R2Kast - People in Food and Farming/All In

Field to Front Door – Episode 16 on heritage grains, no input farming and selling direct

Today we’re back with Field to Front Door 🎙️
David, Martin and Wallace catching up as plans for next season start taking shape, with plenty on heritage grains, direct selling and experimenting with different ways of growing crops.

David has made another impulse purchase, this time a roller mill, which led us into naked oats, porridge and swapping grain with Martin. We also got into heritage varieties, why bakers and millers are increasingly interested in them and whether older, taller varieties could offer another route towards growing crops with fewer inputs.
That brought us back to the ongoing no input experiments. We chatted about mixed varieties, soil disturbance, weed control, cover crops and the economics of reducing inputs when conventional crops can cost so much to establish before you even know what they’ll yield.

The direct selling experiment has moved pretty quickly too. Just over a month in, David is now bringing together produce from loads of different farms, with vegetables, fruit, milk and meat all heading directly to customers. There have been a few casualties along the way, particularly the eggs 😂, but some weeks are already seeing thousands of pounds worth of produce going out.
We also got into the bigger question of what food is actually worth, how much of that value reaches the farmer and whether becoming more efficient has really benefited producers when machinery and input costs have risen so dramatically.

We’re keeping this going fortnightly, so feel free to send us any ideas or topics you’d like us to get into.

Enjoy! 🙂
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Today I had Jill on the R2Kast 🎙️ Jill runs the National Association of Agricultural Contractors and has spent much of her career representing the people and businesses providing essential services across UK agriculture. 🌾

We spoke about growing up around farming, wanting to become a shepherdess and studying animal science before starting her career with the Humane Slaughter Association. That took Jill into abattoirs, animal welfare and slaughter training, alongside a Churchill Fellowship looking at the welfare of male chicks across China, Israel and the USA. 🍎

A big part of the conversation focused on agricultural contractors and just how important they are to farming. Over 90% of farmers use contractors in some form, covering everything from shearing and fencing to drainage, machinery and whole farm operations. We spoke about investment, labour, red diesel and making sure contractors are properly represented when agricultural policy is being developed. 🌍

We also got into farm safety, the unacceptable number of deaths and serious injuries still happening across the sector and why safety needs to become part of everyday decision making rather than simply paperwork.

Enjoy! 🙂

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Series three of Tales of a Nuffield Scholar continues 🎙️ This series is looking at some of the biggest challenges, innovations and conversations shaping agriculture today, and this time we’re getting into a topic that is becoming increasingly important across UK farming, natural capital 🌱

I was joined by 2026 Nuffield Scholar Liz Warner, a first generation tenant farmer from Devon who farms around 200 acres of beef, arable and grassland alongside working as a farm and natural capital consultant. Liz and her husband started with rented land and a few sheep before taking on a Devon County Council farm, so there is a really interesting story behind how they found their way into farming in the first place 🌾

We spoke about what natural capital actually means for farmers, from biodiversity net gain and carbon through to water management and wider environmental outcomes. One of the really interesting points was around additionality and how these markets often reward the improvement you make rather than simply what is already there, raising some big questions around how we recognise farmers who have been looking after nature for years.

Liz’s Nuffield topic is “Cultivating Capital: A Farmer’s Role in a Growing Natural Capital Economy” and comes from wanting to make sure farmers have a genuine voice as these markets develop. We spoke about balancing food production with nature recovery, making natural capital commercially viable for farms of different sizes and ensuring farmers properly understand the long term commitments that can come with entering these markets 🌍

Her Nuffield journey is still very much underway. After focusing heavily on the UK so far, Liz is looking towards Brazil, the US and the Netherlands, with Australia and Kazakhstan potentially on the list too. What I particularly liked was her ambition to look not only at natural capital projects that have worked, but also those that have gone wrong and understand what can be learned from both.
We also chatted about her CSC in Japan, the realities of farming through another incredibly dry summer in Devon and how natural capital might eventually sit alongside food production as another part of building more resilient farm businesses.

There is clearly a lot still to develop in this space, which makes following Liz’s Nuffield journey over the next year particularly interesting.
Thank you to NFU Mutual for their support of this project.

Enjoy! 🙂

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Today I had Neil on the R2Kast 🎙️ Neil is Chief Executive of the National Beef Association and Scottish Beef Association, representing beef producers and working with government and industry across the UK. 🌾

We spoke about growing up around farming in Aberdeenshire, an unexpected career in paper production that took him around the world and eventually finding his way back into agriculture through the British Simmental Cattle Society. That led into his current work representing the beef sector. 🍎

A big part of the conversation focused on the National Beef Association, lobbying government and the very different policy landscapes facing farmers across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We got into agricultural support, TB, Bluetongue, beef prices and the challenge of keeping UK beef production viable while still recognising the importance of trade. 🌍
We also chatted about consumer trust in British farming, promoting beef, food security and why good policy needs people who actually understand what is happening on farms.

Enjoy! 🙂

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Today we’re back with Field to Front Door 🎙️
David, Martin and Wallace catching up after a couple of weeks away, with harvest largely behind us and attention starting to turn towards what comes next.

A big part of this one was David’s growing direct selling venture. We chatted about everything from vegetables, milk and meat through to eggs, delivery companies and whether bringing produce from multiple farmers together could create something genuinely competitive while still giving the farmer a fairer share.

We also got into SFI and what it actually means for farmers. David talked through some of the options he’s considering, while Martin questioned whether schemes like this really reward the farmers who have already spent years changing how they farm.

There was plenty on low input farming too. Martin shared the results from around 100 acres grown with virtually no inputs, the money saved on fertiliser and sprays, mixed cropping with peas and cereals, and why yield alone doesn’t necessarily tell you whether a crop has made money.

And the Johnson Sue experiments continue, with David now treating oilseed rape seed and leaving untreated areas to see whether they can actually spot a difference as the crop develops.
We’re keeping this going fortnightly, so feel free to send us any ideas or topics you’d like us to get into.

Enjoy! 🙂

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.