Speaker 1: I think I'm recording. I think, well, it looks like
Speaker 1: you are. You're lounging and recording at the same time.
Speaker 2: Well, I think I've pressed stop and then start again.
Speaker 2: This is going well, isn't it?
Speaker 1: Isn't it? Well, that's why Richard, we are at Country Slide,
Speaker 1: Rural Britain's most popular podcast. If any lawyers are listening, probably.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Look, I'm delightful to see you back once again.
Speaker 1: Each week. I just wonder as to whether you'll be dead,
Speaker 1: but no, you're still you're still surviving. I have had
Speaker 1: a fall this week. You know when the elderly say,
Speaker 1: oh they've had a fall. I had one in that
Speaker 1: corner over there, Whilst trying to pick up something thrown
Speaker 1: in the corner in anger, I sort of had a
Speaker 1: sort of you know, one of those falls where it's
Speaker 1: coming slowly. Yeah, you know you can see it in
Speaker 1: the run up, but it's not. It's not a sudden affair.
Speaker 1: You know it's happening. You got time to be ashamed
Speaker 1: already before, yes, exactly. And it is quite funny, is
Speaker 1: that when you get to a certain age, you don't
Speaker 1: fall over. You have a fall In actual fact, that's
Speaker 1: a precisely what happened to me on Saturday, because I
Speaker 1: played my first cricket match of the season and.
Speaker 2: It still hurts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I am covered in bruises and scars and hobbling
Speaker 1: around and when he goes say are you all right,
Speaker 1: and they guess said, yeah, I played cricket on Saturday.
Speaker 1: People do not give you the sympathy of saying I've
Speaker 1: been hit by a car, but that's how it feels.
Speaker 1: And I have to say, if I was able to
Speaker 1: look out of my body at myself, I know that
Speaker 1: most of my diving around in the field would have
Speaker 1: looked like sort of someone with some sort of palsy
Speaker 1: just falling over the wrong way, you know, because the
Speaker 1: balls came towards me. I was fielding a point and
Speaker 1: I went they went to my right, and I dived
Speaker 1: to my left and put my hands out there and
Speaker 1: fell over and was writhing around, and my teammates are going,
Speaker 1: are you all right?
Speaker 4: Mate?
Speaker 1: And you know, just last season they'd have said get up,
Speaker 1: but now they come and help you up. And it
Speaker 1: just strikes me that age has befallen me. And I
Speaker 1: am half the man I used to be.
Speaker 2: You have a special chair set aside for you. That's
Speaker 2: Richard's chair. You have a tankard that's got your that's
Speaker 2: yours with your name on it.
Speaker 1: Do you know what? Our cricket club is quite a
Speaker 1: satz really, and we have a nice clubhouse, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't stretch to tankards. It does have some glasses if
Speaker 1: you ask for them specifically, but no, it's a bit
Speaker 1: like what I've got at the moment, which is a
Speaker 1: stolen pint glass from a pub. And I always stole
Speaker 1: the pint glasses that actually still have pint written on them,
Speaker 1: rather than whatever it is, a leita. It's my slight
Speaker 1: sort of you know, pre Brexit. Ah God, it's still
Speaker 1: a pint. As far as I'm concerned, I.
Speaker 2: Think it's sort of one of those those lost experiences
Speaker 2: that maybe our generation's had that the youth of today
Speaker 2: don't have. I don't know, Maybe we should ask a
Speaker 2: couple of them, because just as luck would have it
Speaker 2: over on the other side of the internet. From where
Speaker 2: where I'm sat in my convalescence room and you are
Speaker 2: sat in your is it an orangeury summer room? What
Speaker 2: are you calling him?
Speaker 1: By study?
Speaker 2: You'll study. It's not windows on all sides so everyone
Speaker 2: can see you studying.
Speaker 1: Well that's why. Yeah, so we have.
Speaker 2: We have Well I was wondering what order I should
Speaker 2: do this in, but I'm just going to go for
Speaker 2: the order of the bios that have been sent to me.
Speaker 1: We have Will he has.
