The Henman Nuffield Scholarship

I am a third generation arable farmer from Cambridgeshire. I took over the running of the family farm in 2018, and we now farm 1,000ha of combinable crops.

Having grown up on the farm I don’t remember a time when I wanted to be anything other than a farmer. After gaining a first class degree in Agriculture at Reading University, I joined the Royal Agricultural Society of England as an arable specialist. Here I was tasked with answering any member questions whilst learning and disseminating anything new happening in our industry.

As this was right in the middle of the Blackgrass epidemic, and my farm was in the worst hit area of the country I became
somewhat of an expert on the subject. As the RASE became Innovation For Agriculture my role developed into becoming their soil specialist, which led me around the country teaching farmers and working for companies like the National Trust and the Crown Estates.

Since returning to the farm full-time, I have driven it forward to a position of high profitability whilst continuing to fight the
formidable foe that is blackgrass. Alongside farming I am also a strong advocate for open and honest discussion about mental health. It is something that I and so many others struggle with but often it doesn't feel like anything can be done about it. Whilst there is no easy answer I will keep telling everyone that there is always someone you can talk to, even if it is just a stranger on the internet.

I look forward to discovering more about myself and the world of agriculture during the next couple of years, with grateful support from the Worshipful Company of Farmers and Savills. Having spent my farming career in a sector that obsesses over scale and efficiency, I thought that was the only way to grow a successful arable business. However, within recent years there has been an exponential rise in producers utilising previously unusable spaces for food production, both with and without the help of new science and technology.

These have often been headed by individuals with no traditional agricultural experience which has provided them with a fresh perspective on the problems associated with food production, pest and disease control and supply chain management. My project will look into urban farming and analyse the dichotomy of the technology-driven vertical farming and the traditional style producers, to see what mentality and techniques could be useful to field scale producers.

The three places on the top of my list to visit are; Detroit: This is responsible for the genesis of my want to look into urban farming. The collapse of the city and failure of local governance created a situation where the only way to access fresh produce was to grow it yourself, leading to people turning their gardens and vacant plots into farms. The dynamic in Detroit is fast changing and the place is very different to when I first drew up my plans, but the first-hand accounts from people there will describe a situation virtually unheard of in Western culture.

Japan: This is one of the few countries where urban agriculture is the norm, with almost ⅓ of all the agricultural output in Japan generated by urban agriculture. Urban agriculture is the most profitable kind of agriculture in Japan, at around 10% higher than agriculture in rural plain areas. I plan to start my visit in Tokyo, to discover how they are able to produce enough food to feed 70,000 people per day within the city limits. The scale of urban agriculture in this country is so large I fully expect to be directed towards many interesting and varied projects once I have started to communicate with people there.

Singapore: Singapore sits at the other end of the spectrum for food production, with only 7% of food grown in the country. However the government's “30-by-30” goal, to produce 30% of the country’s nutritional needs domestically by 2030 has driven Singapore to become a global leader in applying the vertical model to urban agriculture. The top down production-driven system is producing a very different dynamic to the current UK direction and will hopefully lead to some interesting contrasts.

My name is Jim Bliss and I am in the fortunate position to become a 2023 Nuffield Farming Scholar, kindly sponsored by Worshipful Company of Farmers with Savills. These next few years promise to be some of the most exciting years of my life with the opportunity that has been given to me.

I am currently living and working in Cumbria near Penrith on the Lowther Estate. Being originally from Cumbria I am used to the landscape and community being dominated by farming. However, over the years I have developed an understanding towards how depleted our landscape is and how in some areas change is perhaps needed. This is partially due to some of my hobbies taking me to remote, relatively untouched areas of the Lake District.

Being a rock climber I get to see landscapes in a different way and unfortunately this is not always glorious. Most landscapes are lacking biodiversity of both flora and fauna. This is where my focus started to change, the change pushed me to thinking how to promote business development of the farm but also help promote nature and restore biodiversity.

Working with the Lowther Estate, which has similar beliefs that the land is missing life and this can be restored alongside farming in an extensive way, we have reintroduced lost species, beavers and white storks so far and plan to bring back even more. Along with restoring traditional grasslands and meadows to a more florally diverse sward, we can now use our cattle to help with this restoration.

This led me onto my research topic which I proposed for my Nuffield Scholarship. Currently the working title is ‘Born to be Wild? Does the future success of marginal farming lie in the untapped potential of rewilding?’ I feel this topic really pushes the boundaries of the farming system and will enable me to help find a solution for marginal farming to remain in our landscape. For this study I am aim to travel to various countries including amazing projects like the Loess Plateau in China and various reserves in Kenya.

I have no doubt that I will be bringing back vast amounts of knowledge to benefit not only the Lowther Estate but the wider farming community. The next few years promise to be extremely exciting and potentially life changing for both myself and perhaps even the wider marginal farming community.

