The FarmED Podcast with Adam Henson

Dec 15, 2025

For many people for many years, Adam Henson, presenter of the BBC’s flagship programme, Countryfile, has been the face and voice of British farming so it was a delight to welcome him to The FarmED Podcast studio to record our Christmas Special.

As well as talking about Christmas at the Cotswold Farm Park, founded by Adam’s father over forty years ago, Adam talks to presenter, Alex Dye, about his career both in the field and in front of the camera. He discusses the changes he’s witnessed in agriculture and why he does not describe his own farm as regenerative.

Adam talks about everything from measuring carbon footprints and exciting innovations in technology to challenges facing farming in terms of mental health and why he is hopeful for the future but as a tenant farmer, ‘cannot live on hope.’

Having visited farms and agricultural businesses all over the country with the BBC, Adam has some fascinating anecdotes and views on how education should engage young people in farming - perhaps by borrowing from the British Army’s advertising campaigns. He is passionate about the importance of communicating farming stories.

He also inadvertently trails one of our forthcoming guests, Andy Cato from WildFarmed.

Listen wherever you get find your podcasts or watch on the FarmED YouTube channel. We hope you enjoy. Please give us a like/follow and review. 

And merry Christmas to you all. Thanks of tuning in this year. We’ve got some great guests lined up for 2026.

Transcript (automatically generated)

0:00:08

Alex:

Christmas on the farm. Things are looking a little bit merry at the moment and our guest today on The FarmED Podcast with me, Alex Dye, is farmer, author, presenter, man of many, many hats, Adam Henson.

0:00:21

Adam:

It's a pleasure to be here. I'm a big fan of FramED and what a wonderful venue to come and chat to you, Alex.

0:00:26

Alex:

Lovely, well that's very well done so far, going well. So let's go big picture to start off with. How did you get to be where you are now in terms of being a presenter? Cotswold Farm Park, all these things, how did you get to be Adam Henson?

0:00:41

Adam:

So, born and brought up on the family farm. So, my dad, Joe Henson, took on the farm tenancy in 1962, Benborough Farm, and he loved old-fashioned farm breeds. So, things like Cotswold Sheep, Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, and he started a collection of them. And then his business partner, John Neve, said to him, look Joe, The reason these animals are rare is because they're not commercially viable. They don't make any money. So what are we going to do?

0:01:08

Adam:

So to cut a long story short, in 1971, they decided to open to the public to essentially pay for my dad's expensive hobby, but also because my dad was passionate about telling the story of the British countryside, rare breeds conservation, and where your food comes from. And so he felt that people visited zoos to look at zoo animals and talk about preserving wild animals all around the world. Why weren't we looking at our own native farm animals and some of them were becoming extinct? So they opened the Cotswold Farm Park in 1971 and I was born and brought up with the farm and then the Farm Park and so that has been my entire life really. As far as the media goes, I went off to agricultural college, travelled the world with a mate who's now my business partner, came back to run the family farm and that was something I always wanted to do, ever since I was a little boy pulling on my wellies.

0:02:02

Adam:

But the telly world wasn't something I ever fancied, never something I sort of sought after but my father had done some television work because of his work in rare breeds conservation it attracted the press to the Farm Park and to him and so I'd seen him working in the media with Johnny Morris on Animal Magic and then a program called In the Country with Angela Rippon and that had helped the business, it had helped drive people to the Cotswold Farm Park so then Countryfile did a presenter search on the program which back in 2001. And we'd just come off the back of foot and mouth, a really, really difficult time in agriculture, and particularly for us on the farm. We didn't lose any animals to foot and mouth, but we had to shut the Cotswold Farm Park, which financially was very damaging. And they did this presenter search. My wife, she works in the media, and my dad had done some telework, and my business partner agreed it would be a good idea for me to apply. And because I'd been brought up with the Farm Park,  talking to the public about farming and doing lambing demonstrations and all those sorts of stuff, that communication part of my role in the business was something I was used to.

0:03:11

Adam:

And so I applied along with, I think it was three and a half thousand people, went for auditions, 20 of us got selected to go for auditions, got down to the final three, there was a viewer's vote like pop idol in the countryside. And then amazingly, I got the job and have been on telly ever since.

Alex:

And how have you seen, so going back to the farming side of things, during all of this time and all these different plates you've been spinning in that time, how have you seen farming change over the years?

