In the first episode of 2021 we focus on this year's Oxford Farming Conference and Ben speaks to this year's Conference Chair, Sally Williams (also a Scottish dairy farmer), and incoming Director Will Evans (also a Welsh arable and beef farmer and podcaster).

Ben is joined by Emily Norton, Guy Smith, Johann Tasker and Gareth Wyn-Jones to talk through the year's events and for the very first Meet the Farmers Big Farming Quiz of the Year. Who will triumph?

We've made it to 100 episodes and so in celebration of this Ben is joined by Tom Bland and Juliet Scott to look back through the first 99 episodes.

This podcast was produced for the National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs in partnership with SAI Global.

SAI Global is honoured to partner with the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs (NFYFC) to collaborate with a project supported by Defra on the importance of farm assurance in building a resilient future for the industry and environment. This podcast is the first in a series of multimedia content that will be released across 2021.

Ben meets Leicestershire arable and beef farmer Joe Stanley. Joe is also a trustee of the Henry Plumb Foundation. He’s on the steering committee for the East of England Farming Conference. He’s the NFU branch chair for North West Leicestershire and the NFU county Vice-Chair for Leicestershire, Northamptonshire & Rutland. You might also know him as a regular columnist for Farmer’s Weekly, Farm Business, Farmers Guardian, Agronomist & Arable Farmer and NFU Countryside. In 2020 he was awarded the NFU’s Meurig Raymond Award.

Ben meets Jane Craigie from Jane Craigie Marketing, a marketing, media and communications business, based in Scotland and focused on the rural sector and food and farming businesses. Jane is a Chartered Marketer with over 25 years’ experience in marketing within the agri-food sector. She is a member of the executive board of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists and the council of the British Guild of Agricultural Journalists (and a former Chair). She also co-founded the Rural Youth Project.

Ben meets first generation dairy farmer Alex Heffron who farms with his wife Sam in Pembrokeshire.

Ben meets Cambridgeshire farmer Tom Clarke and they talk about how Tom's life was turned upside down when his father died and he was launched in at the deep end, heading back to manage the family farm in the Fens. They also talk sugar, soil, nature and much more.

Alongside the week's farming news Ben meets Tom Jones, a sheep and beef farmer from Montgomerishire in mid Wales. Tom has also been a contract shepherd and shearer and is a livestock focus farmer writer for Farmers Weekly.

Ben speaks to Monmouthshire farmer, lecturer, cider maker and NFU county chair, Kate Beavan, about her life and work as well as her tv appearances and her messages to the public and to farmers across the UK.