Speaker 2: He's a member of Hadley Young Farmers. I think he's
Speaker 2: one of the longest serving current members of Suffolk Young Farmers,
Speaker 2: having been a member for seventeen years. And he is
Speaker 2: going to be the director of the Hadleigh Show this year,
Speaker 2: which I believe is a big deal over there in
Speaker 2: the flatlands.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yes, and we also have no no will You're not
Speaker 2: allowed to talk yet. We're going to carry on the introductions,
Speaker 2: you know, just just just just as we go. And
Speaker 2: then we have Poppy. She seems to work for Debenham's
Speaker 2: Young Farmers. Is that sort of an in.
Speaker 1: Store you heave? Is that a place? Yes, it's a
Speaker 1: beautiful place. It's where Lovejoy used to be filmed.
Speaker 2: Right I thought that was on the Channel Islands or No,
Speaker 2: that's so Poppy from Debenham Young Farmers. She's their program
Speaker 2: organizer and another person with family links back to the countryside.
Speaker 2: So I think we should let Poppy speak first, just
Speaker 2: because I gave her the roughest introduction.
Speaker 1: Yes, and Poppy, Hello, Poppy. Thank you so much both
Speaker 1: Poppy and Will for coming on. And I'm going to
Speaker 1: just give a bit of context as why we've got
Speaker 1: these two young firebrands on the show. Back about six
Speaker 1: months ago, which in you know Nigas years is three
Speaker 1: years ago. Say walk then exactly back when Richard Pridou
Speaker 1: could still walk, I said, I wondered what it was
Speaker 1: like to be young in the countryside today, because I
Speaker 1: realized that things had changed quite dramatically for young people.
Speaker 1: So we set ourselves a task, an indomitable country slide style.
Speaker 1: We jumped to it, and six months later, here we
Speaker 1: are with Poppy and Will. So Poppy, tell me a
Speaker 1: bit about yourself and what do you get up to?
Speaker 3: Okay, So I was born in countryside. I was lucky
Speaker 3: that my grandparents were both well. My granddad, he was
Speaker 3: a farmer. He had a small farm. He started with
Speaker 3: one hundred and thirty acres and then moved down to
Speaker 3: one hundred acres, so it's very small, but it was
Speaker 3: enough at the time. So I grew up with big family,
Speaker 3: with cousins. I had like we still do have twelve
Speaker 3: cousins and going to Grandma and Grandad's farms. We'd always
Speaker 3: meet up and do so much there. I think we
Speaker 3: were very privileged in the respect that we had a
Speaker 3: med day, that we could have meats, like we'd have
Speaker 3: like sparklers and bonfire night and just go over really
Speaker 3: and have a nice time. In summer when granddad was
Speaker 3: working harvest, we'd go oither and pack a picnic whilst
Speaker 3: he was on the combine and just see them for
Speaker 3: ten minutes and then he'd be off again kind of thing.
Speaker 3: And we'd I remember going after school collecting worms with
Speaker 3: my cousin and putting them in mustard tins because what
Speaker 3: else would you do after school? So yeah, no, it
Speaker 3: was really good.
Speaker 1: So there you go, an idyllic country childhood, capturing worms
Speaker 1: and setting fire to things so that nothing's changed. Then
Speaker 1: saying not really, well, how many worms did you catch?
Speaker 1: Right to talk talk me through, will because you're a
Speaker 1: little bit old, well quite a bit older than Poppy actually,
Speaker 1: because you're getting on a bit.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Yeah it's forty seven, yeah, probably closer to it, probably, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: not so many worms caught in my childhood. I must,
Speaker 5: but that's horrible farming for you don't get many worms
Speaker 5: to catch in the first place.
Speaker 4: No, No, quite.
Speaker 1: So tell tell me about your your background and and
Speaker 1: how you came into young farmers.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So I've grown up on a family farm at home.
Speaker 5: So we found about eight hundred acres all arable and
Speaker 5: a bit of contracting to start off with, which we've
Speaker 5: now expanded, which my brother now runs. But when I
Speaker 5: was younger, I think friends of friends got me along
Speaker 5: to young farmers at the age of ten, I think, yeah,
Speaker 5: going along before you start drinking, and it is more
Speaker 5: about the social before it changes and priorities switch when
Speaker 5: you've become fifteen, sixteen, seventeen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, been involved in it ever since.
Speaker 1: And I mean are they people? Because it's interesting Poppy saying,
Speaker 1: you know, although she comes from an extended farming family,
Speaker 1: it's she's not directly she's not directly from you know,
Speaker 1: her dad didn't farm. So for you as a farmer,
Speaker 1: are you bumping into your neighbors and peers or have
Speaker 1: you seen it change that it's a broader church in
Speaker 1: Hadley young farmers than they used to be.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think through young through the seventeen years.