Adam:

Enormously, in so many different ways. It's been quite extraordinary how things have developed in my short time farming. So I learned to drive on a little Dexter tractor, no cab, five gears, you know, trunk up and down the field as a 14 -year -old, you know, turning hay. Now, there's a 450 -horsepower tractor on tracks that is satellite-guided, all on-board computer systems that feed directly to our farm manager's phone. Technology has gone beyond belief. But also, then, the way we have looked very carefully at science, soil management, all the things you do here at FarmED, you know, is driving the way we think about food production in a different direction. And so at college, I got taught how to grow crops and animals and milk cows in a very productive way with my foot on the floor of the accelerator, trying to do that to feed a nation. Now, you know, sustainable farming and the way we manage our soils and our lands and our crops and all those things is completely changed.

0:04:45

Adam:

But also at the same time, the 90s and 2000s diversification has become a huge thing in agriculture. Not only can we produce food, but there's a lot of farmers producing energy, wind turbines, anaerobic digesters, solar panels. We're looking after the environment. Conservation has become a huge thing. My dad got paid to rip up permanent pastures, flower meadows, and rip out hedges. I've been paid to put them all back again.

0:05:12

Adam:

Now diversification is something that's part of our mantra in agriculture, but also part of our income. So it's subsidized by the government, by the taxpayers' money. And then diversification. So we can produce food, we can produce fuel, we have diversified and we're looking after the environment. And we're running businesses with a sort of collaboration of all of those things at one time. Whereas when I started farming, it was pretty much food production out and out.

0:05:40

Alex:

And do you remember what the thing was that made you think, I need to start thinking differently about this and how I approach the soil health in particular? Because it could be quite easy to come straight back out of that and go, I'll just carry on how I've been doing it.

0:05:51

Adam:

Yes, I think it came through a slow process, really. My father was a trailblazer when it came to rare breeds conservation and entertaining the public. His mates thought he was mad opening a farm park. Once you've seen one sheep, you've seen them all. Why do you want people tromping all over the farms? The villagers petitioned against it, didn't want tourists blocking up the Cotswolds.

0:06:13

Adam:

And so I saw him really strive and drive forward for doing something a little bit different. And when the conservation schemes came in 25 years ago, my business partner and I looked at that quite carefully, and we entered into those schemes. And we've always been open minded, partly because of the legacy that we've taken on from my dad, for the direction we want our business to go in. Being on top of the Cotswold Hills, thin soil, Cotswold brash, not high yielding like the eastern counties. And so we have to be thoughtful and careful and light-footed in the direction we take our business, so that it's sustainable, so that we can last. And so it's been a slow progress.

0:06:55

Adam:

I don't think there's any one defining moment when I suddenly thought, right, we need to cut back on our pesticides, we need to think more carefully about regenerative farming. It's been a slow burn, and it still is. We're still trying lots of new things to see if it works.

0:07:12

Alex:

And so do you define yourself as a regenerative farmer?

0:07:16

Adam:

No. I think we are still farming, we're farming in some regenerative ways. I think conservation and careful land use is part of our mantra, but I wouldn't say we're fully regenerative, no. Our livestock aren't integrated in with our arable system. We have herbal lays and we have break crops and we're using different species in our wheat crops as well, rather than one variety. We're using different varieties. And so, no, we're not fully regenerative, but we're 30, 40 % there.

Alex:

And what are your thoughts on, I'm sorry, I'm pressing this point, what are your thoughts on regen agriculture in general? Do you think it's something that's realistic?

Adam:

Yeah, no, very, very much so. No, I think, you know, I've listened to Andy Cato, you know. Our team have come here to FarmED for some training days and, you know, had farm walks, and so I think there's a lot to be said for it.

0:08:16

Adam:

And if we can look after the land and the soil, manage air and water and the environment and conservation at the same time as producing highly nutritious food, then wonderful. The crux of it is making a profit. And so whilst we're not getting benefit financially from doing that, apart from the environmental schemes, and perhaps improving our soils for the long term, it isn't delivering wholly what we need as tenant farmers. So I've got to pay my rent every year and if I owned the farm and I was managing it on a 30, 40, 50, 100 year mindset for the next generations, then it would suit me a lot better. But as I've got to pay my rent every year, and my tenancy runs out in 10 years time, I've got to make the money now. And in some aspects, conventional broadacre farming still works for me to a degree.

0:09:27

Alex:

And you mentioned a little bit about some of the challenges, environmentally speaking. You mentioned carbon emissions and things before in the past, thinking about that. What do you think some of the biggest challenges are in terms of carbon emissions in farming?

0:09:41

Adam:

Understanding, misconception, understanding ourselves, where we are, where's our baseline, how do we measure it, can we trade it? It's a wild west out there. It's all quite confusing. That's the main challenge, I would say. And so when you've got, I don't know, 15 people delivering carbon calculators to measure your carbon on your farm and none of them add up to the same number. You can hear by the tone of my voice I'm a little cynical.

