE (Chairman), Mrs Susan Kilpatrick OBE, Mrs Nicki Quayle, Julian Sayers VICE-CHAIRMAN Stewart Houston CBE HONORARY TREASURER Richard Butler IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIRMAN Richard Holland COMMITTEE Elected 2007: Tim Bennett (Chairman House Sub-Committee), Mrs Anne Chamberlain (Chairman Journal & Communications SubCommittee), James Cross, Richard Harrison, Campbell Tweed OBE (Chairman Membership Sub-Committee) Elected 2008: The Reverend Dr Gordon Gatward OBE, Jimmy McLean, David Richardson OBE, John Wilson Elected 2009: John Stones Elected 2010: David Leaver, Martin Taylor Elected 2011: Andrew Brown, Micheal Summers Elected 2012: Mrs Ionwen Lewis, Charles Notcutt OBE Co-opted: Rhydian Scurlock-Jones (Chairman Under 30s), Jeremy Dyas (Vice Chairman Under 30s) THE FARMERS CLUB CHARITABLE TRUST TRUSTEES John Kerr MBE JP DL (Chairman), James Cross, Vic Croxson DL, Stephen Fletcher, Mrs Stella Muddiman JP, The Chairman and Immediate Past Chairman of the Club (ex officio) Chief Executive and Secretary: Air Commodore Stephen Skinner Deputy Secretary: Robert Buckolt Bedroom & Dining Room Reservations: 020-7930 3557

Reciprocal Clubs UK Royal Overseas League, Edinburgh The New Club, Edinburgh OVERSEAS The Western Australian Club, Perth, Australia (Bedrooms not reciprocated) Queensland Club, Brisbane, Australia The Australian Club, Melbourne, Australia Royal Dublin Society, Dublin, Ireland Stephen’s Green Hibernian Club, Dublin, Ireland The Muthaiga Country Club, Nairobi, Kenya The Harare Club, Harare, Zimbabwe The Christchurch Club, Christchurch, New Zealand (Closed due to earthquake damage) The Canterbury Club, Christchurch, New Zealand Members wishing to visit any of the above Clubs must obtain an introductory card from the Secretariat.

Private Function & Meeting Room Reservations: 020-7925 7100 Accounts: 020-7925 7101 Membership: 020-7925 7102 Secretariat: 020-7930 3751 Personal calls for members only: 020-7930 4730 Fax: 020-7839 7864 E-mails secretariat@thefarmersclub.com accounts@thefarmersclub.com membership@thefarmersclub.com functions@thefarmersclub.com meetings@thefarmersclub.com events@thefarmersclub.com reservations@thefarmersclub.com reception@thefarmersclub.com u30s@thefarmersclub.com Website: www.thefarmersclub.com THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Editor and Advertisement Manager: Charles Abel 07795 420692 E-mail: editor@thefarmersclub.com Designed and produced by: Ingenious, www.ingeniousdesign.co.uk The printing inks are made using vegetable based oils. No film or film processing chemicals were used.

Printed on Lumi Silk which is ISO 14001 certified manufacturer.

FSC Mixed Credit. Elemental chlorine free (ECF) fibre sourced from well managed forests.

www.thefarmersclub.com • 23

Name(s) • Article/Section

Farmers Club

Events Autumn Tour

War Horse

Monday 10th – Wednesday 12th September

Friday 2nd November

The Farmers Club visits Humberside to investigate bio-fuels, food processing and one of the nation’s largest family-owned farming companies.

Dinner in The Club followed by seats for War Horse at the West End’s New London Theatre

Shakespeare Exhibition

A Royal Day Out

Friday 23rd November

Friday 28th September

Luncheon at The Club followed by a visit to the British Museum’s acclaimed Shakespeare exhibition.

Luncheon at The Club followed by a visit to Buckingham Palace.

Harvest Festival Tuesday 2nd October Harvest Festival service at the magnificent St Martin-in-the-Fields church in nearby Trafalgar Square, followed by a buffet supper in The Club

24 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012

New Year’s Eve Dinner Monday 31st December Celebrate the turning of the year in style at The Club