Another successful completion of our highly regarded course, The Challenge of Rural Leadership (2025), marks 29 years of helping develop our candidates’ personalities and business acumen as well as broaden self-confidence and communication skills. Our candidates positively glowed with accolades about the course and cannot recommend it highly enough. Comments include “if you’ve ever had any doubts about this course, put them aside and send in an application – you won’t regret it”
Annual Banquet
Our Annual Banquet was held on 4th February at Drapers’ Hall with Past Master HRH The Princess Royal as principal guest. Over 240 Liveryman, Freeman and guests enjoyed a convivial evening and our speaker, Rt Hon Sir Mark Spencer delivered a stirring speech. HRH The Princess Royal followed and inspired us all. The Carpet Guard for the evening was provided by cadets from some of our military affiliations: Westminster Dragoons, Royal Yeomanry and Middlesex Wing Air Training Corps
News from OFC
From 8-10 January our two OFC award winners, Hannah Rees and Nathaniel Watkins attended the three days of the conference and they both found it an invaluable experience. Nathaniel says “Through attending this exciting and thought-provoking conference I believe I have gained a much greater appreciation of the scope and breadth of the industry. Through talks from those at the top of their sectors and vigorous debate I have been not only inspired but gained confirmation of my place in agriculture. With immense gratitude to NFYFC and WCF”. Hannah is equally positive and says “I really recommend anyone to apply, regardless of your occupation, experience etc. It truly is an incredible experience and a highlight of my YFC Journey was standing in front of hundreds of people asking questions which would lead to some positive conversations.”
Visit to RAF Waddington
13th November saw us at RAF Waddington for our annual visit. Station Commander, Group Captain ‘Dutch’ Holland welcomed the group, and described the crucial “ISTAR” work of the airbase – Intelligence, Surveillance, Targeting and Reconnaissance. We were then accompanied around the base by Flight Officer Henry Campbell. The highlight was getting up close and personal with the new generation of drone – the “Protector”, being assembled and tested at the base. The group then viewed the airbase’s firefighting equipment and some of the modern airforce’s firearms.
Strawberries Galore!
On 12th November some 30 liverymen and guests were treated to a fascinating tour of the Dyson strawberry operation at Carrington, Lincs, organised by PM Philip Wynn. The site was a field in 2020 and was producing strawberries 12 months later, and now produces 1200 tonnes of fruit a year, including 100% of Mark and Spencers’ requirement. The 10 hectare state-of-the-art glasshouse was mightily impressive not just for its scale, but for the level of sophistication of its environmental control systems. The astonishing robotic harvesting units had to be seen to be believed. Each fruit was individually inspected, filmed, picked and filmed again for quality before being allocated to a punnet. The robots from Dogtooth, a Cambridge company, were in their 4th iteration and were nearing the speed required for commercial use. The 3MW anaerobic digester, requiring 140 tonnes of feedstock per day – mainly on maize grown on the farm – provided all of the electrical power and heat for the glasshouse. The three 24 cylinder engines, running on the methane produced by the digester, hummed away impressively as we filed past in awe. Strawberries as far as the eye could see
Remembrance Sunday
The Master and Liveryman Anne Courtney are proud to support the Westminster Dragoons in Fulham SW6. They were invited to hop aboard this Jackal, a mobile weapons vehicle used for reconnaissance
Class of 2001 CRL Reunion
The 2001 CRL course had a great three day reunion in the Scottish Borders organised by Rob and Lucy Forrest. With nine out of the eighteen course delegates able to attend and fifteen years since our last reunion we had a lot of catching up to do.
Our first visit was to Cheviot Trees, a 30 year old family business producing annually some fifteen million cell grown trees and hedging plants covering over 500 varieties. We then went to Simpsons Malt, a 5th generation family managed and owned maltings who supply malt all over the UK and many overseas destinations.
On day two our first visit was to the Thorburn Group, a 3rd generation family business, at their new £5.3m purpose built engineering factory, manufacturing steel buildings and livestock equipment.
The final visit was to the Jim Clark Motor Museum where we were very lucky that we had a personal tour by Jim’s cousin, also a racing driver in his day. Jim was a local farmer who became World Motor Racing Champion on two occasions but was tragically killed in a race that he didn’t want to do but which was part of his contractual obligation.
Huge thanks to Rob and Lucy who not only organised the visit but also kindly provided lunch before we all set off on our journeys home.
Alex Young wins RAU Prize
Alex Young has been awarded a BSc Agriculture from the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester (First Class Honours). He is also winner of the Worshipful Company of Farmers Prize for the best dissertation in Agriculture and winner of the University Prize for Top Student.
Alex and a university friend are hoping to set up a micro brewery near a dairy farm in the hope it would use the spent grain from the brewing process.
On receipt of his award, Alex said,
“Thank you to the members of the company for this recognition – I am not from a farming background so for me this is especially meaningful as I build my career and seek new adventures in the land-based sector. The Royal Agricultural University has been an amazing place to live and work for the last three years – so having my work recognised in this way is a wonderful end to my undergraduate study.”
Locked in the Tower
A traditional event for the Masters of the livery world, the Master was “locked” in the Tower of London only to be released on payment of a fine as part of a fundraising event for British Red Cross. On the night, the combined liveries raised over £30,000.
He writes: We had an entertaining dinner for around 30 of us following which our “judgements” were meted out by the two Sheriffs, leading us to bow heads and take our punishment.
Afterwards, we witnessed the “Ceremony of The Keys”, when the Warders – also known as Beefeaters – lock the Tower, an event that occurs every evening after/around dusk, escorted of course.
A great evening out and whilst I wasn’t locked up in the White Tower, (shame you might say) I did find out that someone had told the Sheriffs about one of my most embarrassing moments whilst on a family holiday- there are no secrets!
Nuffield Partnership
On April 11 the Master hosted a dinner at The Farmers Club to celebrate the success of the Nuffield Farming Scholars, jointly sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Farmers and Savills. This follows on from the evening kindly sponsored by Andrew Wraith and his colleagues at Savills the previous year.
The evening was very well attended, with six Nuffield Scholars joining colleagues from the Farmers Company and Savills. During the evening, the two current Scholars, Jim Bliss and Jamie Stokes, inspired the guests by providing an update on their projects, plus recent and forthcoming travel.
Rupert Alers-Hankey, who has recently been appointed as Director of the Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust, took the opportunity to set out his plans for the Trust over the coming years.
Andrew Wraith from Savills said: “It was an excellent evening of stimulating conversation and served to confirm both the high calibre of Nuffield Scholars as well as the value of the Nuffield programme.
“The dinner, which we plan to continue, is a great opportunity to maintain engagement with all the sponsored scholars.”