0:10:11

Adam:

Having said that, we have carbon calculated our farm and we are working really hard, genuinely really hard, to reduce our carbon footprint and what we exude with greenhouse gases. And we have done a little bit of trading, reasonably successfully. So yeah, so that's where I'm at. I think in Britain, I understand we're 60% better than many other developed countries around the world. There's a huge amount of research and development going on, particularly in ruminants, particularly cattle, and what they exude in their methane, the herbal lays and the crops we grow that photosynthesize and suck up carbon and what plants are doing the best job and how us as farmers can benefit from that, not only through carbon capture but also through soil management, you know, the whole regenerative farming idea, then it's quite exciting.

0:11:10

Adam:

So although I'm cynical and I find it quite confusing, I think as a nation we're trying very, very hard and we're doing a pretty good job. The messages to the public are very confused, partly because of social media. And so when county councils, schools, whatever, are saying we need to have Meat Free Monday or we need to have, you know, schools that, you know, part of the week they're on a vegetarian diet, then I find that challenging in a way because if it's... My wife's a vegetarian, so I don't care what people eat. So if you don't like killing animals, absolutely don't eat meat.

0:11:50

Adam:

Of course, I get that. If it's because of health reasons, because, you know, it makes you ill if you eat meat, then, of course, don't eat it. But if you're not eating meat to save the planet, then think really carefully about what you are eating. So is that avocados? Is it almonds? Is it soya milk?

0:12:08

Adam:

You know, all of these things. And I think that the understanding of land use, food production and conservation is poor generally, particularly in our education system. We learn about history, we learn about religion, but we don't learn about land use, food production and conservation. So as a young person, growing up to be an adult and potentially having children one day, how can you make informed choices if you actually don't know the facts and you pick up snippets of information off social media? So if you're not going to eat beef, eat belted Galloway beef off the limestone pavements in Yorkshire, you know.

0:12:52

Alex:

I think there's a lot of that. I'm not going to go broadly political with this, don't worry. But there's a lot of that at the moment. There's misinformation through social media on various different topics that just lead to this very cloudy interpretation of what's happening in some parts of the world. We won't go into that. What are you doing in terms of carbon capture on your farm then?

0:13:12

Adam:

Yeah, so we're trying not to have any bare soil. So we'll always have a growing root or a root in the ground. Minimal cultivations, some direct drilling. Using cover crops, break crops. We're using a lot less fertilizer and less pesticides, managing the way we use our machines, so trying to use a lot less fuel through technology.

0:13:41

Adam

And then with our livestock, we're trying with certainly with our ruminants not buying in any soil or palm oil based products for the cattle. They're still burping methane but we're using fodder crops off the farm or you know forage off the farm wherever we can. So planting and managing hedgerows and yeah and around all of the margins of all of the fields we've now got pollen nectar mixes or birdseed mixes yeah so if a farmer was watching this who was let's say very very industrial and conventional and was thinking i'd like to do a little bit to do my part for carbon capture. What would you suggest would be some easy wins they could go for? Yeah, so those sorts of farmers who've got all the statistics at their fingertips from what they get from their machines, from their combine harvester and the drills and all the rest of it, and they'll be doing soil mapping. I mean, they probably already know, and it's not really necessary for me to tell them, but they will you know, they could take out the poor performing corners, they could square up fields to make them more efficient.

0:14:43

Adam:

You know, it's taking out the poorer land and growing crops in the good land. And so I think that food production and conservation has to work hand in hand. And we need food security, we need to feed the nation, and good productive soil, managed in the right way, does an incredibly good job at that. And so the large scale Intensified agriculture is something we require to feed ourselves because of our growing population. And the big units generally do it very, very well because they've got fantastic managers, they've got attention to detail, you know, they've got fantastic systems in place. So it's easy to criticise a 1 ,000 herd dairy farm or a 10 ,000 hectare arable farm because of their scale.

0:15:37

Adam:

But actually, having visited many of them, I know that sometimes they're much better than A 350 acre farm where the tracks are run down, their animal welfare isn't as sharp as it could be because they've got sheep, cattle, dairy cows, beef, arable. It's husband and wife team, they haven't got the investment. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that's the case across the whole country, but big isn't necessarily bad in my mind. And you mentioned a little bit before about some innovations and new technologies that are starting to come through to make these things easier and better across the board, not necessarily just in carbon capture.

0:16:14

Alex:

Are there any that you can see that are on the horizon at the moment that might transform?

