Tonight I’m really happy to be heading down under to outback south Australia to talk to Gillian Fennell on her family’s one million acre cattle station. We talk about the part of Australia where they live, and some of the challenges they face with the climate and remote location, before moving on to talk about her background growing up in a small Queensland town and her time misbehaving at boarding school! We discuss how she met her husband Mark, and how after a whirlwind romance they headed off windmill contracting in the Northern Territory, camping in the bush and fixing […]

Rock & Roll Farming with Neil Heseltine Tonight I’m delighted to be heading up to Malham in the Yorkshire Dales to talk to beef and sheep farmer, Neil Heseltine. And yes, first of all we start off talking about how a rugby playing upland farmer called Neil ended up with the slightly confusing twitter handle of @hilltopfarmgirl 😉 After clearing that up though, we move on to talk about the farm that his family have been at for several generations, hilltopmalham.co.uk and the challenges of farming at 1200-1800ft above sea level, as well as discussing his early life and his […]

Rock & Roll Farming with John Davies Tonight I’m delighted to be staying in Wales and heading down to Brecon in Powys to talk to farmer and new President of NFU Cymru, John Davies. We talk about the family farm near the village of Merthyr Cynnog and the various enterprises they have there, including 100 suckler cows, finishing Welsh Black Cattle, 1000 ewes, and a contracting business covering 2000 acres of grass silage production for neighbouring farms. We also discuss the 3 holiday units that they renovated to a very high standard from derelict farm buildings, and now rent out […]

Rock & Roll Farming with Phillipa Page Tonight I’m heading down to Gloucestershire to talk to Vet and Sheep farmer, Phillipa Page. We discuss her early years in Lancashire in a non-farming family, and her decision at the tender age of ten to one day become a vet. We talk about the years of hard work and dedication that followed, with a degree in Animal Production science at Leeds, followed by 5 years of further study at Liverpool. We talk abut the various jobs and experiences Phillipa had whilst studying, including the baptism of fire that was working with vets […]

Rock & Roll Farming with Tom Martin Tonight I’m heading over to Haddon in Cambridgeshire to talk to arable farmer & the man behind FaceTime a Farmer, Tom Martin. We talk about the family farm, and the various crops they’re growing, and also what Tom, as a self-confessed soil nerd is doing to improve the conditions there. We also discuss what he means by describing himself as a ‘conservation farmer.’ We go into his decision to go to Uni at 18 to study Natural Sciences, and afterwards Business Management, and how that led to various jobs including as an analyst […]