Topic:

Too Fat?? The role of condition in maternal livestock in areas with extreme seasonal variability

Study Overview:

Can a cow or ewe be too fat?? In regions with long winters and/or prolonged dry spells, what role can selecting for condition score play in reducing feeding requirements and improving overall productivity? What impact does selecting for muscle and growth over fat have on maternal breeds? How can we identify those animals that can hold their own in leaner times and what technology might help us do this?

About Me:

I grew up on a sheep and cattle farm in northern NSW, Australia where Dad was also a vet. One of 4 girls, I was always busy on the farm, out in the surgery or on call outs. After finishing school I worked on a 2 million acre cattle station in north west Queensland before studying Sports Administration at University. Early on I realised that I should have instead studied Ag Science, but I completed my degree and worked in professional rugby for 2 years before deciding it was time for a change.

With the intention of returning to University to study vet science at a newly developed vet course at a regional University, I was advised to take some time out and travel for a year. I set off with a round the world ticket and back pack. I didn’t get very far.

I applied for a lambing job at Clynelish Farm, Brora in the North Highlands. I’d never lambed a ewe but was assured I would be fine. That was the last time we lambed indoors and nearly sixteen years later I find myself still here, married to Jason and very much involved in the running of the farm.

We are very fortunate that Jason’s parents are open minded and have allowed us pursue changes to the business. We have trialled a number of different ideas, crops, systems, breeds and feeding regimes over the years and continue to tweak the business so it is more productive and resilient to market, political and climatic events.

We farm just 125ha looking out over the North Sea as tenants of Diageo, Clynelish Distillery is in the middle of the farm. We also contract farm a sheep stock club just up the road. We lamb around 800 ewes, calve 80 cows and buy in approximately 80 extra weaned calves. These are all managed on a leader-follower rotational grazing system with electric fencing set up across the farm. This means the only feed bought in is draff and beet pulp for the calves. All our breeding stock are outwintered and none receive any hard feed.

My Topic:

In this part of the world winter is long. Many cattle are housed for up to 8 months and sheep often fed for 3-5 months. It is expensive and labour intensive.

In many ways we have fine tuned and worked out how to get animals from birth to weaning in spring/summer relatively efficiently, but our ability to winter stock does not usually receive the same kind of scrutiny despite it being just as important to livestock businesses.

I had a lightbulb moment a few years ago when weaning calves. Our cows were about 40kg heavier that year and calves were about the same weight. So our weaning percentage looked worse. But I noticed the cows were in excellent condition. That winter they ate about 25% less silage & straw. There is no doubt that it was a more mild winter, but it also made me realise that the old adage of ‘she has to milk off her back’ was probably out dated and lead me down a rabbit hole of podcasts and papers.

There is a renewed focus on and appreciation of the importance of maternal traits and part of this is the recognition that fat plays a crucial role in productivity. A tendency to focus on muscle and growth rates has potentially resulted in larger, leaner animals that require higher inputs over the winter months.

This is equally true for areas that face long dry spells in the summer, something we know is becoming more prevalent in the UK due to our changing climate. In the right conditions we can grow vast amounts of grass in summer, but it is virtually as a standstill for at least 2-3 months of the year. Temperature and daylight play an equally important role.

Several universities and farms across the world have been investigating the impact of fat cover as a primary selection tool. Early evidence suggests that animals that lay down fat when feed is cheap (summer) will actually maintain their condition and eat less when feed is less available (winter). These animals also tend to have better health and fertility.

We know that some breeds are better suited to a harsh environment than others, but within breeds there will be a range of animals. I hope to find out what technology and methods are being used to identify these animals and what impact this is having on livestock businesses.

I hope my study can fast track the spread of cutting edge research and farm practices to other farmers and help deliver better outcomes for livestock businesses. As our industry comes under increasing pressure to reduce our environmental impact, there is no doubt that having more efficient and productive animals is a step in the right direction.

I hope to travel to countries that also face tough winters and harsh environmental conditions. Potentially - Scandinavia, Russia & Canada. Also Australia and Africa where droughts have thrown up the same problem and lead to the identification of certain genetics that are more resilient. I’ll also be speaking to the UK’s top geneticists and farmers who are at the forefront of research & recording.

I am extremely grateful to the Royal Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland and the Worshipful Company of Farmers with Savills for their generous support of this scholarship.

I would like to extend my gratitude to you and the Worshipful Company of Farmers with Savills for sponsoring my 2022 Nuffield Farming Scholarship.

