#STUDENTFARMER - September2015

THE TIME TRAVEL EDITION

SEPTEMBER 2015

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01/09/2015 09:55

September 2015

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05 WANT BRITISH FOOD TOMORROW? BACK BRITISH FOOD TODAY 07 W HAT WILL FARMING LOOK LIKE IN THE FUTURE? 11 GREAT FARMERS IN HISTORY 13 COLUMN: JAMES RHYS BAYLIS 15 WHAT THE FLOCK? 18 100 YEARS OF THE WI 20 EWE WHAT? 23 ADDICTED TO SHEEP 25 FARM OR EMPIRE? 28 THE ONLY WAY IS UP 30 THE GREAT WASTE SOLUTION 33 25 SIGNS YOU GREW UP ON A DAIRY FARM 35 THE FARMING FESTIVAL 37 BE YOUR OWN BOSS 39 THE FIRST YEAR OF UNI 42 POSTER

Welcome to the tenth edition of #studentfarmer! I can’t quite believe that it’s been three years since we first launched this magazine – we’ve loved every moment, and we hope you have too. In this edition we decided to look at the past and future of British farming, to give you an idea of what you might be able to expect in the next few decades, and also what lessons you can learn from the past. Farming probably has more of a history than every other industry – by being part of it, you’re part of a great tradition and a long line of farmers who came before you.

The land you work has been worked before – but maybe not in quite the same way. Because, as important as the past is, you’re not tied to it. Learn lessons from what came before, but then make the future your own.

I think the next generation of farmers will be the most revolutionary and innovative yet. So go for it. I look forward to seeing what you all come up with.

Thank you to…

Jonathan Allardyce, for designing our amazing cover, and Lauren Mortimer, for her fantastic illustration of a crystal ball.

Published by: NFU, Agriculture House, Stoneleigh Park, Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, CV8 2TZ

Filled with words by: Victoria Wilkins, Guy Whitmore and Emily Cole

Designed by: John Cottle

Emily Cole Editor of #studentfarmer Email: studentfarmer@nfu.org.uk Facebook.com/StudentFarmer Twitter: @studentfarmer

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To advertise contact: Alan Brown alan.brown@nfu.org.uk

01/09/2015 09:59

September 2015

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Want British food tomorrow?

Buy British food today.

No doubt you’ll have seen farming in the news recently. We’re all about positivity in this magazine, but we can’t ignore the fact that in the past year British farmers have been subjected to an ongoing period of volatility. Prices have plummeted and frustration over retailer pricing activity has reached peak levels. However, at the same time, there has been widespread support from the general public for British farming and food, with 85% telling us they want retailers to stock food from British farms (YouGov 2015). It’s with this in mind that the NFU has launched a campaign called ‘Want British food tomorrow?

Buy British food today’.

What does British farming need?

We need to back British farming to ensure we have a farming industry that is resilient against volatility and can increase the country’s long-term food security. In short, we need to make sure we have an industry that is fit for purpose for the next generation.

It’s predicted that by the mid-2040s the UK will be the most populous country in the EU with 77 million people. If UK self-sufficiency doesn’t rise, this would meet just 53% of the nation’s needs in British food.

British farmers want to better plan for their businesses and manage volatility, but they require the government and the supply chain to play their part too. For example, creating better long-term contracts and relationships and developing effective policy to help buffer volatility would lead to increased confidence and investment on farm, which would then enable growth. It’s quite timely that as we publish an edition of #studentfarmer on what we can learn from the past and achieve in the future, that the NFU has launched a campaign safeguarding agriculture for future generations.

What do we need from government?

We know the government is currently working on a new Great British Food and Farming Plan which aims to build a stronger, more sustainable future for farming. This plan needs to consider what must be in place in the next five, 10 and 20 years to create an environment where British farmers and growers can invest for the future and start to reverse the decline in UK self-sufficiency.

The government can help by: ● Creating policies that increase farming’s productivity, competitiveness and profitability to enable British farmers to better manage volatility, and develop resilience in their farm businesses ● Stimulating investment across the industry so that we can grow more British food for a growing population both here and abroad.

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What do we need from the public? ● To buy British foods and Red Tractor wherever possible to create demand. This will ultimately determine the future of British farming and the future supply of foods ● To use their powerful voice with local MPs, retailers, restaurants.

We want them, whenever they buy food, to ask: “What are you doing to back British farming?” ● To recognise British-sourced food as a high-value product delivering benefits for Britain in terms of economy, jobs, careers, environment and clean energy ● To recognise British-sourced food as high-quality in terms of variety and animal welfare practices.

What do we need from retailers?

● To back British farming by working in partnership with farmers to develop committed, fair and beneficial relationships ● Create longer-term trading relationships with producers and help create an agri-food supply chain with shared objectives and responsibilities.

01/09/2015 10:01

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12/08/2014 11:03:00

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September 2015

We asked several people at the NFU what they thought the future held for our industry. And we weren’t disappointed. We’re not going be writing novels any time soon but we’ve got some of the bigGest and best imaginations going. As much as we’d like to think hoverboards and flying cars are within our grasp, we’ve got more chance of seeing Kanye West headline Glastonbury again. So sit back and relax, here’s what we’ve got for you. Be warned: it’s good

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01/09/2015 10:07

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#studentfarmer

Chris Dickinson says: “Although it would be easy to say I think farm numbers will decrease and the larger ones will get bigger, I think there is a bright future for the family farm. It has to be pointed out that there is no direct link between profit on farms and the number of animal numbers/acres, etc. I believe family farms that can keep labour and other costs low will have a bright future. I also think farmers may look to go for more mixed enterprise systems to manage volatility – something which I think is here to stay. Keeping livestock will also allow arable farmers to justify having staff all year round and going back to more traditional farming methods is a way of keeping on top of risks such as blackgrass. Although some people seem to think land is currently a bad investment, my prediction is that land prices will continue to rise. Somebody once told me land is always expensive on the day you bought it and although I do not see the prices going up by the levels we have seen in the past five years I believe it will follow an upward trend.”

Victoria Wilkins says: “In a warped version of my mind I can kind of see a diluted version of us using remote-controlled combines, just like they did in the 2014 blockbuster Interstellar. But these can never, ever replace the stewards of our land: the farmer.

"People will turn to our British farmers to get the products they want, and we’ve got to be there to give them what they ask for.

Animal welfare will be in the spotlight more than ever. The public want to know that the meat they’re eating has been reared and killed to a high standard and produce has been picked fresh straight from the farm – what better way to know that than to buy British? I want people to appreciate the hard work and graft that gets put into every single grain, vegetable, fruit and piece of meat that we put into our bodies. It’s not plucked out of thin air; it is guided, nurtured and taken through a journey in provide the best possible product at the end of the process. And then I want people to not take our industry for granted.

"We’re on the verge of a food movement – and in the next 20 years, farmers from city farms, organic farms, and all sectors have got to be ready to join up and feed the world that will need them so desperately.”

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Emily Cole says: “Animal welfare will continue to be a huge issue – the UK’s standards are already brilliant, but the rest of the world needs to catch up. In the future, consumers will happily pay a premium for meat that can prove the animals were treated in a humane way at slaughter – consumers are constantly being made to feel guilty for eating meat, and the industry will need to tackle this head-on. The smoothie/juice trend will grow – kale farmers won’t know what has hit them. But overall, farming won’t be any one thing. The industry has been pigeonholed for too long – diversity is key to the future. All methods, whether it’s organic, conventional or inner-city farming, will have their place. There won’t be any one way to feed the world – it’s collectively our responsibility and the more creative and experimental we can be, the better. We’re at the start of a farming revolution.”

Tom Keen says: “In the coming years farmers will be learning a new “three Rs”: robots, robots, robots.

"We saw SHEP the Irish sheepdog drone go viral earlier in the year and the Japanese have been spraying crops remotely for years. I visited a small indoor dairy unit where robots did the milking, feeding, bedding, scraping out, opened the windows, monitored welfare and even denied entry to the greedy cows who were going to the parlour just for the cake. The farmer had even built the control room overlooking the herd in the style of an alpine cabin! Ultimately this is the promise of robots: a bit of an easier life. It might not all be plain sailing though… we’ve all seen The Terminator.”

James Mills says: “He may have been speaking about the hop farmers of Alsance, but how can the wise Eric Cantona in the Kronenberg advert be wrong? He’s right – farmers will be ‘celebrated, scrutinised, idolised and adored’. They will bathe in the warm waters of their success – and why not?

