Scotland's Farm Advisory Service Podcast

Listener Advisory Note : This episode contains a mention of suicide, please listen with care.  

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by joined by Jim Chapman, farmer and farm safety ambassador.  Jim talks openly about the farm accident that changed his life when he lost his arm in a PTO shaft.  He talks about the impact that had on him, and how he got through the dark times.  He tells us how important the support he received from friends, family and young farmers was to him.  He went on to do a Nuffield scholarship on farm safety and is now an ambassador for the Farm Safety Foundation.    

If you’d like to get in touch or find out more about the topics we mentioned you can find links in the show notes.  This episode was presented by Mary-Jane Lawrie, produced by Kerry Hammond and edited by Cameron Waugh, in association with the Scottish Government. 

Resources 

Farm Safety Foundation / Yellow Wellies - YellowWellies.org 

Farm-Emergency-Plan-Template_1020.pdf (yellowwellies.org) 

LittleBookOfMindingYourHead_10YearEdition_0424.pdf (yellowwellies.org) 

Farmstrong-Scotland-Leaflet-Five-Steps-to-Wellbeing-FINAL.pdf (farmstrongscotland.org.uk) 

Access to Work: get support if you have a disability or health condition: What Access to Work is - GOV.UK 

Hear our other Farm Safety episode with Stephanie Berkeley from Yellow Wellies

For more information, visit www.FAS.scot 

Twitter: @FASScot 

Facebook: @FASScot 

National Advice Hub 

Phone: 0300 323 0161 

Email: [email protected] 

Mary-Jane Lawrie is joined by Stephanie Berkeley from the Farm Safety Foundation 

Stephanie Berkeley is Manager of the Farm Safety Foundation, which you might know also as Yellow Wellies.  The Farm Safety Foundation was established in 2014 with the aim of improving farm safety in the UK.  The Foundation runs successful campaigns such as Farm Safety week and educates young farmers across the UK in colleges and young farmer clubs.  Stephanie talks to us about the importance of the charity, and resources available to all farmers.  

If you’d like to get in touch or find out more about The Farm Safety Foundation and sources of support you can find links in the show notes.  This episode was presented by Mary-Jane Lawrie edited by Cameron Waugh and produced by Kerry Hammond, in association with the Scottish Government. 

Resources 

Farm Safety Foundation / Yellow Wellies - YellowWellies.org 

LittleBookOfFarmSafety_1stEdition_0624.pdf (yellowwellies.org) 

Build your Own Health & Safety Policy Digital Tool (yellowwellies.org) 

Farm-Emergency-Plan-Template_1020.pdf (yellowwellies.org) 

LittleBookOfMindingYourHead_10YearEdition_0424.pdf (yellowwellies.org) 

Farmstrong-Scotland-Leaflet-Five-Steps-to-Wellbeing-FINAL.pdf (farmstrongscotland.org.uk) 

Access to Work: get support if you have a disability or health condition: What Access to Work is - GOV.UK 

Hear our other episode on Farm Safety, 'Jim Chapman: Adapting to Life After an Accident' here

For more information, visit www.FAS.scot 

Twitter: @FASScot 

Facebook: @FASScot 

National Advice Hub 

Phone: 0300 323 0161 

Email: [email protected] 

Along with our regular monthly updates on policy briefs, arable, beef, sheep and milk, in this edition we are also bringing you sector overviews on finding the right advisor and farming with extreme weather. We will also be bringing you news on homegrown proteins and biodiversity and the Whole Farm Plan. 

Show Notes  

00:44 News in Brief 

02:47 Policy Briefs – Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme, UK Budget October 2024 Snapshot, June Agricultural Census 2024, Seasonal Worker Visas Scheme 2025, and Scottish Aggregates Tax. 

08:34 Arable- Scottish Harvest Estimate 

12:03 Beef – Demand Holds Finished Cattle Above £5/kg 

16:28 Sheep – Supply and Demand, Land Use Change and Disease Threats  

19:55 Sector Focus – Finding the Right Advisor   

24:14 Milk - Production data, Farm-gate prices, Dairy commodities and market indicators, Positive outlook, Are your calves happy? 

