Industry

Agriculture continues to be a high-risk industry, with the Health and Safety Executive consistently reporting high levels of fatalities and serious injuries. In Farming Focus™, Peter Green speaks with farmer and Tilly Pass founder Jane Gurney and Cornish Mutual’s Risk Management Leader Dom Jones about why farm safety statistics remain stubbornly high, offering realistic ways farmers might reduce the risks.

The Government has announced its revised Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). We look at what it offers farmers in 2026, with advice from Terrafarmer agribusiness consultant Jack Pierce on how to prepare for its opening in June.

This episode of Farming Focus™ looks at the shifting landscape of farm support and how farm businesses can adapt amid uncertainty.  Jeremy Moody, from the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV), and Nick Dymond of St Piran’s Pork in Cornwall join podcast host Peter Green to examine recent policy signals from DEFRA and what they may mean for schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), Countryside Stewardship and Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL).

Enthusiasm, experience and equity are all needed to access land as a new entrant, Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) CEO George Dunn told host Peter Green on Farming Focus™. Using his vast experience of farming tenancies, he offered his insight and advice on securing your dream farm. Also joining the show to share their story, the award-winning Nicholls brothers, who secured a 20-year tenancy to support their growing dairy business.

Farming is changing, and across the South West farmers are finding new ways to adapt, grow, and sustain their businesses. In an episode of Farming Focus™, Peter Green spoke to farmers from two Cornwall-based businesses who are taking a different approach to farming. Laura Awdry, a Duchy of Cornwall tenant farmer, Nuffield Scholar, and AHDB dairy knowledge exchange manager, shared her experiences alongside Rhian and Jack Marchant, first-generation farmers running a mixed livestock enterprise. 

The potentially industry-shaping Farm Profitability Review report, authored by Baroness Minette Batters, was published by Defra in December. To help farmers unwrap this milestone report and reflect on its significance, Peter Green is joined on our Farming Focus™ podcast by agribusiness consultant Jack Pierce and Cornish beef farmer Wendy Nicholas. 

Diversification isn’t always about doing something new, it can be as simple as making better use of existing assets according to rural business adviser Simon Haley, and Somerset farmers Rob Addicott and Jeremy Padfield. On Farming Focus™, they explain how to use diversification to elevate your business, not your busyness.

The first week in January always sees Oxford unusually full of farmers, politicians and ag industry personnel for the annual Oxford Farming Conference (OFC). Cornish Mutual Chairman and Agricola Growers MD Jeremy Oatey was among them this year and tells Farming Focus™ what he learnt in our latest podcast episode.