They are living legends.

"So folks, you’d best get to know your local Lamborghini dealer sooner rather than later because faux tweed leather is going to be running out of stock!”

Tori Morgan says: “Farming over the next twenty years is in for a rollercoaster ride; with an expanding population to contend with, anything and everything is possible! We see skyscrapers housing acres of computers and several story-deep basements acting as home cinemas for football club-owning billionaires, so why not apply the same principles to farming? Already in labs scientists can manipulate plant growth with LED lights and in some cases trays of plants can be stacked on top of each other – effectively creating acres. If applied commercially over the next twenty years we could see warehouses of food production springing up on business parks and in disused farm buildings all over the world. In many circles ‘it’s all about the acres’ and we could be about to enter the biggest game of ‘chase the acre’ yet, so good luck… the sky’s the limit!"

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The President, Deputy President and Vice President of the NFU have some pretty good opinions about what we might see over the next 20 years in farming. Here’s what they had to say: “Farming has always been at the forefront of technological advancement through the ages and there is little reason to think that the coming twenty years will be any different. The three areas where I see the farms of 2035 differing in comparison to today’s are biotechnology, mechanisation and robotics.

"Improving the health of the global population and ensuring we produce enough food to meet the growing demand continues to be crucial. Advancements in biotechnology to improve yields, reducing the requirements for inputs such as chemicals and water, will mean that the farmers of 2035 will be able to produce more with less. Crops will be enhanced with health giving properties such as omega 3 (as the latest Rothamsted trials have produced) to improve the health of the general population.

"Mechanisation will continue apace and we will see the widespread use of unmanned vehicles in our fields and drones in the sky keeping a watchful eye over our fields. Data from such operations will be key inputs into daily management decisions and farmers of 2035.

"Allied to this will be the widespread use of robotics, which are already prevalent in our manufacturing industries.

Typically laborious tasks such as milking, feeding and bedding will be carried out automatically by machines with numerous transmitters and devices installed to monitor animal health. This technology will require a highly skilled workforce in managing these exciting developments.

"In summary, the farms of 2035 will be characterised by the widespread use of technology to enhance productivity and rise to the challenge of feeding an ever-expanding global population. These developments will mean a huge investment which can only be delivered by a profitable, vibrant farming industry.”

Meurig Raymond,NFU President

“At the recent World Farming Organisation conference in Milan I learnt that 97% of the global population is reliant on the other 3% to produce the raw ingredients for our food chain. But it’s not just about food – farmers across the globe are the custodians of the land, they will have to produce more from less as well as protecting the environment and being at the forefront of managing climate change.

Farming with ever-more extreme weather conditions will influence how governments across the globe value their farmers. New technology will enable growers to cease using seasonal workers and move to robotic harvesting.

Arable farmers will revert to small robotic machinery that will be solar powered, and work in flocks. Combines will be larger. Herbicides and pesticides will become a thing of the past and lasers will become a standard part of precision farming, with far greater use of biotechnology. GM will be trialled in the UK having achieved EU approval. UK red meat producers will enjoy a surge in demand for their non-feedlot reared stock. As wealth spreads to the East, diets will change and the demand for full traceability will increase, adding value to poultry, pork, lamb, beef and dairy products. The UK population will exceed 70 million and the government will prioritise food and water security within a ring-fenced department.”

What do you think?

Minette Batters,NFU Deputy President

Let us know by tweeting us at @studentfarmer or visiting our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/StudentFarmer

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“It’s clear that current advances in GPS positioning, telemetry and robotics will mean that in the future in-cab computers will control and drive farm machinery without much need of human input but we will need highly skilled operators to programme them. Remote sensing, big data and drone technology will mean we will be able to monitor crops in fields, individual plant by individual plant. Livestock will also be managed through constant remote monitoring. Gene technology will give us better livestock breeding as well as new improved crop varieties.

Increasing weather volatility will lead to increased market volatility and the successful farmers of the future will be those who manage this volatility rather than succumb to it. Farmers will still gather in the pub at harvest time and tell exaggerated stories of their yields. Finally there will be changes to farming in 2035 that no one foresaw back in 2015, just as in 1995 I’d barely heard of a thing called the internet let alone realised it would soon become my main means of information gathering and communication.”

Guy Smith,NFU Vice President

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Get in the history books T

he saying goes ‘you don’t know where you are going, until you know where you’ve been’. This doesn’t work for me, as there is only so much wisdom that can be gleaned from multiple trips to Krispy Kreme, but in a metaphorical sense it’s bang-on. In the same way that a writer should probably read a few books first, to see what order other people have put words in, farmers should know who ploughed the land before them, what they planted, the animals they reared and why.

There are a few men (sorry ladies, not much I can do about that) who are credited with shaping the agricultural industry we know and love today. Step forward Jethro Tull, Lord Townshend, Bakewell, Coke of Holkham and the Collings. No, they’re not X Men characters – they’re the chaps who took farming from something small-scale, to a thriving system which could potentially feed the thousands of people living in the new cities.

Granted, some of the details about these men have been exaggerated slightly. For instance, there is some debate about whether Jethro Tull ‘invented’ things such as the seed drill or ‘improved’ them – but either way, he’s credited with bringing about a more scientific approach to farming. He initiated a movement called ‘horse-hoeing husbandry’ or ‘new husbandry’ and convinced everyone of the importance of hoeing the land.

Not only did this sort out weeds, it also moved everything around it, waking up the gases and moisture in the atmosphere, so that they are free to access the roots of the crop.

‘Turnip’ Townshend was all about turnips. But then, you don't get a name like that by having lukewarm feelings towards something. And, generally speaking, Coke was a pretty nice bloke who believed landowners had a moral obligation to improve the quality of life of those living on his estates. But his big improvements came in two areas: grasses and husbandry. He was a big fan of the use of cocksfoot and lucerne as grass and feed respectively, and was also a dab hand at selective breeding for sheep. Before Coke was around, the ‘big sheep’ on the scene in Norfolk was the Norfolk Horn, but Coke recognised better qualities in the English Leicester. So he crossbred them, with great results. We’ll gloss over the train of thought that says some of his practices (e.g. using something called the Norfolk four-course rotation in unsuitable conditions) may have been a bit harmful. No one's perfect, right?

What about Bakewell? Well, his party piece was breeding ‘in-and-in’ (stop sniggering at the back). Previously, both sexes of livestock were kept together in fields, which delivered some pretty special results. Bakewell separated males from females, and chose which animals should mate, allowing him to fix the traits he liked. He created the New Leicester breed of sheep – granted, they’ve now died out, but the thinking behind his methods was spot-on and is still used today.

Charles and Robert Colling smashed it out the park when it came to selective breeding. They took the Durham cattle and developed the first Shorthorn cows. From combining different bloodlines, they created super-cow Comet, who was the first bull to ever sell for the princely sum of 1,000 guineas. And considering he’s a living legend, that was a small price to pay.

All of these men had one thing in common – they challenged the norm, which had been set in stone for hundreds of years. People thought they were barking mad – but their developments made agriculture what it is today. So in conclusion, if history teaches us one thing, it’s this: don’t listen to people who say it can’t be done.

Try the barking mad idea. It might just land you in the history books.

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THE FARMING LADDER James is a first generation farmer, balancing the re-introduction of sheep onto his girlfriend’s family farm with work as a self-employed shepherd in south west Scotland.

When not out on the farm, or working on someone else’s, he’s busy writing his blog www.solwayshepherd.co.uk, studying towards his MSc or dreaming big about becoming selfsufficient. You can follow James on Twitter @SolwayShepherd or find him on Facebook www.facebook.com/SolwayShepherd.

When I first moved to Scotland back in October, I was given a copy of The Farming Ladder by farmer George Henderson, by my girlfriend’s dad.

George was born and raised in London but dreamed of becoming a farmer. Farming was in a dire state but rather than be put off, George went out and spent time learning his trade, working with poultry, milking on a dairy farm in Essex and shepherding a large flock of Blackface and Swaledales on the hills in the far north.

Despite having very little experience, and just £150 to their name, he and his brother Frank managed to purchase and transform a semi-derelict farm in the Cotswolds into a highly successful business.

They used an approach akin to the modern ‘holistic farming’ methods made famous by American farmer and author Joel Salatin (another farmer whose work is well worth checking out).

Every single part of the farm had an important role to play, one such example being the livestock living off the land and in return fertilising it with their manure.