0:16:18

Adam:

Yeah, so I think a lot of them have been with us for a long time that people wouldn't know about. So occasionally I'll go out at public events and do presentations to the WI or a school or university and they won't know about satellite navigation with drone technology, you know, some of the precision farming techniques that have been around for years. So those are well established. But yes, I think the use of robotics is really driving forward now. I went to Harper Adams University and in their lecture theatres now they're teaching the students all about robotics, drone technology, some of the soil mapping and and measuring of the nutrients and the microbial activity in soil, leaf tissue sampling, all of those sorts of things are really developing. You know, we've had robots that milk cows for some time, but now they're developing robots that can pick strawberries and those sorts of things.

0:17:16

Alex:

It's pretty incredible, yeah. Have you seen the drones that can... certain weeds in fields and laser them out and things like that?

Adam:

I have, yeah, and so we've covered that on Countryfile that I've worked for and we had one come to the farm and, yeah, it's extraordinary that, a little tiny tank with herbicide in it that can go up and down rows of lettuces and go, oh, lettuce, lettuce, lettuce, oh, that's a weed, and spray it. Or now, as you say, with a laser and to burn it. And I've seen technology as well, where they can take out insects with a laser, it can identify the different insects species and take those out with a laser.  But of course, if you step in the way or your dog walks in front of it, something gets hurt. So those aren't on the marketplace yet. But there's lots of incredible stuff going on.

And I do say to our careers advisors or to schools you know if as a young person if you're interested in technology nano engineering or you're really good on a playstation then actually there's an awful lot of quite exciting development work to be had in agriculture and you ought to consider that as a career you know when I was a boy you know ‘thick in the head, strong in the arm and farming could be for you, often my boy’. Now it's for everybody of all genders, of all walks of life. And that for me is really exciting.

0:18:36

Adam:

But what we need to do as an agricultural industry or department, if that's what you want to call us, we've got to get those messages out there. And our teachers are the way to do it.

Alex:

And do you think, so following on from that point then, because obviously we do need to, people need to know more about where their food comes from or how they can partake in the food system or the farming system, do you think the average person, general public, know where their food's coming from and how their food is produced?

Adam

I think there's a large percentage do, but they wouldn't know the detail, I don't suppose. Just like I could go on to say a Lake District farm and possibly farm herdwick sheep because I've got sheep at home and I've got an idea how to do that but if you took me on to a strawberry farm in Herefordshire or a cherry farm in Kent I wouldn't have a clue at a start.

0:19:29

Adam:

I would quite understand the seasons roughly but no it'd be quite difficult and I'm trained in agriculture, so how would you expect someone who's picking up cherries off the supermarket shelf, or strawberries, or whatever it might be, to understand that is quite far-reaching. But I think, in answer to your question, I think there is a big void of knowledge. And we can't fill it all, but I think there should be a better understanding. The supermarkets, those huge wholesalers have done an incredible job, brilliant job, at providing us with food all year round that's pretty safe and of good quality and we can pick it up without having to spare a thought of where it's come from. Whereas for me as a child, and I don't think I'm that old, I remember going with my mum in Stow-on-the-Wold and we'd go to the butcher and then we'd go to the veg shop and then we'd go to the baker.

0:20:26

Adam:

And that was in my childhood. And you'd have a much better understanding of each individual area and where those foods had come from. And you'd have a conversation with the person that was selling it to you. And I understand the mantra behind FarmED is that we have really good quality, highly nutritious food produced into a local market with hubs that would deliver that to the local community. You know, hooray, fantastic celebration if we can make that happen. My gut is we'll be able to do that on a small scale but we'll never be able to do it to feed Britain's population.

0:21:05

Alex:

In the future we now want to aim towards that as feeding Britain's population. Is there a particular thing we could do to make that happen, or do you think it's just not a realistic goal?

Adam:

I think it's realistic regionally and in some aspects, but there has to be some quite powerful incentives to encourage farmers to go down that route. And the consumer has to be bought into it and understand it. Unfortunately, the food industry is so enormous and run by incredibly wealthy, powerful businesses that it's quite difficult to change that massive ship. Food fraud in the UK, I sat next to one of the people from the head of the Food Standards Agency recently, and she was saying to me that food fraud in the UK is worth £9 billion.

0:22:06

Adam:

And so adulterated food, you know, so honey that has sugar syrup in it, or you say it's Herefordshire honey, but it's got Chinese honey in it, olive oil that's watered down with other vegetable oils, dairy products that aren't what they say they are. And so, you know, we've got an awful lot to sort out before we can go for the FarmED dream. But don't get me wrong, I think it's a fantastic initiative and we really need to push hard for it as farmers. And if you look at Groundswell, which is one of the large events looking at part of regenerative farming, I don't know how long ago it started, but it was a pretty small event to start off with. Now it's massive. And what's quite exciting is that it was those people with an alternative mindset who started it, a bit like my dad with Rare Breeds Conservation, but now the suits are there, the people who can see money behind it.