29:33 Sector focus – Extreme Weather   

34:39 Inputs – Homegrown Proteins – Options, Benefits, Nutritional Values and Growing Costs    

39:09 Management Matters – Biodiversity and the Whole Farm Plan  

 FAS Resources 

 Agribusiness News November 2024  

 Other Links: 

Agricultural Census data  

Cereal and oilseed rape harvest - first estimates: 2024 

Trade statistics from QMS 

NFUS survey - consumer attitudes   

Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme FAQ 

2023 seasonal worker’s survey report 

Scottish Aggregates Tax 

Economic Impact of Extreme Weather on Scottish Agriculture 

Agricultural Reform List of Measures 

Agricultural Reform Route Map 

WWF Scotland funded project - Impact of Extreme Weather Events on Scottish Agriculture 

Whole Farm Plans 

Specialist Advice | Helping farmers in Scotland | Farm Advisory Service (fas.scot) 

For more information, visit www.FAS.scot 

Twitter: @FASScot 

Facebook: @FASScot 

National Advice Hub 

Phone: 0300 323 0161 

Email: [email protected] 

Many aspire to having and working a croft, however crofts are difficult to obtain, at least in the more productive and scenic areas.  At the same time, retiring crofters sometimes find it hard to give up their business, their source of income and home.  The Scottish Land Matching Service is designed to help aspiring new producers, whether crofters or farmers, with advice, guidance, and a database of opportunities.  Ian Davidson joins us today to discuss the SLMS role in helping crofts to remain in productive use. 

Related Resources

Scottish Land Matching Service

We are joined by Jonathan Morley from Pivotal, to discuss the importance of robust, reliable and verifiable data and how digital biodiversity monitoring is part of this. Pivotal are a biodiversity monitoring and analytics company working with a range of Natural Capital managers, funds and organisations across the world, providing data from both the ground and remote sources. We discuss the range of technologies and methods available and the use cases for high-quality, verified biodiversity data, including linking nature investment to real world outcomes. Jonathan gives us valuable insight on how good business and nature are interlinked, the role of land managers and how to accurately evidence the biodiversity on your land.  

Host Harry Fisher, Producer Iain Boyd, Executive Producer Kerry Hammond.

Timestamps: 

2:25 – 11:07 methods and technology for gathering complex biodiversity data 

11:08 – 16:49 benefits and improvements to digital data monitoring 

16:50 – 35:36 how to collect high quality data, it’s uses and economic drivers 

35:37 – end improving biodiversity and evidencing real world change 

Related FAS resources:   

Emerging Biodiversity Markets In Scotland, A Source Of Alternative Funding | Helping farmers in Scotland | Farm Advisory Service

Investing in data for nature-based projects | Helping farmers in Scotland | Farm Advisory Service

Biodiversity Net Gain | Information helping farmers in Scotland | Farm Advisory Service

Other Related Resources: 

Pivotal

Measuring nature and biodiversity: A guide to high quality monitoring and analytics

Thrill of the Hill returns for season 5, with an exciting line-up on new and returning guest speakers and specialists in their fields and on their hills. 

As climate change, biodiversity decline and food security continue to build in our collective consciousnesses the drive to find a comprehensive solution intensifies. In this episode, Chris Clark from Nethergill Associates shares his opinions and approach to Maximum Sustainable Output (MSO), a concept that revolves the ideas of natural and industrial energy, reducing artificial inputs and allowing land to revert to a natural carrying capacity, whether that is livestock or crops. Chris provides a broad introductory discussion on the concept and shares his own opinions on how sustainable land management is measured and achieved. We cover mindset change, bring energy use to the forefront and unpick to what extent it compliments existing farming approaches like regenerative farming and organics. This is a great start to the conversation around MSO.   

Want to get in touch with Chris, he can be contacted at Nethergill Associates on 07969 018 324 or via email at [email protected].

**In January 2024 the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) published the ‘Harmonisation of Carbon Accounting Tools for Agriculture’ report, which discusses the different approaches and methodologies behind measuring carbon across six of the most commonly used tools in the UK - an overview and the findings can be accessed via the link provided.

Related Links

Harmonisation of Carbon Accounting Tools for Agriculture - SCF0129

Carbon Calculators - Farm Advisory Service | The Scottish Farmer

What is the Maximum Profit Potential for your Farm? (Youtube.com)

Welcome back to the Rural Round-up. This show is produced in association with the Scottish Government. On today’s episode, Farm Advisors Tiffany, George and Robert give us the latest agricultural updates from around Scotland, and are then joined by Professor Steven Thomson, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Policy at SRUC to discuss the latest policy updates, including EFA, Calving Intervals and more. 