While the current state of the industry may have been very recognisable to George, this is the ‘time-travel’ issue. You may have already guessed, especially after seeing the amount of money they used to start themselves off, that George Henderson first published The Farming Ladder in 1944.

Having entered the industry as a first generation farmer myself, reading Henderson’s story and seeing how he learned his trade ‘on the job’ before purchasing the farm was pretty inspiring reading.

My copy is full of post-it notes, folded page corners and annotations and I think that while it is important to modernise, we still have plenty to learn from the past. I really hate the overused and clichéd ‘this changed my life’ label that is bandied about so often, but reading this book definitely came close, changing my perspective, if not my farming life, altogether.

You can pick up a copy pretty cheaply on Amazon and if you only ever read one farming book, I’d highly recommend this one.

It can take a while to get into it (you do have to bear in mind it

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was written not far short of 100 years ago), but stick with it.

It’s worth it.

Anyway, having looked at the past, I’ll bring us right back to the present. The Henderson Brothers purchased a derelict farm, despite having very little experience and capital, but managed to turn it into a thriving business that included poultry, cattle, sheep, pigs and arable crops. If that wasn’t enough, the entrepreneurial brothers somehow even managed to find the time to start up a business manufacturing corn bins on the side. Would this be possible today?

Coming from outside the farming industry, I knew that I could never afford to purchase a farm and start from scratch like the Hendersons did. I’ve been very lucky to have been given some fantastic opportunities that have allowed me to enter the industry and learn as I go. Today, I’m building a flock as part of my girlfriend’s family farm. After a bit of nagging I was able to convince my girlfriend’s dad to let me put sheep back on the farm for the first time in 20 years. By working with David, I’m able to benefit from knowledge, experience and facilities that I could never dream of if I started out alone and the backing of the farm will enable me to grow the flock far quicker, and purchase far superior breeding stock.

But with lamb, dairy and arable produce prices continuing to tumble, it’s probably now harder than ever for new entrants to grow their farming businesses, or even get started in the first place. How can we hope to continue to attract much needed new blood into the industry when mainstream media headlines are full of protesting farmers and all sorts of other doom and gloom?

Unfortunately, we can no longer hope for support from the public or the retail industry purely for producing great British produce. They simply don’t know or care about the difference, or are more interested in the price tag. Instead, like the Hendersons, we need to make the most of the new methods and technologies available to us, become more efficient and prove that we can compete with, and beat, foreign produce for price, quality and taste.

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WHAT THE FLOCK? Vicky always suspected she’d make a good sheepdog trainer.

Then she visited David Kennard to watch him work with his bunch of famous sheepdogs and she realised she'd be rubbish

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n a secret, faraway corner of my mind, I’m the dog whisperer. And all dogs love the dog whisperer.

Crazy cat ladies? Get out of here!

There’s a crazy dog lady in town, and she’s ready to become a sheepdog handler.

Well, that’d be great if I had any idea how sheepdog trials work, or how to control a dog that’s half a mile away. But luckily for me I know a man, who knows a dog, and they’re quite the ticket.

David Kennard isn’t shy about journalists and filmmakers alike popping down to his farm on the rural coast of Woolacombe. His dogs aren’t either – they were the famous sheepdogs behind Mist: The Sheepdog Tales.

If you haven’t heard of it I’m tutting at you right now – Mist was, and still is, an absolute legend, and the tales that documented her life as a working sheepdog, saving her flock from the baddies of the shepherding world, were watched by thousands.

It wasn’t the tear-jerker that The Animals of Farthing Wood was, but the tales of Mist, Fern, Jake, Swift, Gail, Ernie

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and Sir Gregory tugged at the heartstrings.

David Kennard’s farm, which was the setting for the TV show, is like something out of a movie. It’s split between two locations, one about a mile in-land, and the second is 160 acres of National Trust access land at Morte Point on the North Devon coast.

It’s immediately apparent when you arrive at Borough Farm that the dogs are a big deal to the family and their working life.

First I’m greeted by Jake, an aging Border Collie, who loves a good scratch on the head. He was famous for being the token goofball in the show.

Then there’s the typical over-excited greeting of a Cocker Spaniel, Ruby, who I’m sure runs faster than the speed of light.

Then it hits me - the sound of an ominous snore – a West Highland White Terrier in the corner who’s obviously too predisposed to emerge from her Queenlike slumber to say hello. I didn’t quite catch her name – I wasn’t important enough for an audience.

Add to the list Fern, Fly and Zola and

you’ve got the biggest and baddest herd of dogs going.

I’m somewhat transfixed by Mist as I see her ambling about the yard like the top dog she is – like many people my age, and maybe younger, I grew up watching her as a puppy, when she learnt how to be a working sheepdog.

But now she's a grand old age she’s fully settled into her retirement, with Uncle Jake to keep her company.

David’s star sheepdog now is sevenyear-old Fly, and is incidentally who we’re going to take up to Morte Point to work the flock of Romney ewes David keeps there.

So I’m whisked off in a Land Rover and driven towards the sea, with Fly in tow.

David calls this the goldfish bowl of farming and he’s right – there are walkers everywhere, as this is open access National Trust land. When you get to the peak of Morte Point it’s clear to see why they love it here – on a good day you can see the coast of Wales and Lundy Island is in touching distance.

Enough of that though, we’re here to

01/09/2015 10:50

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#studentfarmer

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September 2015

work and Fly’s chomping at the bit to go and retrieve the flock that are right next to an 80ft sheer drop on the cliff face.

David makes it look easy. I forget he’s been involved with sheepdogs and shepherding since the year dot, and competes in numerous trials.

She’s off – Fly’s already smaller than well, a fly, in the distance, and then there’s no sign of her as she disappears.

I’m panicking, thinking that the dog’s jumped to her death over the 80ft drop, and David’s standing next to me with the ultimate poker face. He tells me to wait.

I’m waiting – the tension is comparable to the million pound question on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Then one, two, three, hundreds of sheep appear atop the hill, and they’re running along the cliff edge with Fly behind them.

I quickly realise that this dog is a prodigy. David’s telling her to go right, and she’s not listening, and that’s where he tells me she knows something we don’t.

As if by magic, she darts to the left to a sheep that wants to commit suicide into the sea below and retrieves it, something which David didn’t spot.

It’s a good job really – if I have learnt anything about sheep in my time at the NFU it’s that they all follow suit and have a slightly relaxed attitude towards death. We do not want a lemming situation here.

In just a few short minutes, Fly the wonder dog has retrieved over 100 sheep from at least half a mile away, and is

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ready to go again.

I quickly learn that this level of shepherding isn’t something amateurs should be doing – I know if I controlled Fly on this terrain she’d be halfway to swimming to Lundy Island before I could call her back and the sheep would be wreaking havoc in Woolacombe.

I ask David if it is easy to train a sheepdog. The sigh and long pause of contemplation say it all. It’s most definitely not.

But shepherding with his dogs is just a factor of life for David. Without Fly and the rest of his pack, David would have sheep running left, right and centre as he tried to awkwardly navigate the rollercoaster ride that is Mortehoe Point – you just cannot use machinery here.

What I was amazed by was the fact that Fly was ready to go again as soon as she jumped out the Land Rover back at Borough Farm. I was also slightly amazed that the Queen of terriers in the kitchen hadn’t moved an inch.

Sheepdogs have been a constant on farms for hundreds of years, and if there is one thing this feature proves, it's that they're not going anywhere.

They're irreplacable – nothing else can do the job as well as them. And, let's face it, what would a farmer be without his trusty sidekick?

01/09/2015 10:51

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#studentfarmer

Chances are that you know something about the Women's Institute (WI).

You’ll no doubt have heard about the jam and the singing of Jerusalem. No? How about posing in the nude to raise money for good causes? There you go! Despite all the long-held, and often incorrect, stereotypes about the WI, what you might not know is that members have been working hard to celebrate, preserve and cultivate rural life since their very first meeting, and the organisation is still going strong after 100 years. Not only that, but there has also been an upsurge in young people joining. But why the sudden interest?

The history Founded in 1915, the WI’s original aims were to revitalise rural life for women across England, Wales and the Islands.

Whilst today’s WI member is as likely to be learning to weld as she is going to be learning to stitch, the organisation was founded to help rural communities. After a lady called Adelaide Hoodless lost a child after feeding him soured milk, she decided that it was time for the women in farming communities, often alone for most of the day and often without a strong network of friends and family close by to help, to support, and most importantly, to learn from each other. In other words, it wasn’t the Spice Girls who came up with concept of ‘girl power’.

