In search of unlikely heroes

This year we had our first frost on September 12. My wife asked when I last checked the heating oil, and the work shorts which made an appearance for only a few days during this unusually cold and wet summer, have been retired again.

It’s 2024 and I’m 47 and find myself growing a beard to offset the increasing sparseness on top. The weight I used to gain during winter, which I would shed off during lambing time, is not shifting any more, and when asked what I want for my birthday the answer is always the same – ‘peace and quiet’. I find myself listening to Luke Combs and watching too much Yellowstone, reflecting on the fact that I’m growing up, getting old and should probably express more outwardly how grateful I am to be happy and healthy!

I class myself as incredibly fortunate. After many years of working and travelling, I settled down on one of our family farms, and whilst working as a vet was able to partake in my boyhood ambition to farm. My dad had the foresight to help myself and my two brothers sort out the family farm succession in 2016. My family lot is 240 hectares of fairly mixed ground, which is enough to eat up most of the spare time I might use to pursue a social life, but barely enough to support me and my family. I work four days a week for a breeding services company, and as lead vet for the cattle team I travel across the UK collecting oocytes from cows for IVF, and later implanting resultant embryos.

“As producers of food, we need to understand our consumers, and we need them to relate to us and understand what we do and the struggles we have.”

My two boys Archie and Rory, who are 7 and 6, have had some raised eyebrows from teachers when they inform the class “my daddy collects eggs from cows”. In her spare time between parental/equestrian pursuits my wonderful wife Julia, helps me run a livery service for cattle. Breeders send us cows to create embryos for their own use, sale and often for export. On the farm we try to keep it simple. Most of the ground is down to grass/clover mixtures. We run a small Pedigree Angus herd of around 60 cows, and about 450 outdoor lambing ewes. Last year we took the decision to transition them into shedding sheep. In 2023 I paid the clippers £1.30 for each ewe clipped and received approximately 60p per fleece. At the same time, I realised some of the clippers we employed kept shedding sheep – that was the nail in the coffin for wool production here. Lambs are doing well for us this year averaging around £120 per head, but on the arable side it is a struggle, £150/tonne for feed barley at the moment with maybe a £30 premium for malting is unsustainable for my crop growing friends.

In the UK, we often find ourselves embracing unlikely heroes. Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame is that man of the moment for UK agriculture, with his series where he bumbles from one farm disaster to the next in a frighteningly relatable way for both urban and rural audiences. As producers of food, we need to understand our consumers, and we need them to relate to us and understand what we do and the struggles we have. Let’s hope there are a few more unlikely heroes around the corner. I think we need as many as we can find!