Speaker 5: I think when I started it very much was the
Speaker 5: children of previous generations. So when the clubs were big,
Speaker 5: and it was when the clubs were big in the eighties,
Speaker 5: it was the children of them that were coming through
Speaker 5: and I was in junior and farmers with But I
Speaker 5: think since then I've been running the junior clubs an adult,
Speaker 5: and I've been a member of the clubs. I think
Speaker 5: there's a noticeable switch of people because it's now the
Speaker 5: group of people that want to be countryside people and
Speaker 5: like the look of being a countryside person are getting
Speaker 5: involved and coming along and so they enjoy It's somewhere
Speaker 5: where it's totally acceptable to wear your weddies and put
Speaker 5: a shoffle on to mix with people more than perhaps
Speaker 5: just going to a nightclub and trying to mingle with townsfolk.
Speaker 2: I think right right, Just as a point of order
Speaker 2: on that, have you tried going to a nightclub in
Speaker 2: a shuffle just as you know for comparison and can trust.
Speaker 5: Well, I don't have any other uniform to wear, so yeah,
Speaker 5: if I was going anywhere for a shoffle, I think.
Speaker 1: Yes. Gona obviously is a life jacket for the young farmers.
Speaker 1: I gave a talk the other day to Poppies Club Debenham,
Speaker 1: and I have to say Marcus Jansen from Shoffle would
Speaker 1: have been rubbing his hands with glee because I don't
Speaker 1: think there was a single person in there. I mean
Speaker 1: there were guys liking singlet vests, but they still had
Speaker 1: their shaffle on, so you know, it's it's it's very important.
Speaker 4: Do they have a full complement of a singlet vest,
Speaker 4: a shuffle and a mullet or one today the full trio.
Speaker 1: Have you ever done Poppy actually an analysis of the
Speaker 1: mullet to member ratio of Debenham.
Speaker 3: No, I haven't been far. I think it's a mixture
Speaker 3: of hair cuts and monas well.
Speaker 1: It's it's a it's a it's some sort of statistical
Speaker 1: data that you should be doing. I keep telling all
Speaker 1: you young farmers that knowledge is king now in farming.
Speaker 1: Is you've got a baseline survey things. So I think
Speaker 1: between the two of you you're leaving present to Hadley
Speaker 1: YFC Welsh and Poppy as another thing you need to
Speaker 1: do is to go and actually assess the levels of
Speaker 1: mullet mullet them. But I mean that's an interesting thing
Speaker 1: you say, right, is that you said that people who
Speaker 1: want to be seen will as someone from the country side.
Speaker 1: I mean, am I correct in saying that rural is
Speaker 1: suddenly a little bit sexy for want of a better
Speaker 1: word in the wider world?
Speaker 5: Well, hasn't it always been sexy? I mean, you're you're
Speaker 5: fifty years old, at least at least.
Speaker 1: What's about ten? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it is. I think since the whole
Speaker 5: Jay Holland Cooper branding has come out, countryside is sexy,
Speaker 5: isn't it. It's something that people are adalized and want
Speaker 5: to go on board with, and it doesn't really depend.
Speaker 5: No one's worried about the cost of it, right, anyone
Speaker 5: spends any amount of money on tweed and the whole
Speaker 5: look in the vibe and buying a landrover buying tweed,
Speaker 5: I mean, it's quite a cost that comes to it.
Speaker 4: But it's the look. Isn't it looks good on Instagram?
Speaker 2: Is there a sort of a fashion and an identity
Speaker 2: split between arable and livestock Because it's mostly livestock over here,
Speaker 2: and the club I was in was mostly livestock, mostly dairy,
Speaker 2: So I've got to imagine over here it's probably a
Speaker 2: little bit more ridgeline and sort of the shearing brands
Speaker 2: than the chauffeur.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, I imagine. Yeah, you don't get many singlets
Speaker 5: over here in our club. I must mean more arable farmers.
Speaker 5: We're all wearing Australian work shirts and dealer boots, but
Speaker 5: no one's wearing their flex attains to the pub at
Speaker 5: the moment we.