0:23:02

Adam:

Because we live in a capitalist society, what drives innovation... what drives things forward is cash. And so the definition of sustainability is not just about the environment, about relationships, about our social responsibility. The main thing is cash, is money. The ability to survive has to come from income and therefore you can afford to have good staff, you can afford to run a good business, invest in technology. If you're not making any money, you don't last.

0:23:32

Adam:

And so that's how we drive innovation and change by making it exciting to the suits, to the city. And proving that it works with numbers and figures. Absolutely. I suppose if it wanted to change, it would have to, it's multiple stages like this, the policy side, systems, supermarkets, we're touched on so many things that would have to alter just slightly to make it work. Yeah and I know you've spoken to Andy Cato and I heard him speak recently and you know fantastic guy amazing what he's achieving you know really innovative very very bright incredibly determined and I heard him speak and he said I hope we can get this going I hope we can get that going I hope we can get more money for our we hope you know and and I I don't know perhaps I was a bit bullish in my question when I put my hand up and I said, Andy, I'm a tenant farmer. I pay my rent at the end of the year. I can't live on hope. I need some guarantees. I need some contracts. And that is what we need. And hopefully they're on the way.

Alex:

Do you think in terms of just to go back to the education side, you said the teachers are a big force in how people learn about what's going on with their food growing up and can make more choices from that point.

0:24:49

Alex:

Do you think there's a role for farmers to play? Because you also mentioned that back in the day you would go to a greengrocer and you'd meet the person who grew it almost. Do you think there's a role for them to play to move things in the right direction in terms of the story of the food and things like that?

0:25:02

Adam:

Yeah, and I think a lot of schools are doing great work on that, you know, growing gardens and those who are lucky enough to have outdoor spaces and the farming community, we have Open Farm Sunday, the NFU are working really hard. There's now, I don't know, 80 or 100 farm parks up and down the country. So there's a lot of really good stuff going on, but ultimately we have to have it in our national curriculum and teacher training colleges need to be teaching teachers about it who can then teach people in the classroom about it. So at the Cotswold Farm Park, which is our tourist enterprise, great day out for all the family, whatever the weather. We get people coming who bring the schools and it's the void of knowledge is there to a degree, that mindset that they visited in the first place. But it isn't always with the students, it's sometimes with the teachers.

0:25:58

Adam:

And that's interesting. And we have a potato patch or we did have in the autumn and people would come along and pick potatoes and they'd be part of their ticket price, they'd get a bag of potatoes to take home. And there were some young women who came onto the site and I gave them a wheelbarrow, a fork and a bag and I said, right, your potatoes, you go onto the potato patch, it's quite muddy. And they shouted back to me, we can't find any. And I said, you've got to dig. You've got to dig for the potatoes.

0:26:26

Adam:

And they started digging. And genuinely, one of the young women was wearing white jeans, but she found one. She went down on one knee and held it aloft and said, I've got one! And I laughed. But then afterwards, I thought, that's quite sad that these are young, intelligent women who've driven to the Cotswold Farm Park, and they must have roast potatoes and mashed potatoes and chips, but they actually don't know they're grown under the ground.

I think it's something that comes, I don't know if it's more of a, well, it is more of a city thing, I suppose, isn't it?

0:26:54

Alex:

If you're brought up in a more urban environment and just don't happen to come into contact with these things quite so often, you just sort of don't know. I mean, I don't know if I've told the story on the podcast before about someone I used to go to university with who realized that the chicken that she was eating was the chicken that was running around the field and had never made that connection before. And I don't know why that is necessarily, but that's concerning at that sort of age.

0:27:17

Adam:

And I know exactly what you mean, that this disconnect is quite, worrying in some spaces. And it's because of, you know, that availability of food that people have got such busy lives. They haven't been taught it necessarily by their parents. And it's a it's something that's been lost. Yeah. So a few years ago, I was doing working with a company looking at food provenance and traceability from field to fork or field to glass and and looking at blockchain technology and how we could try and make sure that that food fraud was you know 11 to 18 year olds, a couple thousand kids.

0:28:17

Adam:

And I was talking to them about procurement, talking to the teachers, talking to the cooks. And then in their assembly, I was going to take some sheep onto the stage. And the headmaster said to me, right, I'm going to bring in less children and more teachers, because we have to be careful with this. And I said, why? And he said, because there'll be an awful lot of children here who have never seen a sheep before, and they might go crazy. And I took these lovely little podly sheep onto the stage that were halter trained.