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It was during the two world wars that the WI really came into its own. Between 1940 and 1945 alone, over 5,300 tonnes of fruit was preserved; nearly 12 million pounds of fruit that might otherwise have been wasted, thus providing food for the nation. As time moved on through the 50s and 60s, the WI kept working hard to represent rural women, and to ensure that rural communities were not forgotten as the country rebuilt itself after so much destruction. A campaign against littering to protect the countryside led to the establishment of Keep Britain Tidy in 1954.

Members also asked the government to look into the danger of foot-and-mouth disease in 1959, limit the use of harmful pesticides in 1960, ensure rural people’s views were heard and acted on in 1970, and stop widespread rural post office closures in 1971.

More recently, members have called for freedom of choice for consumers by asking for mandatory country of origin labelling on all meat products, held nationwide events looking at food security as part of the WI Great Food Debates and continued to demand a fair price for dairy farmers after joining forces with the NFU for the Great Milk Debates in 2007. Members are as passionate about farmgate milk prices now as they were when the campaign launched, with one member taking a milk bath outside the Houses of Parliament to demonstrate how low the price of milk had fallen. The fight continues today.

01/09/2015 10:52

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Today The WI has experienced an upsurge in popularity recently, with many young women seeking out their nearest branch and joining. Rebecca Veale, RAC graduate and animal health adviser at the NFU, said: “I have recently moved to a new area and don’t know many people so thought it would be a good way to meet others who also like baking and creating.

The local WI (Chase Meadow) is really friendly and many are a similar age to me. It’s not at all like the WI of yester year, no blue rinses!

“We don’t sing Jerusalem and as yet there’s been no jam but there is always an interesting talk. Recently a lady who has baked for celebrities and royalty gave us her top chocolate cake tips. They were great but the most interesting bit was to hear how she turned her passion into her own business.

“I’m not going to lie, some of my friends think I’m a bit crazy but I have really enjoyed it so far.

“Plus there is always plenty of tea and cake, which is never a bad thing!”

In fact, there are quite a few people at the NFU who have joined – and that’s just one organisation. Deputy editor of #studentfarmer Victoria Wilkins said: “Like most people, I already had a preconceived idea of what the WI would involve.

I presumed I’d be making jam and baking cakes, and like Becca, belting out my horrendous take on Jerusalem which I’ve now perfected just in time for the Rugby World Cup. “I started to become really interested in my local WI when I watched a TV show called Home Fires which follows a local WI branch in the height of WWII, and is based on a true story. While they did make jam (which looked out of this world) they were really heavily involved in community projects. It seemed like a really great thing to be part of, so I contacted the WI, who put me in touch with my local branch.

I’ve got my first meeting coming up and the interaction I’ve had with the group so far has been great. Funnily enough, they’ve already told me they won’t be wanting my contribution to the chorus of Jerusalem.

I’d really recommend anyone interested gives it a go – take a friend!”

In many ways, the WI is both exactly what you think it is, and nothing like you expect it to be. Members are, of course, interested in cookery and craft, education and local issues, but for so many members, making a real change in their local community is one of the key reasons why they joined their local WI in the first place, and then remained a member for most of their lives. The members who worked to preserve thousands of tonnes of fruit then went on to call for a better future for the women who came after them, and that is something we should all be grateful for. Jam and Jerusalem may be bandied around as something to laugh at – and rest assured, WI members have a much better sense of humour than they are often given credit for – but it is a label which members are rightly very proud of; of the skills developed to ensure so much food could be saved, and for the role thousands of members were able to play during a time of great uncertainty during both world wars, when women in the UK simply knuckled down and did what they could to do to help. Thankfully, through the WI, members were able to make a huge difference through hard work and determination, both during the wars and after, and for that, everyone should be grateful.

Are you interested in joining the WI? If so, visit www.thewi.org.uk for more details

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01/09/2015 10:52

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So you want to film a video...but how?

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on’t lie to yourself: you’ve surfed the internet at 2am, desperately procrastinating against your assignment by watching videos of cats doing stupid things. And if YouTube hasn’t claimed at least 30 per cent of your university life, you’re doing it wrong.

Without YouTube we’d have no keyboard cat and no Chris Crocker screaming at us to leave Britney alone.

We’d be without the magical Charlie biting his brother, and Rick rolling would be something we could only dream about. Over the past 10 years, YouTube has fought hard to win a place

in day-to-day life. From music, to weird videos of dogs in clothes, YouTube has secured its place in the daily internet dose of crazy to billions worldwide.

You don’t need to be Scorcese to shoot a video – YouTube is an amateur videographer's paradise, and some of the most viral videos have been shot from a post-Nokia 3310 phone.

You don’t need a super-complicated Lord Of The Rings level story, and you definitely don’t need a production to rival the $341m it took to put Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End together,

the most expensive movie ever made, did in 2007.

It’s now easier than ever to tap into an audience that watches hundreds of millions of hours of video footage.

And we’re going to show you how – we’re good like that. We’ve got video boss man Jake at the NFU to talk you through some top tips for filming for the Internet, and how you can vlog your way onto computer screens around the world, catapulting farming into the minds of millions. What are you waiting for, young Spielbergs of the world? Let’s go make some beautiful video together.

Tips from the top // Jake Buchanan, NFU videographer Week in, week out, we see Jake running around NFU HQ with a tripod and camera strapped to his back.

Take it from us – he knows his stuff.

Farming has huge potential.

It has a huge audience; farmers like to hear from likeminded people and share similar experiences just like any profession.

What farming has that many other industries do not are visuals – this opens the industry up to create good videos about a huge variety of issues, some serious, some funny and some educational. I think farming should fully embrace social media and, more importantly, video.

It’s never been easier.

Shooting high-quality videos on the cheap is easier today than it ever has been. Because of the wide use of smartphones, audiences have been given a new style of shooting which is very of the moment and raw, so using

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high-end equipment to capture a quick interview or shot is no longer necessary. What are you waiting for? Grab your phone and start filming!

You’ll know when you’ve got a good video.

You can follow the basics and get good sound, lighting and framing and this will help make your video stand out but really there is no right answer to what makes a good video. A bad video won’t tell a story, or give the viewer any information. Try and get the basics down on editing and work with people you feel comfortable with. If you are worried or nervous about your project it will show. Passion and positivity shine through, so as long as you care about what you are making, you’ll be fine.

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STEP ONE: Be content with your content

Don’t fall at the first hurdle: make sure you know what you want to film. Some of the top farming video hitters at the moment include dairy cows loving life in a field and some brand-spanking new machinery. So, film a combine harvester and you’re guaranteed 10,000 hits? Wrong. It’s not going to work like that if one week you film a combine, and the next you film your dog drinking out of the toilet. You need to decide if you’re going to do practical videos, technical videos, tutorials, or all-out video blogging with pieces to camera.

Whatever you decide: stick to it. Statistics show that the people who view videos keep going back because the person creating them is a specialist in a certain field, and know what they want to film. Farmers Rich Cornock (thefunkyfarmer) and Jake Freestone (No1FarmerJake) have got this down – they know what their audience like, and they film it time and time again, hitting tens of thousands of views. Some of their most popular videos include the ‘unboxing’ of new kit, technical on-farm ‘how to’ tutorials and even simple videos of machinery at work in the field. They both share the same view: social media and YouTube are here to stay, and if you get your content right at the beginning, then viewers will keep returning time and time again.

STEP TWO: Ready, steady, shoot

You’ve got your heart set on what you’re going to shoot. You’re going to be vlogging about harvest – you’re all ready to go and you’ve forgot one vital thing: the equipment. Let it be known that you don’t need a fancy TV-spec camcorder to film for YouTube – that’s the beauty of it. Vloggers and YouTubers alike make the best videos straight from their smartphones, tablets or handicams, and with the added benefit of technology, most of these are uploaded within minutes. As much as we would all like to be Scorcese, we’re stressing: DON’T BE SCORCESE. Keep it simple, keep it clean.

Shoot your video all in one go if you can, and don’t worry if it’s shaky at first – you can always invest in a tripod to get rid of the whole Blair Witch Project feel.

STEP THREE: The raw edit

STEP FOUR: The upload and shameless self-promoting You’ve edited your video and you’re ready to upload it. In order to get the best response out of your audience, make use of the tagging system and input anything you think your audience might search for. Give your video a short, snappy and engaging title, and share it everywhere you can – the more you share it, the more it’ll be seen. And rope your friends in to share it too – after all, they probably owe you money for a pint. Most importantly, don’t be disheartened if you don’t get 10 million subscribers in a week – not all of us have the following of One Direction. Subscribers take time, and will start to roll in when you post regular videos every week. And when they do start subscribing, you’ll know your content is hitting the right mark.

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Simplicity is key here. Most of the vlogging videos at the moment have a really simple editing technique, or they’re simply not edited at all. Keep your videos to around two minutes in length, and try to clip out any footage you think might make people lose interest. The best way to think is: would I watch this? If you want to have a go at editing, feel free. There are some great free editing apps out there at the moment, including Premiere Clip, the baby brother of top editing software Adobe Premiere Pro. If you want to pay for some of your editing software, go for the likes of iMovie and Video Maker Pro.

You've taken your first step to becoming the next YouTube star!

01/09/2015 10:55

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Ewe might as well face it, you're Addicted to… sheep So what is life like as a hilL farmer? Thanks to one filmMaker, you can now find out on the big screen, with a no-nonsense film that’s been receiving rave reviews

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ooking for a night out at the cinema? If so, there’s plenty of movies out there, from action-thrillers to horror, sci-fi to comedy, rom-com to, err, sheep.

On the one hand the idea of a film about sheep – in comparison to the latest Tom Hardy offering – may sound a bit, well, dull.

After all, sheep are what you count when you can’t get to sleep, which doesn’t bode well for a darkened auditorium. But before you completely dismiss the idea, you may want to consider that Addicted to Sheep has been nominated for a number of awards and received rave reviews.

Farmer’s daughter and filmmaker Magali Pettier created the atmospheric feature documentary that she calls a no-nonsense account of life as a hill farmer. Forget Hollywood, this is a fascinating and thought-provoking ride without the stunts, product placement and perfect make-up.

“Through filmmaking and photography I try to portray people who often go unnoticed,” said Magali.

“It’s not a ‘celebrity farmer’ treatment, but an authentic portrayal with a quiet observational style of a typical family and their personal story. The film takes in the rough and the smooth of farm life just as it comes, including setbacks such as stillborn lambs.”

The 85-minute film follows Tom and Kay Hutchinson and their three children for a year as they farm 38 hectares in Middleton-inTeesdale, in County Durham. The farm is 1,300ft above sea level in the High Pennines.

Initially, French-born Magali – whose parents were farmers in Brittany – wanted the film to show the contrast between life as a farmer in France and Britain. But after meeting the Hutchinson family, she decided to concentrate on them to show the ups and downs of their chosen lifestyle.

Tenant farmers Tom and Kay have a small herd of pedigree cattle and Swaledale sheep. The sheep are hardier and easier to

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feed than lowland sheep, and its wool is used mainly for carpets and products designed to be harder wearing.

Magali spent 18 months filming the family at work and play, carefully capturing days on the farm as well as days with the children at their remote school. The filmmaker also spent time with the family at the Langdon Beck Sheep Show and with Tom working on other farms shearing sheep.

Nothing was staged during the film as Magali’s aim was always to be as unobtrusive as possible to provide audiences with a true account of the family's lifestyle.

But she adds that filming in the natural surroundings and harsh winter weather wasn’t always easy.

“Handling a camera in rain and snow is not easy and testing at times,” she explained.

“Walking backwards on hillsides or rough ground while filming can also be hazardous. I fell over several times.”

Another key aim was to capture the farm’s bleak beauty to give audiences an atmospheric feel of a working farm.

“The chipped walls and light creeping through the windows, the broken windows, were all filmed to represent the realities of a living farm,” she continued.

“Some things break, some things change and others remain.

I didn’t want to tamper with the beauty that was already there, I just had to make sure it was captured in the right light.”

But the film also has its lighter moments, such as Tom and Kay joking at one point that they must both be attracted to waterproof clothing. This, Magali hopes, along with the stunning landscape that provides the backdrop to the film, will help connect people to hill farming communities.

“Consumers rarely see the people behind the landscape, the food we eat or clothes we wear,” she said. “This is an opportunity to bridge that connection.”

For more information, visit: www.addictedtosheep.com

01/09/2015 10:57

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Heard of Daylesford Farm? If you haven’t, it’s only a matTer of time…

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rganic farming sometimes gets a bad rap, from both inside and outside the farming community.

It's burdened by a pretty harsh stereotype – hippie farmers, walking around in a smock, chewing a bit of straw.

But the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. Just because organic farming doesn’t use pesticides, doesn’t mean it isn’t hightech. But does it have a place in the future, as we move towards producing more for an increasing population? We chatted to one of the most successful organic farmers in the country to find out…

Richard Smith is farm manager at Daylesford Farm. If you haven’t heard of it, where have you been? Daylesford are pushing the definition of ‘farm’ to the limit. In fact ‘empire’ would probably be a more accurate word. The site at Kingham in Gloucestershire is just the start of the Daylesford story – this location alone houses an impressive farm shop, restaurant, spa and holiday cottages, and that’s without mentioning the three cafes in central London, the outpost in Japan, the spot in Selfridges on Oxford Street and their dominance on Ocado.

And this incredible growth is also capturing the consumer’s attention.

Last year, 400,000 people

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visited the farm at Kingham. Impressive, but the brilliant stats don’t stop there – the farm itself is also racking up great numbers. Richard Smith, Daylesford’s farm manager, said: “We’re processing 10t of red meat a week – seven years ago we were probably killing six lambs a week and one fat cattle beast a fortnight and wasting 40% of it. We now kill 130 lambs a week, 16 fat cattle a week, 2,000 table bird chickens a week, 20,000 litres of milk a week and 25,000 eggs a week, plus all the variety of fruit and veg. And I’m sure I’ve missed stuff out!

“The ethos behind the farming operation is to produce super high-quality produce that’s transparently and honestly produced – nothing is done behind closed doors, we’re very happy for people to understand exactly what our husbandry and management systems are,” Richard explained. “I’m in the very nice position of running a business which is totally vertically integrated – the animals are

conceived on the farm, born on the farm, reared on the farm, we own 100 per cent of that management right the way through, and now we process our own animals through our own abattoir.

We have that wonderful story, that absolute traceability.”

Richard is a passionate advocate of diversity on organic farms: “I came to the conclusion many years ago that mono-cultures were not going to feed the world,” he said. “To farm organically successfully you need the whole diversity.”

And farm diversely they do.

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#studentfarmer

to Jerusalem artichoke, enabling the farm shop to offer home-grown produce all year round.

Passion for organic “It’s taken 10 years but Daylesford is now a super-trustworthy brand,” Richard said. “I know we’re successful because friends will tell me they treated themselves to a piece of Daylesford meat over the weekend.

“As far as organic goes, I don’t even think about it – we farm organically, and that’s what we do. Just because we’re organic doesn’t mean we’re walking around with a smock on, sucking on a bit of straw. We’re using all the tools in our box to farm to a supreme standard.

“I’m not about running any type of farming down – everything takes a lot of cleverness. We just do it our way and it works.”

Richard and Daylesford are fantastic ambassadors for farming. “Educating people about food can get very boring and tedious, so the trick is to give people interesting facts all the time, but to then back it up with absolute quality. The first time you let them down, you’ve lost that customer.”

Daylesford is currently the largest producer of organic meat on Ocado, beating Waitrose, and meat sales are climbing by 40 per cent every year.

“Passion will take you a long way in this world if you believe in something really strongly,” Richard said.

Diversity is key First up, you have the dairy; Daylesford has spent the past 10 years breeding their cows from Holsteins (or, as Richard calls them, Formula One racing cows) back to a more traditional British Friesian, which achieved pedigree status in February 2014.

This milk is sold through the Daylesford brand, and some ends up at the on-site creamery, where it’s transformed into eight different types of artisan cheese.

Then there are the 250 commercial Flynn ewes, 120 pedigree Kerry Hill ewes, 40 purebred Texels and 50 pedigree Ryland ewes. And that’s just she woolly section of the farm – there are also 120 pedigree Aberdeen Angus, 140 single suckler cows and a pedigree herd of South Devons. “We also farm the largest herd of Gloucesters anywhere in the country," Richard said.

“Most farmers produce beautiful stock, take it to the farm gate and then wave goodbye to it and take what someone else is prepared to pay for it,” he added.

“We have an opportunity to market that stock and sell it on site. We’re producing something which then ends up on our own butcher’s counter – it is such a satisfying thing to do as a farmer.”

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A site in Staffordshire is home to the largest herd of organically farmed deer anywhere in the country and also boasts an on-site abattoir. And that’s not everything. The brand also produces 22,500 eggs every week from 4,500 chickens and 2,000 traditional Christmas bronze turkeys every year. A 20-acre market garden with six 70m polytunnels grows everything from heritage tomatoes

What is organic farming?

Put simply, organic farmers don’t use chemical fertilisers or feed additives for livestock. Instead, they opt for natural forms of farming, such as biological pest control and crop rotation. For example, using ladybirds which eat aphids is one example of where a natural process can replace a pesticide.

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THE ONLY WAY IS UP It's very difFicult to render the #studentfarmer team speechlesS. But this nearly managed it. So it must be good

I

n the olden days, a shipping container was just that: a shipping container.

There was no fancy and fandangled equipment inside it, and there most definitely was no greenhouse sitting on top of it.

But we forget we’re now in 2015 and we live in a world where driverless cars are totally acceptable (thanks Google), so a farm inside a container is the least of our worries.

We’ve all heard about city and urban farms – they’re an important part of agriculture sitting firmly in the heart

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of somewhere that sees little of the countryside. In the future, they will have an integral role in education and sharing the message about British food.

I’ve seen small spaces adapted to grow produce and ornamental flowers, and in London they’ve even got an edible bus stop. But I have never seen a 20ft long container with a greenhouse on the top.

It all sounds like something out of Prometheus. But on a roof in East London, there’s an urban aquaponic farm called a GrowUp box that’s taking the area by storm.

“It’s London’s first aquaponic farm, let alone first upcycled farm shipping container,” said Sam Cox, who’s a box designer for the company.

“We wanted to demonstrate the

potential of aquaponic farming and food production within cities – what better way than the GrowUp box?”

Let’s rewind for a second, shall we?

The brainchild of Kate Hofman and Tom Webster, the GrowUp box is an aquaponic farm, which is basically aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (growing plants without soil) married together in a prosperous union.

Kate and Tom wanted to build a sustainable commercial urban farm to grow foods for local markets in the city.

So they set up a Kickstarter scheme in 2013, and quickly built up over 300 supporters and pledgers.

The aim was simple: bring a slice of agriculture to the city, while creating a sustainable way to produce food.

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September 2015

I know what you’re thinking: a shipping container? Really? We were. And it really is as weird as it sounds (but also kind of cool). The container itself is 20ft long and many of the tools inside the box are made from recycled materials.

The base of the container is home to the fish, and you have to climb a small ladder to take you to the greenhouse. It’s a very 21st century tree house.

This specific East London container houses the fish Tillapia, an African fish, which creates a byproduct that is filtered through a system and pumped into the roots of the plants in the greenhouse at the top.

These nutrients are used to fertilise the plant, and in turn the plants purify the water, which is then pumped back down to the fish.

“Over the past couple of years we’ve harvested over eight varieties of lettuce, as well as oriental greens, brassicas and herbs,” Sam said.

That’s approximately 435kg of fresh salads a year, and 200kg of fish from their 1,500l fish tank. And it’s all on just 0.0030 ha – 30 metres squared.

It’s the vertical growing techniques that help the box perform such high yields, meaning that the team can increase the density, thus growing more crops.

“Space is often in both short supply and at a premium. For urban farming to be commercially viable we have to make the process as efficient as possible – growing vertically helps us achieve this,” Sam said.

But it’s the sustainable angle that the GrowUp team wants to tap into, and the success of their shipping container has meant they can go on to build their first large scale urban aquaponic farm – London’s first.

Its name is like something out of a horror movie: Unit 84. It’s an industrial warehouse in Beckton, London, and the aim is to utilise everything the team learnt with the box, and recreate it on a huge scale.

The 6,000sq feet of growing space will produce more than 20,000kg of salads and herbs and 4,000kg of fish each year.

“We want to supply fresh salad and fish to restaurants and outlets in the surrounding area,” Sam said.

“We really want to have a positive impact on our food system and engage more people in learning about food and urban farming.”

The team are aiming to go one step further with Unit 84 by implementing LED

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lighting to grow the plants, and placing them vertically on top of each other.

It’ll also include a centre where the public can go to learn more about farming and agriculture, educating people about sustainable methods.

However, I suppose this whole affair poses the question: what’s next for farming? We’ve already seen plants

being grown in space, and now farms in shipping containers. The truth is we can’t answer that. Farming is home to some of the greatest technological advances known to man, and right now, the sky’s the limit. And we’ll have to use everything in our toolbox if we want to feed our rapidly growing population.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT AQUAPONIC FARMING Your vegetables won’t taste like fish poo We don’t know what fish poo tastes like (funnily enough). Whoever admits to eating fish poo on your friends list needs to be instantly de-friended because that is all shades of weird. The fish poo is filtered from the system, leaving just the nutrients in the water to feed the plants. The plants use all the nutrients and their roots re-circulate the clean water back to the tank. So no, you won’t be eating poo-tasting lettuce.

You can grow other stuff instead of lettuce You’d probably need to do a bit of tweaking to how it all works, but root vegetables definitely have a place within aquaponic farming. If you wanted to grow root vegetables you’d probably need to use aeroponics (using a water mist, rather than a nutrient solution to feed the plants). Leafy green plants tend to suit aquaponics more as the waste from the fish is nitrogen-rich.

It’s not a new fad way of farming Examples of farmed aquaponics systems have been found in Aztec civilisation as early as the 15th century – so it's not a new thing at all. In fact, it's a very well-established method of food production.

You can make your own You’ll need the patience of a saint and a tool kit to rival the Jewson catalogue but it is possible. You can use any sort of freshwater fish in the fish part, and build a homemade filtration system up to the plants in a tray above. Make sure you follow a tutorial though – we don’t want any fish out of water.

01/09/2015 11:05

Everyone knows #studentfarmer are MASSIVE fans of wonky fruit and veg – the ruder the better is what we say. We’re angry that dodgy-looking carrots and fat-bottomed courgettes are getting hoofed out. Make a beeline for the weirdly-shaped potato, that's our philosophy.

Beauty lies within, and you know what? These bad boys taste GOOD. But seriously, we’ve got to do something to solve our waste issue. We throw away around seven million tonnes of food and drink every year in the UK, and that has got to change. We’ve found some brainy people who think they’ve got a solution to our food waste issues. So let’s get cracking, here’s what they’ve come up with...

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September 2015

The technical solution

Most childhood memories of 3D start with a movie and some dodgy-fitting glasses, with one red and one blue lens that you got free in a kid’s magazine. And the best 3D scene EVER was when the massive baby in Honey, I Blew Up The Kid tried to eat you through the screen. Now we’ve got the proper business 3D glasses, except most of the time when you pick them up at a cinema, a forensic team could probably find the previous user by just looking at the lenses. 3D printing has kicked off big style in the past year or two, and if you can’t splash the hundreds of thousands of pounds it takes to make your own small car out of 3D goo, you can now buy a pen for around £100 which you can make your own replicas of the Eiffel Tower with (or something else…).

But Italian designer Marina Ceccolini has gone one step further and bridged the gap between food waste and 3D printing.

WHAT, I hear you cry (I know, we freaked out too). Shocked by the statistics about food waste and the lack of biodegradable packaging, Marina decided enough was enough and stared at an orange peel for inspiration. Impressed by the dried peel’s durability, Marina began exploring other avenues, looking at similar waste, including peels and skins. She put them all in a compost blender, including shells, nuts and coffee grounds, and bound them together with potato starch.

The result of her project was ‘Agridust’, a

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The scientific solution

There’s some pretty intense pressure on supermarkets to curb the amount of food they throw away on a daily basis. Not content with doing the odd thing here and there to cut back on their surplus food, the Sainsbury’s superstore in Cannock, Staffordshire, went one step further and powered their store with waste from the business itself. And it was the first store of its kind to come off the National Grid and be powered by food waste alone.

The concept on paper is simple. Food waste from Sainsbury’s supermarkets around the UK is delivered to the Biffa landfill that is just down the road.

The guys at Biffa turn it into biomethane gas, which is then used to generate electricity. Anaerobic digestion isn’t a new thing, but it’s the first time a store has ever used it as a source of power.