Just to introduce myself; I graduated from University of Bristol with a BVSc in Veterinary Science and MSc in Global wildlife health and conservation. After working in mixed animal practice for 18months I moved to farm animal only practice where I have been for the last 3 years. During my time in clinical practice I have completed a postgraduate certificate focusing on sheep medicine and am on the British Veterinary Association Welsh branch council and Sheep Veterinary Society committee.

Within my practice I lead Farming Connect and NADIS sponsored farmer talks on all aspects of farm animal health and welfare, have set up a subscription service flock health club and fully run a branch of the practice as lead vet.

I also run an educational Instagram account with nearly 6,000 followers delivering weekly quizzes on all aspects of farming which has led me to be invited to speak at various student conferences and farmer group meetings.

I am not from a farming background but have been surrounded by agriculture since a teenager when we moved to the Brecon Beacons. This stands me in good stead when dealing with new entrants into farming and students as I have come from a stance of no assumed knowledge.

My topic for my 2022 Nuffield is to combat anthelmintic resistance through sustainable gastrointestinal parasite control methods in sheep. I hope to understand how farmers across the globe are doing to tackle this problem, bring all aspects together and find the best ways to disseminate this knowledge throughout the UK farming industry. I also hope to understand the emerging parasite dangers that we are seeing due to climate change and understand how we can manage these threats without creating anthelmintic resistance within the parasite populations.

Chris Manley, an alumnus of the 2015 Challenge of Rural Leadership, and now a member of the WCFA committee, has been announced as the latest winner of the WCF Henman/Nuffield Scholarship.

Chris has chosen 'Taking Agriculture to the Leading Edge' as the topic for his report and is currently at the early planning stage and will hopefully be travelling later in 2021 and into 2022 with his report due towards the end of 2022 - by which time we hope life might have returned to something closer to normal.

Here is Chris' reaction on receiving the award:

"I am really pleased to receive a 2021 Nuffield Farming Scholarship Award, as completing a Nuffield programme has been a goal of mine for some time.

My study title Taking Agriculture to the Leading Edge. What can we learn from the best leaders inside and outside Agriculture? is inspired by the fact we are in a time of unprecedented change, that has been forced upon us through Brexit and Covid19 and I believe dynamic leadership is required at every level of the Agriculture and Food Industry to ensure we successfully navigate this challenging time and turn it into opportunity.

"My interest in leadership started with the amazing experience I had on the Worshipful Company of Farmers Challenge of Rural Leadership Course in 2015, where I learnt huge amount and made some life-long friends.

I am looking forward to continuing my development through Nuffield and playing my part in achieving their aims of unlocking individual potential and leading positive change in Agriculture. I would like to thank my dual sponsors the Worshipful Company of Farmers and Savills for supporting my project. I am also proud to be part of the WCF Alumni Committee that has organised, what I hope everyone who attended felt were thought-provoking online Learning Extension Seminars that will I am sure remind the Alumni of the courses they attended."

I look forward to showing everyone the findings from my journey and if this topic resonates with you then please do not hesitate to get in touch."

You can contact Chris. We are sure he would love to hear from you.

Lizzie is currently researching ‘The effect seed breeding could have on farm input costs in future’, here she talks a little about her background and career to-date.

"I grew up on the family farm in Oxfordshire, lending a hand and generally getting into mischief. After concluding that being a vet wasn’t for me, I decided to study Environmental Science at the University of York, where I embarked on modules such as pesticides in the environment.

In 2012 I joined the graduate programme at British Sugar, working for a year in four month stints in various functions around the company to get as much experience as possible, and then I was then placed as an Area Beet Manager at the British Sugar factory in Bury.

I moved companies to Monsanto and started working as a Sales Promoter for the Roundup glyphosate brand – fighting fire as you can imagine! Then moved within Monsanto to a role as a Business Development Manager for the OSR brand Dekalb where I have been at for the last 4years. My role has transitioned considerably over these years, now being sat in a different company of Bayer, and being responsible for the lion's share of the UK and Ireland business in seed and seed treatment.

Working with the whole seed industry gives me such a wide perspective on the challenges the sector faces and has spurred my interest for further learning of the wider global industry. Outside of work you will find me training mornings and nights with my two event horses and every summer we attempt to compete around work commitments.

I also have two wonderful dog-kids and enjoy painting animal and wildlife commissions in my spare evenings. I am incredibly grateful for the sponsorship from The Worshipful Company of Farmers with Savills and the Central Region Farmers Trust. Without this, my Nuffield just wouldn’t be possible.

Ed has visited 8 countries to explore the question – ‘What makes rural estates successful and what benchmarking measure do they use to monitor success’. He surveyed estates covering over 1.5 million acres and found the best estates are proactive, have a clear mindset, have a strong sense of purpose and apply rigorous benchmarking to continually improve.

If you would like to see Ed’s Nuffield presentation you can find a link to it on his website.