0:28:42

Adam:

And some of the kids, it was like I'd introduced an alien into the room. They had never been out of Birmingham and they had never a sheep in real life. It wasn't something they watched on television and they were coming up and they wanted to touch it and they were really excited. But I went away thinking that's in our society today. So you're right, there's a big void.

0:29:11

Alex:

On the farming side of things. How do you think farmers, the general farmer, would perceive you? How do you feel they feel about you?  Do you think you're a Marmite sort of character?

0:29:22

Adam:

Yeah, completely. Probably not as Marmite as Jeremy Clarkson, but I am quite Marmite, I think. Mainly because I work for Countryfile and have done for 24 years. We are a magazine show that has a whole array of topics; we’re a countryside show, not a farming show, it used to be the farming programme and farmers watching it get frustrated that we're not robust enough in some of our communication about farming, the technology, the finances, the struggles and we're not championing British farming enough. There are others that celebrate everything I do on the programme and congratulate me for talking about what I talk about. So there's a bit of both.

0:30:16

Adam:

But what I say to those who are critical or don't quite understand what we're trying to deliver is that the BBC aren't making a programme to champion British farming. They're making a programme to get people to get viewing figures. And whatever drives those viewing figures, they'll make more of. You know, they won't stop making the Bake Off because it works. You know, they've now got the Sewing Bee, they've now got the Pottery Throwdown, because those programmers, when people are doing stuff and you get celebrities involved, people watch it. But Countryfile is the most watched factual program on television.

0:30:50

Adam:

And so it's still really, really popular, so they'll keep making it. But when I'm doing my little farming piece, if I say, right, I'm going to move this bunch of steers up the paddock, we're going to put them into the handling pens, down the race and into the crutch, and then we're going to TB test them. My producer will say to me, I don't know what you're talking about. What do you mean? And I have to say, right, I'm going to move this bunch of cattle, they're steers, they're castrated males, I'm going to put them into a handling system where we can handle them safely. We put them down a race, which is a narrow corridor, so they go in single file, into what we call a crush, which is a machine that holds them nice and still so that we can TB test them, which is about bovine TB, and I'll explain all about it.

0:31:29

Adam:

The farmer watching the television, who completely understands the first way I said it, listens to me saying it in a much simplified, dumbed-down way, and turns over. That's the frustration. That farmer has forgotten that there's a kid in a flat in Birmingham. who's never seen a sheep before. And those are the people I'm trying to reach. And that sort of public engagement and communication is really important when it comes to, I suppose, farms like yours.

0:31:57

Adam:

Yeah. And although, you know, I mentioned Clarkson and Clarkson's Farm, what he has done is opened the eyes of agriculture and land use to a whole wide section of society. And, you know, I'm a complete fan of that. I mean, I celebrate what he and Kaleb have done. It's just absolutely brilliant. Brilliant.

0:32:16

Adam:

But there's a little bit of something in there for everybody. So there's podcasters like you, you know, doing this. There's Ollie Blogs, there's Tom Pemberton, fantastic YouTubers, there's Clarkson's Farm, there's Countryfile, there's agricultural shows, there's all these aspects of British countryside coming to people so they can learn more about it. And that has to be celebrated. And when I talk to farming groups, I say, if you have a pie chart, of life, part of that's your business, part of it's holidays, part of it's family, a little bit of that pie chart of life has to be communicating about British agriculture and what you do.

0:32:50

Adam:

Helping other people understand the problem, so not whinging about stuff all the time, but explaining the difficulties, but also celebrating the successes and how good we are at producing British food, so that there's a ripple effect of excitement about buying British. And I think that's really important.

Alex:

And so if someone is young and upcoming and has seen these programmes, seen Countryfile, seen Clarkson’s Farm, whatever it might be, and thought, that's what I want to do, I want to do something like that. What do you think, what would you advise their next steps to be? What sort of skills would they need in order to make a brighter future if you want?

Adam:

Yeah, so I always say to people, if they ask that question, if they're young people, I say work hard at school, you know, because farming, you need to be bright, you need to be, you know, pretty switched on to be able to take on agriculture.  There are labouring jobs, you know, cutting asparagus and all those sorts of things. But work hard at school. Try and get some work experience and get yourself off to agricultural college or university, of which we have many fantastic ones all over the UK. And then go out and join the industry. And in the agricultural food supply chain, you can be anything from an agricultural lawyer, bank manager, land agent, engineer. Shearing sheep, you know, whatever it might be. There's a job in there for everyone and what we do need. It's always going to be hard work.