Speaker 2: Take on a night out here, there we go, we'll
Speaker 2: do an exchange program Baiales v Suffolk.
Speaker 1: That'd be a cool thing, poppy as a young lady
Speaker 1: in the Young Farmers is I mean when I remember
Speaker 1: in when I was a member of Young Farmers back
Speaker 1: when the world was young, what the hell that would be?
Speaker 1: From I think nineteen eighty four to nineteen eighty seven,
Speaker 1: I was a member of Sturminster Newton Young Farmers in
Speaker 1: Dorset because I was at school down there. Do I
Speaker 1: seem to remember that there were was a ratio of
Speaker 1: about five men to every single female?
Speaker 3: Have you?
Speaker 1: I mean, what's the sort of ratio men to women
Speaker 1: in Debenham Young Farmers.
Speaker 3: I think it's actually very mixed. I think we've got
Speaker 3: so many new members coming in now. I mean, I
Speaker 3: would definitely say there's more men over women or girls
Speaker 3: or what have you. But yeah, no, I don't think
Speaker 3: it's a huge drastic difference now. I think, especially now
Speaker 3: people are coming through and then they've got friends of
Speaker 3: friends that come and it's all getting mixed and it's
Speaker 3: nice to see a variety, really, but I'd say definitely
Speaker 3: maybe a little bit more of men, but not huge
Speaker 3: huge difference.
Speaker 1: Is that the same over your way? Will? Is that
Speaker 1: what's the sort of sex split?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I hadn't really thought about it, but just listening to popery,
Speaker 5: it's made me realize that in our younger cohorts that
Speaker 5: are coming through now, obviously from sixteen upwards, I think
Speaker 5: a lot more of our new members are female.
Speaker 4: I don't know whether it's because people are.
Speaker 5: Well, because younger girls are more confident than young men
Speaker 5: to turn up to a random group of people and
Speaker 5: try to fit in. But yeah, we've definitely we're definitely
Speaker 5: female strong and Hadley not by much, but there's Yeah,
Speaker 5: there's definitely a higher majority.
Speaker 2: That was a trend even down into the nineties and
Speaker 2: the two thousands, so it was also seemed to be
Speaker 2: probably seventy percent male. But is that I wonder whether
Speaker 2: there's at the demographics of the number of farms that
Speaker 2: there are now has reduced that it's reducing every year,
Speaker 2: and people are having children later and possibly having fewer children,
Speaker 2: So does that mean there's fewer young people in their
Speaker 2: countryside therefore the ratios are mixed and sort of skewed
Speaker 2: towards the people coming in from the outside.
Speaker 4: Maybe yeah, probably, yeah, probably right.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's something that strikes me as well,
Speaker 1: and it might just be because of like say, Instagram
Speaker 1: and obviously with Clarkson's farm that opened the eyes to
Speaker 1: a lot of people, with that young lady from Derbyshire.
Speaker 1: I can't remember her name because I'm not very good
Speaker 1: with things like that because I'm very old. But it's
Speaker 1: something that that women the more obvious now in farming.
Speaker 1: It used to be that here's the farmer and here's
Speaker 1: his wife, whereas now you're seeing more obviously that it
Speaker 1: is actually an industry where you are getting the work
Speaker 1: done by whoever can do it, rather than oh, that's
Speaker 1: the job for the men and that's the job for
Speaker 1: the women type thing. I mean, is there something poppy
Speaker 1: that you do you feel as a as a as
Speaker 1: a young woman that there is are still an US
Speaker 1: and them male to female in farming or is it
Speaker 1: something that you don't really come across.
Speaker 3: It's tricky because obviously I'm not in a farming industry.
Speaker 3: But I think.
Speaker 4: It's hard.
Speaker 3: I think obviously, if you grow up in a farm,
Speaker 3: like in a farming household, and you can do that
Speaker 3: from growing up because you live on a farm and
Speaker 3: that's what you want to do, it's probably easier because
Speaker 3: you're part of a family, whereas maybe it is a
Speaker 3: bit harder. To be honest, I don't think it is nowadays.
Speaker 3: I think it's very much eat cord like to say.
Speaker 3: But then again, is that because I'm not in the
Speaker 3: like in the agriculture your industry, Like maybe I haven't
Speaker 3: seen it that Maybe I think girls or women would
Speaker 3: like to prove that they can do it or they
Speaker 3: feel like they have to try and improve just so
Speaker 3: that they can get along nicely kind of thing, if
Speaker 3: that makes sense.
Speaker 1: I get it. Is the fact that but you don't
Speaker 1: feel that there's a there's a glass ceiling, or that
Speaker 1: there is almost you know, I'm that there is this
Speaker 1: misogyny thing that that we were told exists in young
Speaker 1: Farmers because there was some splash a few years ago
Speaker 1: because some young men had some t shirts on that
Speaker 1: were sort of slightly suggestive that it was still.
Speaker 2: My era, the Blackpool thing.
Speaker 1: That's right, yes, so so Will. How did that go down?
Speaker 1: Is it like one of the senior bods in Young Farmers?
Speaker 1: Was that something when that story splashed that you know
Speaker 1: that Young Farmers is just this full of misogynistic blokes.
Speaker 1: It's still blokey blokes and they're still smoking, and they're
Speaker 1: still drinking and shot chlory. You know, they might pinch
Speaker 1: pinch a girl on the bottom. Was that something that
Speaker 1: you almost got?
Speaker 4: You thought?
Speaker 1: That doesn't What were your feelings about it?
Speaker 5: Well, personally, Blackpool is is completely out of my world.
Speaker 4: It's the last thing I'd want to attend, I think
Speaker 4: for that.
Speaker 5: Reason because it coming out of it there's so many stories.
Speaker 4: Of crap like that that shine.
Speaker 5: A bad light on I don't know the organization or
Speaker 5: the gender or the age, but.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I don't.
Speaker 5: I don't think it shines the right light on young
Speaker 5: farmers or a true light in young farmers, especially in
Speaker 5: a time where the industry is trying to encourage women
Speaker 5: in and trying to.
Speaker 4: Show itself in the best light.
Speaker 5: I think this whole and I know it still happens
Speaker 5: that all the slogans on T shirts happens every year
Speaker 5: still even to this day, for the cheap laughs and everything,
Speaker 5: But yeah, I don't think it's probably not the best
Speaker 5: thing to be happening in a modern world when everyone's
Speaker 5: so politically correct. Anyway, It's just one of those Yeah.
Speaker 2: Do you think there might be an element of sort
Speaker 2: of family cultural peer pressure in some of those communities,
Speaker 2: because we have over here in Wales which I didn't
Speaker 2: grow up, but I've seen the effects of it. The
Speaker 2: Royal Welsh it's a big fair, big show in the summer,
Speaker 2: and there is a strong correlation between young farmers and
Speaker 2: certain nights at the Royal Welsh where there's effectively a
Speaker 2: bar set aside for them, and it's is carnage, it's
Speaker 2: probably the best way to put it. But the way
Speaker 2: it's discussed in those among the fire because we have
Speaker 2: friends who have watched their children grow up and then
Speaker 2: go off to these things. The dads are talking to
Speaker 2: the sons about their experiences there, all well shod maybe
Speaker 2: ten or twenty years before them or eighteen years before them,
Speaker 2: and then they're passing on to them, So there's almost
Speaker 2: an expectation you have to be a complete lunatic.
Speaker 1: You see. That is an interesting thing, right, and a
Speaker 1: question to both of you. See, when I was in
Speaker 1: young farmers or when I was younger playing rugby, all
Speaker 1: the things that were accepted norms in rural areas where
Speaker 1: you were bloated blokes. You've smoked Marlborough all the time,
Speaker 1: or you drank and drove, you did lots of things
Speaker 1: that were just considered would be considered by society now
Speaker 1: as not just unacceptable socially. Half of them get you
Speaker 1: arrested or get you thrown out of things. So therefore,
Speaker 1: you know, the whole idea is that lots of underage drinking,
Speaker 1: everyone smoked, everyone was sort of blokey, blokey, and it
Speaker 1: was I suppose in modern pass inappropriate. But was that
Speaker 1: actually just part and parcel of how rural communities are
Speaker 1: slightly different to our urban counterpart. Is there still this
Speaker 1: sort of gulf between town and country and just the
Speaker 1: way that of behavior attitude are you seeing it still
Speaker 1: thirty forty years later on?
Speaker 3: For me?
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I think the way the modern world. Is
Speaker 5: there's such a stigma around young people. And I think
Speaker 5: in a rural community young people have painted in a
Speaker 5: good light, and in a in an urban community they're
Speaker 5: painted in bad light. I think when I speak to
Speaker 5: a lot of people about getting together friends, going for
Speaker 5: drink and everything, people always talk about drugs, right, and
Speaker 5: addiction and things like that. And I've been going out
Speaker 5: on nights out with my friends for probably ten years now.
Speaker 4: Drugs.
Speaker 5: I've never never known any anyone that I know get
Speaker 5: involved with drugs, and I think and in young farmers,
Speaker 5: it's the same thing.
Speaker 4: I've never everyone. Everyone likes to have a drink, but.
Speaker 5: I think, no, no, yeah, no one's ever mentioned drugs
Speaker 5: or I've been in a situation where it's involved because.
Speaker 4: No one's interested.
Speaker 5: Like you say, they'd rather smoke Morlborough golds than have
Speaker 5: a have a couple of clients when they're too young,
Speaker 5: than getting involved in illegal activity as.
Speaker 1: Such, that's reassuring. Is it the same poppy with with
Speaker 1: you know, you're nearly ten years younger than poor old
Speaker 1: Will here he's catching up with me fast. Is that
Speaker 1: something that you see? I mean, is there a gulf
Speaker 1: between you and your age group and peer group with
Speaker 1: those who perhaps might be same age peer groups in
Speaker 1: more urban areas.
Speaker 3: It's a tricky question actually now because I don't really
Speaker 3: have friends. I'd have my swimming friends, but like, apart
Speaker 3: from that, I'm very much I only have my young
Speaker 3: farmer friends. As sad as that might seem, but I
Speaker 3: think just with young Farmers, I think I go to
Speaker 3: the pub with them, or you go to the meets
Speaker 3: with them, and it's just real conversations like I don't
Speaker 3: there's not really you're just going. It's nice, chilled vibes
Speaker 3: that you don't have to worry about anything. You can
Speaker 3: kind of just talk about things, whereas maybe with some
Speaker 3: friends that are outside of Young Farmers, I just struggle
Speaker 3: maybe to find something more in common with them, or
Speaker 3: feel like I have to maybe act on something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, that makes sense. It's very difficult to so
Speaker 1: do you find then it's actually something that because your
Speaker 1: interests are also your hobby, that that is where the
Speaker 1: Young Farmers works, whereas perhaps other social circles might be
Speaker 1: revolving around a sport which you play for eighty minutes,
Speaker 1: you know, and then that's it. You have a beer
Speaker 1: and then you go home and that's it, is it?
Speaker 1: Because the Young Farmers is more of a holistic thing
Speaker 1: surrounding farming country life, and it's also your social life
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that helps massively. I think when you
Speaker 3: meet up, it's just a natural talking flow, like and
Speaker 3: it all kind of leads to one thing, Like you
Speaker 3: could talk about any thing you want, but it's all
Speaker 3: you've got in common. Like it just seems like everyone's
Speaker 3: in common to each other and we've all pretty much.
Speaker 3: I mean, the ages are a little bit of a variety,
Speaker 3: but it still seems like we're close in age people are.
Speaker 3: Maybe your friends might be moving out to a house,
Speaker 3: you might be at a different stage, but everyone shares
Speaker 3: what they're kind of going for in life, and I
Speaker 3: think it makes it work like that.
Speaker 5: And that's actually a really good point. Like Young Farmers
Speaker 5: is such a support support network as opposed to some
Speaker 5: friendship groups where you go out and it's a boast
Speaker 5: of who's done what, who's done this. But always find
Speaker 5: that you go to Young Farmers on a Wednesday night
Speaker 5: and no matter how bad your day's been, you don't
Speaker 5: talk to someone and you might talk through your problem
Speaker 5: and compare a problem or but you do talk about
Speaker 5: the bad things as much as you talk about the
Speaker 5: good things, whereas if you went out with some friends,
Speaker 5: you'd probably hide it.
Speaker 4: Young Farmers is completely the opposite. Which, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Think you come away from Young Farmers, like you say,
Speaker 3: will you could be really down that day, or you
Speaker 3: could be really happy, and I think you come away
Speaker 3: just feeling happier in general because people make you laugh.
Speaker 3: You laugh a lot, and I think you just feel
Speaker 3: a bit lighter when you go home. And that was
Speaker 3: my experience pretty much every week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So a question for both of you then, is
Speaker 2: there because we always say on this show that sort
Speaker 2: of the rural element is kind of the minority now
Speaker 2: because most of the population live in towns most of
Speaker 2: the it's quite a small workforce, it's all quite a
Speaker 2: small community. Do you think that in the clubs you
Speaker 2: get the idea there's this sense that you are kind
Speaker 2: of a minority within the country by being rural. So
Speaker 2: therefore the clubs make more of an effort to make
Speaker 2: sure that everyone feels included because you're you're sort of
Speaker 2: the underdog a little bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, I think because we're all maybe from that background
Speaker 3: or we've got the interests of being rural. I think
Speaker 3: it does. We do a lot of things around it,
Speaker 3: and I think it probably brings us together some of
Speaker 3: the things we do, and even if we're like oh,
Speaker 3: Wednesday meet, we'll have different things where we go and
Speaker 3: meet people and do talks and tours. I think sometimes
Speaker 3: it will be interesting to other people, but still with
Speaker 3: people are really interested, they'll still come along because they
Speaker 3: want to learn about something, and it's a chance to
Speaker 3: actually learn something you probably would ever learn if you
Speaker 3: didn't go to Young Farmers. I think there's so much
Speaker 3: more opportunity to do things like oh my goodness from
Speaker 3: joining in like last year. So I'm quite I'm fairly new, maybe,
Speaker 3: but I've done so much that you just would never
Speaker 3: ever dream of doing if you just didn't join. Like
Speaker 3: I've played hockey for Eastern Aarian Compson. I don't play hockey,
Speaker 3: but it was a great day, a great opportunity. And yeah,
Speaker 3: that's not anything to do with farming, but it's still
Speaker 3: everyone together that's got random bits that connect everyone.
Speaker 5: I think, what do you think will Yeah, I think
Speaker 5: I think because it's an organization that it's trying to
Speaker 5: encourage as many people in that go against the name
Speaker 5: of the organization. I mean, if you had a football
Speaker 5: club that said, oh, we want non football players to
Speaker 5: come to a foot club, it wouldn't happen. Now, whereas
Speaker 5: Young Farmers is trying to get people in that aren't
Speaker 5: young farmers to come along. But going to a meeting
Speaker 5: because there's non farmers in a room of farmers, the
Speaker 5: farmers are so interested in what the non farmers are
Speaker 5: doing because it's someone different. I go along and I
Speaker 5: talk to someone and they've sat an attractor today, so
Speaker 5: we're comparing attractive. But then we've also got a scaffolder,
Speaker 5: so we go and talk to him about his scaffold
Speaker 5: polls or something. Or there's also a chapter that works
Speaker 5: in a fish shop. But the non farm that No,
Speaker 5: the farmers are so interested in what's going on outside
Speaker 5: of the farming world. And I think that mix in
Speaker 5: a who really creates a conversation. No one's on their phones,
Speaker 5: but everyone's talking, and I think that's the most important
Speaker 5: thing of a mate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I noticed that. I mean I went to I've
Speaker 1: given a talk for both your clubs before, and a
Speaker 1: number of times you poor SAPs, but I have noticed
Speaker 1: is that there's a slight level of old world charm
Speaker 1: in the fact that you are introduced formally and then
Speaker 1: you are formally thanked. But there's also that thing is
Speaker 1: that I look around the room and no one is
Speaker 1: nodding off, no one is looking at their phone.
Speaker 4: There is a.
Speaker 1: Level of attention and politeness in that attention which I
Speaker 1: have to say is sometimes missing in other venues with
Speaker 1: other people of quite frequently people who are older, and
Speaker 1: they may even have bought a ticket silly fools to
Speaker 1: come and listen to me talk. So there is a
Speaker 1: there's a slight old fashioned without it being a derogatory term.
