The future is in your hands
The Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester is undoubtedly one of the great college buildings in the country, approached down an avenue of huge lime trees. This was the setting for an inspirational one-day conference called “The future is in your hands”, organised by the Red Meat Industry Forum, in conjunction with Farmers Weekly and the NFU.
The room was full, with probably 150 or more delegates. The day was packed full with lots of discussion and a good degree of optimism (most of the audience were under 30). Young Farmer of the Year, Phil Halhead, gave a good rundown of the Oxford Farming Conference. James Miles-Hobbs, a rural diversification consultant, gave an interesting presentation about the 10 golden rules for diversification, including psychological price barriers, brand clarity, time management and the 4 second rule.
The next spot involved me and Nick Davies, a shepherd from Shropshire. Neither of us had a rural upbringing, both wanted a career on the land and we each have faced significant challenges getting to where we are now. This was well received and stimulated some enthusiastic debate. Nick’s no-nonsense and “can do” attitude was particularly refreshing.
Martin Redfearn, Barclay’s National Agricultural Specialist, gave some particularly good advice about business development principles. For example, that good advice is not always the cheapest, but should be worth more than you pay for it. If you’re going to diversify, do so from a position of strength, not to dig yourself out of a hole. Get the right people on board. Push hard to make your business a success, but know where its limits are.
After lunch was the highlight, an inspirational talk from Simon Woodruffe, entrepreneur supreme, founder of Yo Sushi and original panel member of Dragons Den. His attitude is refreshing and undoubtedly requires a special type of mindset, but nonetheless is inspiring. He emphasised the need to keep re-assessing your business and always take a sideways look at things in order to stay successful.
Lastly was a panel discussion, involving all the day’s speakers, summarising some of the outcomes from the day and fielding questions from the floor. The overall feeling was very positive, much against the perception of farmers in this country.
One striking issue to me was the lack of knowledge about Peak Oil and its potential impact on food production, distribution and consumption. It doesn’t seem to have really sunk in to most farmers’ mindset - or for that matter, that of the farming press and farming organisations. That’s not to say that all organic farmers and growers have minimal dependence on oil, but at least organisations like the Soil Association have taken it very seriously and are spreading awareness as wide as possible.