I reckon um, so hard-working Business-minded you've got to be on the numbers or if you're not you've got to surround yourself with people who are technological and innovative. When I watch adverts on television for the military, no, I'm not against people joining the military it's very very important, but they make the adverts really exciting. Born in Leeds, made in the army, or whatever it might be, and they're looking at technology, they're looking at fast boats, they're out here travelling, they're doing all these incredible things, and the young people might think, God, I wouldn't mind being in the army. Well, if you did that kind of agricultural advert, whether it's the tech, the drones, the combine harvesters, the amazing soil science, whatever it might be, we could make a really impactful agricultural advert to get people into farming.

0:35:04

Alex:

The other thing about those adverts, which is an interesting point you've raised, is that a lot of them really emphasise the whole, I didn't belong in a normal system, I struggled at school, I didn't fit in, or this, that, or the other, and there was a place for me here. So perhaps that's another angle as well to come at it from.

0:35:15

Adam:

Yeah, completely, and that's a really good point, because I did a little thing recently about how people whose brains work differently, whether you're dyslexic or dyspraxic or whatever, or you're autistic in some kind of shape or form, is that farming is often a good place for that. You know, I wasn't very bright at school. I'm a bit dyslexic, I think. And, you know, I like the outdoor life and I liked more of a vocational job. And it's worked for me.

0:35:46

And so, yes, I think you're right. I think there's lots of places for people who have got all sorts of different mindsets about the way they want to work. people who want to work outdoors are those kind of people. That might be a bit of a sweeping statement, but I kind of imagine it probably is. In fact, statistically, that's been proven in agriculture. A lot of us are neurologically diverse.

0:36:16

Alex:

How do you think working on Countryfile has changed your perception of farming?

Adam:

I feel really honoured and very, very lucky to have travelled all over the UK, in fact, all over the world, looking at agricultural systems and meeting incredible people and all sorts of innovative ways that they run their farms and it's just given me a huge broad spectrum of British agriculture. I think if I just stayed at home doing what I was doing I'd be much more narrow-minded and it's exposed me to all sorts of really interesting stuff. It's made me care more, I think, I feel very passionate about being a communicator about agriculture. It's made me realise that there's an awful lot of dark stuff out there too.

0:37:04

Adam:

You know, mental health is really bad. One farmer a week is dying by suicide. Another one dies by having an accident. So culturally, we're in a really difficult place, but we have some incredible, really good agricultural charities, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, Farm Community Network, you know, all of these companies or charities that are out there trying to help and so it's made me see some really exciting progressive businesses. But it's also helped me understand some of the really challenging difficult things going on as well.

Alex:  Do you find it hard to balance the media side of your life with the farming side?

Adam:  

A little bit. Because I sometimes have to be rushing around. So this week I've driven to Cornwall and done our Christmas special, which is on this Sunday, and that was really exciting, a really good thing to do, but I was away from the farm.

0:38:07

Adam:

I got back at 10 o 'clock at night and the following day we had a board meeting and we were talking about, you know, what our strategy going forward for the Cotswold Farm Party next year, and I'm not fully prepared for that. I'm tired. I've still probably got my mind in Cornwall. And so, but thankfully for me, my business partner, who's a fantastic guy, My mantra in life has always been to surround myself with people who complement my own skills and are better at things than I am. So Duncan, my business partner, is fantastic at numbers and spreadsheets and strategy.

0:38:40

Adam:

We have a CEO at the Cotswold Farm Park, and she has a team of managers below her. We've got a farm manager who's right on the tech and arable cropping. We've got a livestock manager. We've got a financial controller. We've got all these people who are brilliant at doing what they do. And I understand accounts, but I wouldn't want to try and put them together.

0:39:00

Adam:

So although I'm away from the farm and away from the business, I still trust the people that I've put in place with my business partner.

0:39:12

Alex:

Do you often find yourself getting irritated or concerned with misconceptions around farming? Are there any misconceptions you'd like to dispel right here and right now?

0:39:18

Adam:

I think the carbon one's a big one that we've talked about already. Some of the animal welfare. I'd like people to understand that in this country, something the farmers moan about is our legislation. But we have some of the tightest legislation in the world. And that is for animal welfare, the way we manage our waste, the way we manage our inputs, and the way we manage our people.

0:39:46

(Speaker 1)

You know, human resources and employment law is exemplary. And so, I think there's sometimes some big fingers pointed at us for doing the wrong thing. But actually, we're trying really hard to feed the nation and to do a good job. Of course, we don't get it right all the time. And sometimes, you know, we looked at the why and pollution from chicken farms, but it's not all chicken farms. You know, there's sewage in there as well. And so there's sometimes big fingers pointed at the agricultural world in the UK, and it's unfair.

