Farming Focus™ series 5: reflecting on the highlights

Mentoring’s role in agriculture

Describing mentoring, Becki Reay said it is about being open to learning, connecting with others and simply “wanting to support people to succeed”, and believes there’s a big role for it in the industry.

With a background in consultancy, Becki agreed with George Holmes’ view of the mentoring element of farmer discussion groups (episode 41). 

“We talk about the answer being in the room,” she said. “You’re stood there as a consultant and people look to you to provide the answer, really what we do is facilitate conversations and facilitate mentoring.”

And she believes with this comes confidence to change.

“It's having the confidence that you've thought through the decision-making process [with] that group of people acting as the support,” Becki explained. “You go back to group meetings six months later and they use the words ‘I would have never had the confidence to do this if it wasn't for the group discussions that we'd had in the room’.” 

 

Using technology to reach your end goal

Decision-making was also raised in Becki’s comments about the episode on technology in farming (episode 44) with Adam Short from AHDB, who had encouraged farmers to think about the end goal when looking to invest. 

When faced with a myriad of decisions on the future direction of a business, Becki stressed the need to do what feels ‘right’.

“Why are we doing this? What are we trying to achieve? We have to respond; we don't have to react. And sometimes the right thing is to do nothing,” she explained.

 

Mitigating the impacts of changing weather patterns 

Not doing anything is less of an option for Ben Andrews and Guy Singh-Watson, as they described in an episode about changing weather patterns (episode 45). 

With climate change and food supply one of the biggest ongoing stories in farming, Becki described it as “the first thing in the farming 101 handbook.”

“It's probably one of the most influential and volatile and changeable things, and possibly one of the least controllable,” she commented. “The whole world seems to be talking about the impact of agriculture and farming on climate, but very rarely do you hear that flipped the other way and talk about the impact of a changing climate on farm.”

She cited several aspects farmers are now facing, including heat stress mitigation in summer and changing winters bringing forage supply and slurry storage pressures.

 

How to integrate trees and farming successfully

While not a strong advocate of having more trees on every farm, Becki admitted “trees are an important part of a wider macro ecosystem.”

Acknowledging the agroforestry expertise and specialist insight of Harry Studholme in episode 47, Becki’s main concern about the drive to introduce more trees on farm is the arbitrary nature of current targets.

“We've got to have a better target than just saying there should be trees on every farm. When you end up with government interventions, you end up with arbitrary targets that don't make sense in the local context.”

“I think we've all got a wider social responsibility to do what's good for the environment, [but] do I think that should fall on a particular sector because we're easy, because we have the landmass? Maybe some of it should, but not all of it.”

 

Is regenerative farming here to stay?

In response to episode 48, Becki’s definition of regen centred around rebranding:

“Whenever I've looked at it, it just feels like a little bit of a rebrand of farming and circularity and management of the ecosystem, a slight shift of focus or re-emphasis.”

She cautioned against a single way of thinking, referring to the discussion on agroforestry and the need for situation-specific actions.

“The incorporation of livestock, for example, into an arable system is more right on some farms and less right on others,” she said. “I wouldn't describe myself as very moderate much of the time, but probably in farming terminology, I think you should just try to be a bit more moderate.”

 

The constancy of change

To conclude the ‘wrap-up’ episode, Becki was asked how ready farmers and business owners are to make changes and thrive in the future.

“We're biologically and evolutionarily capable of change. It's what we've proven it over millennia since time began. One of the challenges, I think, is the pace of change is speeding up.”

Referencing the Kubler-Ross curve, Becki stressed the importance of working through all the stages of change and how the industry is having to move through the cycle quicker now than previously. At an individual level, Becki returned to where the episode started, with the value derived from support networks.

“The key of that model is to not get stuck where you can't see your way out of it. And maybe part of being able to see the route through is about having people in your circle who you can go to from a mentorship perspective and who can work with you. That might be trusted professional advisers, or it might be just friends down the pub, but [it’s] probably a strong network.”

Listen to the full episode at https://www.cornishmutual.co.uk/news-advice/farming-focus-podcast/ - also available via Spotify and Apple podcasts.

 

About our guest

The daughter of a Yorkshire farmer, Becki Reay is Head of UK Corporate at Kite Consulting, part of the Asterra Group, managing its processor, retailer and supply chain relationships. She has broad experience in dairy consultancy covering UK and global milk market dynamics, milk pricing models and change management.