They’re pretty green in their approach to waste, and they’re keen to buck the trend – absolutely no operation waste from any Sainsbury’s supermarket goes to a landfill. And if the produce isn’t bought, they try to give it to charities or add it into animal feed, not to mention feeding animals at safari parks. The electricity generated by the AD plant is fed to the store via a 1.5km cable that runs directly from the plant. If they make too much electricity, the rest goes back into the National Grid. Cool, huh?

product that can be moulded and shaped into 3D items such as food packaging that has no impact on the environment whatsoever. They’re totally biodegradable and made from waste items. Her plan is to take on the food waste battle one package at a time, and in the future make her environmentally-friendly Agridust the goto product when it comes to fuelling a 3D printer. And don’t forget, when you’re done with the packaging, you can compost it.

The guys behind Snact have a serious bone to pick with the way the food system works at the moment. Believing that it’s too wasteful, and that there are far too many people in poverty to justify throwing things in the bin 24/7, team Snact came up with an idea to tackle the problem one piece of waste at a time.

We’ve probably all heard of that American ‘delicacy’ that is beef jerky, but what about fruit jerky? The fact is you probably haven’t, and even if you have, Snact are doing it differently. Fruits of all shapes and sizes are welcome in this food heaven, whether they’re wonky, too big, too little, or even not the right ripeness (that’s a mouthful). The cool snacks are made without using any preservatives or additives either – just good, solid fruity goodness. First it’s blended, then dehydrated at a really low temperature for a few hours – this means that the life of the fruit is extended, whilst retaining the great flavour.

The guys behind the company call themselves the ‘Snactivists’, and have been friends since like, forever. Not content with sitting behind a desk, the pair wanted to change the system and two years down the line they’ve got a successful business which is chipping away the food waste issue one bag at a time.

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The DOWNRIGHT great solution

All these other solutions might be great, but one supermarket (or supermarché if we’re being French) took the issue to the big screen. Intermarché weren’t happy with how the wonky fruit and veg of the world were being treated, and quite right – they’re delicious. They decided to find them a home instore, sell them for 30% less and name them ‘inglorious fruits and vegetables’.

Intermarché launched a massive global campaign to glorify this imperfect produce with various online and TV campaigns. The stores were rebranded inglorious-style from floor to ceiling, and finally, for people to realise that they were just as good as the others, Intermarché distributed inglorious soups and fruit juices.

They wanted to show consumers that wonky veg was where it's at, and that they tasted good too. Farmers were getting paid for products that would normally be thrown away and Intermarché had developed a brand new line that was skyrocketing. After just one month, the campaign had reached 21 million people and an average of 1.2 tons had been sold per store during the first two days. ALL HAIL our inglorious produce.

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However you also know how hard it is to move a stubborn, bleating calf. This is where many women envy a man’s ability to pick up the blighter and carry it to its destination After struggling for half an hour to get a calf to use a bottle, ending up with half the warm milk running down your welly, you’re not too fussed about how ‘cute’ baby animals are Holidays and weekends have never really existed.

One day is much the same as another You religiously watch the Countryfile weather forecast, even when you leave home and work in London You would tell children at school horrible stories about birth, life and death, because it all happens at home No matter how hard you try to keep him away from it, your dog will have an insatiable appetite for calf poo Even the most expensive and cherished horse will at some point travel in a cattle box. To be honest they don’t actually care about their vessel of travel Baler twine and alkaline sticks are a part of life You tell the time by milkings: “I’ll come over after milking.”

Paperwork and invoices are very often streaked with manure Certain reps and salesmen spent so much time in the kitchen/office that you kind of thought of them as family. You saw them more often than your cousins anyway You don’t throw away clothes – they are demoted to farm clothes You firmly believe that arable farmers have it easy…

Then you see some flooded wheat fields and change your mind You secretly envy spring calving herds because of the weeks off over Christmas that can be spent hunting/skiing/escaping somewhere hot Whatever your system, you will strongly believe that it's better than anyone else’s. For example, a high-yielding Holstein breeder will laugh at the milk yield of a cross-bred herd. On the flip side, that cross-bred herdsman will spit on the floor in disgust at the prospect of keeping cattle inside for more than two months of the year Nothing smells better than a field of freshly mown silage.

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things you know if you grew up on

a dairy farm We love Ask Aunt Annie’s blog.

Read it here: www.askauntannie.com

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Wearing white soled shoes on the farm drive is never, ever a good idea If you have long hair, five minutes in the parlour is all you need to emanate 'eau de bovine' for the rest of the day Even if you are not part of the milking process, 8am is still considered a lie-in You know the real horror of sheeting silage clamps and will do anything in your power to avoid it You have no idea what the different coloured lids on bottles of shop milk mean For you, milk comes fresh every day – your first experience of sour milk is scarring Calving jacks, caesareans, pools of mucous, retained placentas and the farm dog rolling in rotting afterbirth – you have no illusions that childbirth is going to be easy or magical In a system when the cows are artificially inseminated and bull calves are shot you can see the possibility of a society without men…

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01/09/2015 11:11

September 2015

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et’s start out by saying this: I am a festival noob, writes Vicky Wilkins. I’ve always been the one pretending to be in the crowd whilst sat in my Star Wars pyjamas, watching from my sofa, and feeling secretly smug that I’m warm and dry, and not drenched in water and mud, and everything in between.

There’s always been that yearning to go, but as soon as I see someone mudbathing in a walkway, whilst an empty cider can floats by, I immediately embrace the true sofa bear within.

Glastonbury is the ultimate festival, right? I mean, from a farming point of view, it’s got everything going to promote farming and the environment. It’s hosted on a farm, it’s pro-renewable energy, and it embraces every inch of rural living possible. But I never expected I’d actually go.

I’ve always been fascinated by Glastonbury – there’s something about it that puts it in a league of its own. It’s one of the originals, and over the years it’s grown to a mammoth size, now welcoming around 200,000 visitors, when in its first few years, it would be lucky to see 1,500.

Tickets were £1, and everyone who came to the festival got a free pint of milk fresh from the herd. And milk is something that is still a staple part of the festival.

Worthy Farm, despite the growing popularity of the festival, has always been that: a farm, and for 360 days of the year it’s filled with 800 dairy cows.

For the other five, it's home to cider-addled music lovers, mud and cans.

It’s one thing that’s absolutely key for Michael Eavis, the owner and mastermind behind Glastonbury – the farm is the backbone to the festival, and quite simply, without the dairy farm, there would be no Glastonbury.

Michael Eavis is just like every other farmer I know – except his moneymaker is wearing cut-off jeans like a boss.

When he used to be in charge of milking, he played Lola by The Kinks to the cows. Now it’s a lovely couple

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called Pam and John Taylor who milk all 400 cows, and look after the remaining 400 followers.

But where do the cows go come June? A mootel, OF COURSE. I’m told the mootel is the pinnacle of five-star luxury – an indoor pad that houses all the ladies in style. They go there just as the serious work gets underway on the festival, and then they’re let out in the field after the clean-up has finished.

On the top of the shed are over 1,000 solar panels, which is enough to power 40 homes. The power generated by the solar panels fuels the farm, and anything left over is sent back to the National Grid.

I’ve got to be honest though, I didn’t realise how integral the farm would be to the music festival itself, and you’ve got to be pretty stupid to go and not realise it’s on a farm – the hundreds of tractors driving around put a stop to that train of thought.

Reminders to ‘Love the farm, leave no trace’ are literally everywhere, and you can’t pass the opportunity to put your face in one of those photobooths that impose your head on a cow’s backside.

It still smells like a farm, despite the fact everyone is covered in UV paint and drowning in cider. And every morning, without fail, the tractors and trailers are sent on their way around the campsites, offering milk to festival-goers.

GlastoMilk, as they call it, is sold out the back of a trailer as it drives in and out of the campsites, and several other farms supply it, as well as Worthy themselves. It’s apparently a tradition amongst campers to wake up bleary-eyed and have a pint of milk.

But milk isn’t all the farm has done to promote their pro-green outlook on life. Wildflower hedges, nature reserves and buffer strips are all cordoned off to encourage a wealth of pollinators – a core part of Michael Eavis’ outlook on farm life.

And not forgetting the compost loos – you basically take a cup of sawdust to the toilet, do your business and then pour it over. The byproduct will eventually be filtered and turned into a product that can be used as a fertiliser.