0:40:21

Alex:

And this is our Christmas special, as you can probably tell. Do you have any fun or amusing stories that you might want to tell us about life on the farm at Christmas time?

Adam:

Yeah, I love Christmas on the farm. It's when families all come together at the Cotswold Farm Park. You know, we're all set up with Santa's grottoes and a big Christmas scene at the moment. It's incredibly festive. I love the seasons of the UK. And a crisp cold winter morning like it was this morning is really special. And so Christmas sort of accentuates all of that. And so we've always had really good big family Christmases at home and, you know, cook a roast turkey and have all the celebrations. My uncle is a guy called Nicky Henson, who was a famous actor. If you remember the Fawlty Towers series, he was a man with a hairy chest and a medallion who had a woman locked in his bedroom, and Fawlty's trying to catch him out and falls off the ladder. And my auntie was a lady called Una Stubbs, who was also a famous actress.

0:41:20

Adam:

And so they used to come down at Christmas from London, bring beautiful presents from Harrods and places. But then we'd play charades, and charades in our house at Christmas was a different level. So I've had wonderful Christmases growing up on the farm, you know, going down to the woods to choose a Christmas tree with me and my dad and three sisters. Lots of exciting things. I remember my favourite present would have been when I got a puppy when I was 10 years old, a little Springer Spaniel. And that was a joy for me for the next, you know, 15 years of my life, which is how long she lived. So, yeah, lots of really, really lovely memories about Christmas.

Alex:

Are you optimistic about the future of British farming, just as we start to wind down? Any thoughts on that?

0:42:05

Adam:

Yeah, I'm really excited about it. And I know there's a huge amount of doom and gloom because of all the external forces that we have no control. So political change, some of the legislation, the weather has just been ridiculously tough. 2024, the wettest year I could remember. 2025, the hottest summer I could remember. And so those things are out of our control, hitting us hard. And I think agriculturally, if we're in the production side of agriculture, then we're feeling a bit beaten up. The things that we've talked about, you know, the ideas and science behind regenerative farming, producing really good, healthy, highly nutritious quality food, the technology that's driving forward at the moment, you know, me going from that open cab tractor to these amazing machines now, where will we be in the next 20 years? Young, vibrant people coming out of agricultural colleges that haven't all come from farming, they come from all walks of life. We're always going to want food.

0:43:04

Adam:

We're always going to have to manage the land. And I think that there is some incredibly rewarding, exciting careers out there in agriculture. And although some aspects of farming are struggling financially, there are others that are turning over millions of pounds and doing incredibly well. When you talk about farming and farms, it's so difficult to do broad brushstroke across them all, because it's a little bit like the small garage in a Cotswold village versus Land Rover Jaguar. Because in the UK and all the agricultural production systems we have and all the foods we produce and the scales of difference are the same. We've got Dyson's farming with 40,000 hectares of whatever he's got, doing incredible things in innovation.

0:43:56

Adam:

And then you've got a hundred acre farm just up the road. And so there is a whole range of diversity, there's a very long-winded answer to your question. But in essence, yes, I think it's exciting.

Alex:

And for anyone who has very much enjoyed hearing you speak to us now, what sort of things can they look forward to seeing you do in the future?

Adam:

Yeah, so I'm still working with Countryfile pretty much every week, filming all sorts of interesting things.

0:44:22

Adam:

So I was recently over in Lincolnshire looking at the biggest, most northern olive grove. 18,000 olive trees being planted in Lincolnshire to combat climate change, because he thinks that is the future. We've got a Christmas special coming up, which comes from Cornwall. I'm going up to Anglesey soon to do some filming up there. So lots of, and up to Scotland next week to meet the Olympic curling team, one of which is a farmer.

0:44:51

Adam:

So that's exciting. And then on the Cotswold Farm Park at home, we've got our Christmas on at the moment with Father Christmas, but then we're already planning for lambing next year, opening with our lambing display open to the public. Lots of exciting developments in what the work we're doing with our animals on the farm. So, you know, we've got so much going on, agriculturally, with our diversification, but also with my work in the media. So, yeah, I've got a very exciting, diverse life.

0:45:21

Alex:

And yeah, quite a lot of exciting things going on. Fantastic. Well, thank you very much for your time coming down today. It's been lovely chatting with you. And thank you very much for watching. If you've enjoyed this episode, give us a rating, give us some thoughts and some reviews. Check us out on social media. Check Adam out on social media and all of his doings and whatnot. And thank you again for coming over.

0:45:39

Adam:

Thank you very much. Merry Christmas. Really appreciate it. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to all of you.

Links:

https://cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk/