Jake Fiennes, Farmer Time and Cow-with-calf Dairy Farming

My UK tour in England continued with a fascinating visit to Eves Hill Farm Shop to meet with Jeremy Buxton.

A third-generation farmer, Jeremy returned from his journalism career with EuroSport to the family farm in 2010 and in the last decade has changed the operation from purely arable, adding in livestock, opening a campsite, planting agroforestry/fruit trees and in the last six months, opening a farm shop. His communications skillset has been pivotal in building their brand and engaging with the local community.

We visited Chris Negus at RBOrganic Ltd who grows some of the earliest carrots in the UK and is one of five growers who are part of the British Organic Carrot Growers group. We discussed how for too long, the price of food production hasn't been reflected at the till and how this is devaluing the food system and igniting a throw away culture.

A visit to the beautiful Holkham Estate began with a tour of the potato operation and education centre with fellow Scholar Harry Barnett who leads up the joint venture HOLKHAM EMERALD LIMITED. We then met up with esteemed author and conservationist Jake Fiennes to see some of the changes to Great Farm and the NNR since he joined Holkham in 2018. He tested my bird knowledge explaining how numbers and diversity have increased in recent years, pointing out spoonbills, cormorants, lapwings, blacktailed godwits, avocets and red kites.

The first dairy visit of the trip was a tour of Old Hall Farm by Rebecca Mayhew, a calf-with-cow dairy operation running 60 jerseys which are milked once a day (producing 10L), pasture fed and all milk sold raw via their farm shop, website and farmers markets. She was passionate about explaining how regenerative farming pays, with her jerseys making £7000 per head on milk sales alone and by selling extra colostrum to a premium market through her website, she is commanding £18.50ppl.

The last leg of the tour was in Cambridgeshire and included a visit with former NFU president Peter Kendall, who gave us a tour of his impressive broiler operation and we had a long discussion about how to make farming messages land with politicians and the public. Sharing stories from his successful lobbying career, there were lots of crossovers between his work and my current research, both passionate about how we can create a common narrative for all farmers to unify behind.

Ending on a real high, we enjoyed the generous hospitality and good humour of Thomas Martin or known to many as ‘Farmer Tom’ - the founder of ‘Farmer Time’ a movement which connects farmers with classrooms across the country through face time/ skype, sharing an insight into farming throughout the year. The goal is to build lasting relationships with kids and farming that will continue into adult life.

A huge thank you to everyone for so kindly opening their farms and sharing their time, it was so appreciated. I look forward to hopefully touring the west of England and into Wales next year!