As I was sitting on the pasture in front of the Pyramid, listening to the sweet decibels of James Bay, I found it an unfathomable thing to imagine that shortly this would all be gone, and instead of people, it would once again be full of cows.

Another unfathomable thing was how good a shower would feel on the Sunday night. I may have washed grime, bodily fluids, temporary tattoos and UV paint off me, but I will never, ever forget the time I had at the best festival in the world.

01/09/2015 11:16

September 2015

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James strugGled to find a job, so he created his own After returning from a year abroad in New Zealand I set upon finding an assistant farm manager position within the industry. With the miles piling up on the car and countless interviews I was not making any progress. Around Christmas 2014 I looked at how I could achieve my ambitions and lifetime goals and decided the best way to do this was to be self-employed. A niche in the market sparked an opportunity to invest and get my own business underway in April 2015.

The agricultural contracting market is flooded with competition. Many businesses offer services with the use of a tractor and attachments looking for large acreage jobs. However, small landowners are often overlooked due to their size. So my business, JRM Agricultural Services, targets customers who often struggle to get contractors in for their desired needs. The business thrives off dealing with little rather than huge acreages. Currently within my target area, no one else offers small scale contracting services – I found a niche in the market.

Another niche I found was offering a bespoke GPS mapping service, which aims to help farmers/landowners who currently apply for subsidies. With the recent CAP reform, the introduction of ecological focus areas and the three-crop rule, farmers require accurate measurements in order to claim successfully. Land agents do offer this service but often walk the land, which can be a lengthy and expensive process. So I decided to offer the use of GPS mapping with the use of a quad bike, which is quicker and reasonably priced. GPS mapping is special because it can be used in conjunction with many other services such as farm maps and soil sampling/mapping.

I decided to offer lots of different things. Services include boom spraying, fertilising and the bespoke GPS mapping service mentioned above. The business also aims to cover other areas of the market to include garden maintenance, knapsack spraying, chain-sawing and mini digger works. It is aimed at smallscale/hobby farmers, landowners and equestrian set-ups that cannot justify owning the equipment themselves.

Undoubtedly the best thing about running your own business is being your own boss. You get to make the decisions, earn money for yourself and work harder for a greater reward. On the flip side the worst thing about working for yourself is that you face the risk of earning no cash. If you are ill, on holiday or injured you have no sustainable income to help you through. Of course, I believe the pros out weigh the cons.

So far I have learnt to expect the unexpected when it comes to running your own business. I have learnt that every customer is different and you have to adapt your business/services to meet their needs. The main lesson I have

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learnt is that the success of the business is down to the amount of effort you put in. It is down to you; you wake up and go to sleep thinking about the business and can never switch off. But it’s worth it.

My advice is: get yourself out there. Enter as many competitions as you can, don’t be afraid to contact people and be a part of as many groups/discussions as possible.

There will always be opportunities in the agricultural industry and you need to get a good education to succeed, although I strongly believe in the saying ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know'.

I believe the future of farming will heavily rely on technology in order to produce enough food on less land to feed the expanding global population. With the large number of houses being built on good agricultural land I believe that the use of precision farming is only set to increase. Therefore I think the future will involve less opportunity for regular jobs but increase the opportunity for people to design new ideas to increase food production.

Find out more at: www.jrmagservices.co.uk

01/09/2015 14:10

Are you leaving university or college soon?

Start your search for jobs at

Job Pages Visit jobs.nfuonline.com A new website set up for the Farming Industry with vacancies in the rural and agricultural sectors

September 2015

39

First year checklist How many of these will ring a bell at the end of your first year at uni? You’ll be surprised…

You will prank someone or be pranked. Tinfoil was invented for a reason, people You’ll get freshers’ flu. Unavoidable, we're afraid One term you will spend all your money in two weeks, and end up learning how to budget the hard way You’ll exist on only three types of food. Whichever three you like – but only three Whatever your drink of choice is when you first arrive, you’ll hate it by the end of the year. Archers and lemonade? So passé You’ll literally have zero idea what’s happening in the world.

War? What war?

You’ll celebrate bonfire night at an event which hasn’t heard of health and safety regulations. Our advice? Stand far back and duck You’ll join as many clubs and societies as humanly possible, if only for the free pens You’ll make an amazing friend on the first day of Freshers’ Week and declare them your long-lost sibling. Then never speak to them again You’ll invest in a toastie maker. Bonus points if it’s the one with cow print Cinderella, you will go to a ball. And spend the evening on a bouncy castle You’ll be woke up at 3am by some idiot with bongos You’ll be in the shower when the fire alarm goes off.

At least once You’ll be all about the discounts – 2 for 1 bars, student discount – you name it, you’ll save money buying it.

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01/09/2015 11:21

Advertising feature

Easton and Otley College is a landbased educational establishment based in both Norfolk and Suffolk.

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rom fashion shoots to county shows via schools competitions and lambing weekends, Easton and Otley College based in Norfolk and Suffolk continues to make sure that agriculture has an integral role in college life.

One of the main issues affecting agriculture is centred around attracting new generations of farmers into the industry.

As part of that aim, the college is working with a firm called Ernest Doe and together they have created a competition for primary schools.

The idea is to challenge youngsters to draw pictures of what they think a tractor will look like in 100 years.

They teamed up with Henley primary school near Ipswich and Easton primary in Norfolk and students aged between seven and nine came up with creations.

The winners were chosen by sponsors of the competition - Ernest Doe and Sons Ltd - and the first prize was a 3D design of the tractor that was made by staff and students from the University of East Anglia.

The Suffolk winner was nine year old Jessica Hall.

She created an imaginary tractor that was powered by strawberry juice and said, “This competition helped make me see farming in a different way. I’m really pleased to have won.”

Izzy Botfield is the engagement co-ordinator for schools and events at Easton and Otley College. Part of her role is to promote farming to new generations and she helped create this competition. She said, “I’m incredibly

Easton and Otley staff and students in Sadler’s Wells with dancers at the national launch of Latitude 2015

passionate about farming and we thought this was a great way of engaging with youngsters in a fun way.”

“The competition was equally successful in Norfolk and will now be made into a regional competition as from the end of September 2015.”

Also this year, students from Easton and Otley College have won a national farming competition for the second year running when they were crowned winners of the Cereals Challenge.

All those who enter the competition are given a plot of land in Boothby Graffoe in Lincolnshire where they have to grow a crop of rye for the crisp bread market.

Students then dealt with real time decisions with the aim of making the most profits on their yield.

Competitors are judged on two factors – their ability to make decisions and control costs.

Dr Tony Wilson, an agricultural lecturer at the college, said, “I’m proud of the students. They really upped it this year in terms of their technical performance. They were highly focussed and have worked hard to secure this victory. This is something that can be put on their CVs for life and it really helps them stand out when it comes to gaining employment in the future.”

Ryan Thompson, captain, Wymondham in Norfolk, said, “All the hard work paid off in the end. It was great that we won.”

Adam Mann from Halesworth in Suffolk, said, “It was a bit of a surprise to win but it’s great news for the college - when it came to the crunch it all came together. We went up a

Advertising feature

The winning team of the 2015 Cereals Challenge Easton & Otley College.

From left to right - Andy Mann, Ryan Thompson, James Cunningham and Andrew Webber

month before the competition and I think that paid off for us.”

One of the main missions of the college to increase the amount of students participating in agricultural courses and applications for the degree programme at the college have risen by 300pc in terms of applications for 2015/16.

This could be due to the fact that students are given the opportunity of life experiences outside of their studies.

Aside from showing and winning rosettes at this year’s county shows in Norfolk and Suffolk and helping organise activities at open days and the colleges annual lambing

Mckenzie Badoe, Jessica Hall and Millie Redstall – winners of the primary school tractor competition

weekend, agricultural students also got to take part in a fashion shoot for a lifestyle magazine.

They also helped the iconic latitude festival via farming by providing and transporting sheep into London for the national launch of the arts and dance section of activities.

The launch took place outside Sadlers Wells theatre.

For more information, you can visit www.eastonotley. ac.uk or call 08000 224556 to find out about courses for students aged 14 upwards including vocational and leisure options, as well as degrees that are affiliated by the University of East Anglia………

Anna Purser and Ben Thomsett – farming students who took part in a fashion shoot for a lifestyle magazine

For more details about agricultural courses at Easton and Otley College call 01603 731200 for the Easton campus or 01473 785543 for the Otley campus – alternatively visit www.eastonotley.ac.uk

www.nfuonline.com

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01/09/2015 11:22