FAS Resources 

Stock Talk | Helping farmers in Scotland | Farm Advisory Service (fas.scot) 

Other Resources  

SRUC | Rural Policy Centre 

W9 Calving Intervals in Scotland's Cattle Population: Conditionality Options - New Rural Support Scheme development - evidence: outputs summary - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) 

Scottish-Suckler-Beef-Support-Scheme-FAQ-June-2024-v2.pdf 

For more information, visit www.FAS.scot 

Twitter: @FASScot 

Facebook: @FASScot 

National Advice Hub 

Phone: 0300 323 0161 

Email: [email protected]

In this episode Tiffany Stephenson is joined by Dr Ruth Wade and Professor Pippa Chapman from the University of Leeds, along with Dr Joseph Martlew from NIAB, to discuss Regenerative Agriculture and the trials which have been taking place in Yorkshire. 

Welcome to CropCast, your go to podcast for all the latest information on arable crops. Each month, SAC advisor, Tiffany Stephenson will be joined by a range of industry experts, bringing you timely updates to help you make decisions in the field. 

Producer George Gauley, Editor Cameron Waugh, Executive Producer Kerry Hammond, in association with the Scottish Government. 

Related Resources

University of Leeds Farm - Fix Our Food

How to assess soil structure | AHDB

The Six Principles of Regenerative Farming: Why are they important? - AgriCaptureCO2

Regenerative-in-a-Nutshell.pdf (LEAF)

Farm-Scale Regenerative Agriculture | H3

Welcome to the October episode of In Conversation With… hosted this month by Principal Consultant Mark Bowsher-Gibbs.  On today’s episode Mark is joined by Sebastien Mallet, CEO at ODA (Offre & Demande Agricole). They discuss the UK and European harvest, how UK grain prices have changed and what drives price change, the best time to sell into the market and selling strategies going forward. 

Timestamps:

03.17 Harvest 2024 in Europe

04.40 Getting market messages/analysis to farmers

06.05 Where the UK sits in the global supply and demand picture

06.45 “The world market is a village” (freight costs)

10.24 US influence on wheat market (record yields and surplus export volumes)

14.28 Factors influencing UK market ex-farm prices

21.55 Malting premium

23.10 Where might wheat market prices go next

25.36 Selling strategies

28.05 Weather effects on the market

29.24 Oilseed Rape – UK a net importer

FAS Resources

Agribusiness News September 2024 - Cereals and Oilseeds | Helping farmers in Scotland | Farm Advisory Service (fas.scot)

Other Related Resources

ODA Connect - The independent grain marketing consultancy for Farmers

Corn Returns: Ex-farm prices and volumes | AHDB

Cereals and Oilseeds markets | AHDB

Along with our regular monthly updates on policy briefs, arable, beef, sheep and milk, in this edition we are also bringing you sector overviews on biomass and bale grazing cattle. We will also be bringing you news on forage and feed budgeting and heating rural housing.

Show Notes

00:44 News in Brief

03:04 Policy Briefs – Climate Change Bill Published, Licensing Canine Fertility Services, Children and Farm Machinery, Woodburning Stoves Update.

07:45 Arable - Global grains trade eastward, UK Harvest and Grain Quality Update

13:09 Beef – Record High Scottish Prime Cattle Prices

17:52 Sheep – Around the Globe

21:26 Sector Focus – Biomass – UK Biomass Challenges and Opportunities

25:49 Milk - Production data, Farm-gate prices, Dairy commodities and market indicators, Feeding to maximise your milk

30:56 Sector focus – Bale Grazing –The System, Planning, Benefits

35:10 Inputs – Forage and Feed Budgeting – Importance of planning, benefits, the process, options to consider   

40:41 Management Matters – Heating Rual Housing – EPC targets, Funding, Legislation changes, New technologies  

FAS Resources

Agribusiness News October 2024  

Other Links:

Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill | Scottish Parliament Website

Licensing of activities involving animals: consultation response analysis

Children and public safety - HSE

UK’s biomass strategy 2023

Biomass Connect website

Biomass Connect Showcase Event

Bale grazing system calculation - outwintering strategies booklet (sruc.ac.uk)

FAS guide to forage and feed budgeting

AHDB feed and forage calculator

Farm Advisory Service

Home Energy Scotland

Energy Saving Trust

For more information, visit www.FAS.scot

Twitter: @FASScot

Facebook: @FASScot

National Advice Hub

Phone: 0300 323 0161

Email: [email protected]