Speaker 1: There is a slight level of the old fashioned that
Speaker 1: I've experienced from all of the clubs in Suffolk and
Speaker 1: Norfolk that I've had dealings with, and that I think
Speaker 1: is part of the reason why I warm to the
Speaker 1: Young Farmers. And I have to say, you are the
Speaker 1: only organization that I don't actually charge a fig two
Speaker 1: to go and talk purely and simply because I think, well, A,
Speaker 1: I've got to go and try and pass on what
Speaker 1: I know about. But also is that I see that
Speaker 1: is genuinely appreciated, and you know that's it, and I
Speaker 1: owe a lot to the young farmers as well, because
Speaker 1: I found the same experiences as Poppy has had. I
Speaker 1: don't come from a farming family, but I joined the
Speaker 1: young farmers and I made loat and I just gathered
Speaker 1: knowledge like the sponge from my farming pals, and then
Speaker 1: they gathered knowledge from me bag well hunting largely, So
Speaker 1: you know, it was a fair exchange. It was a
Speaker 1: fair exchange. Now, will I want to get onto one
Speaker 1: thing because you is this right? It's your last year
Speaker 1: that you're actually yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I'm coming out the top end now. So
Speaker 5: I've done my bit, and yeah I'm too old.
Speaker 1: I'm going to replace it?
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know. I honestly don't know.
Speaker 5: I think, well, the marathon running is going to take
Speaker 5: a bit more of a bigger step next year, so
Speaker 5: I think I think that's going to be where my
Speaker 5: attention goes instead.
Speaker 1: Okay, And of course you are the small matter of
Speaker 1: the chairman of the Hadley Show. Now for Richard lounging
Speaker 1: there on his chase long, yes he is. It's something
Speaker 1: The Hadley Show is how many years old?
Speaker 4: Will this is the one hundred and eighty sixth Yeah,
Speaker 4: year of the.
Speaker 1: Show, one hundred and eighty sixth year of the Hadley Show.
Speaker 1: So this is something of an institution in this county.
Speaker 1: Talk me through how you ended up as a young
Speaker 1: man doing being chairman of this Augustine ancient event, and
Speaker 1: what changes you dare make because of your fresh eyes
Speaker 1: on it that you dare make to something which is
Speaker 1: an institution.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very wisely put.
Speaker 5: So I became involved with a Halvy show the same
Speaker 5: way as young Farmers. I volunteered all of my time,
Speaker 5: more than I should have done to an organization. So
Speaker 5: I started when I was sixteen stewarding on the lighter
Speaker 5: roll off the Walkways, and then the year that my
Speaker 5: brother would show director in twenty eighteen nineteen, I got
Speaker 5: more heavily involved helping set up the show.
Speaker 4: And yeah take on his job of show Brown Science.
Speaker 5: And then since then I've been there through set up
Speaker 5: week and been at.
Speaker 4: Head steward meetings and everything then the lead up to
Speaker 4: the show.
Speaker 5: So yeah, we've got noticed of how much I've put
Speaker 5: into it, I guess. And so Anne Harrod, who had
Speaker 5: on the podcast last year, asked me if I'd like
Speaker 5: to take it on, and she and of course I
Speaker 5: said yes, I'd be stupid to have said no, and
Speaker 5: so I'm yes. I'm the third member of my family
Speaker 5: to do it. So my dad's done it, my brother's
Speaker 5: done it, and now it's my turn. So big things
Speaker 5: coming this year?
Speaker 1: Are they?
Speaker 4: What? Like? What like?
Speaker 1: Can you say?
Speaker 5: Because of So the Haddy Show supports all the local
Speaker 5: charities of Haley and Haley and Farmer's being one of them.
Speaker 5: So I've got as many community clubs and organizations.
Speaker 4: Involved as possible.
Speaker 5: So we've got the Rogan Club and the football club involved,
Speaker 5: and I've introduced a spotlight stage, so amateur dramatics and
Speaker 5: local solo art and also the high school cheerleaders are
Speaker 5: going to be performing, So anyone and everything something for everyone.
Speaker 1: Pride would be there if he wasn't, if he was
Speaker 1: laid out.
Speaker 4: If he could run.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to say this. From everything you've said,
Speaker 2: this sounds like it's more than a small village fate affair.
Speaker 2: So is the Hadley Show a big deal in Suffolk life?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: How far is its sort of catchment for this? Is
Speaker 2: this a Suffolk thing? Is it an East Anglian thing?
Speaker 2: Is it just arable? What's the what's the sort of
Speaker 2: size of this.
Speaker 5: Yes, So in terms of on the show day, so
Speaker 5: we are local draws, so people that are attending the
Speaker 5: show tends to be local areas. So we have fifteen
Speaker 5: thousand people from the local area, so that's anywhere around Colchester,
Speaker 5: Ipswich in that area. But in terms of showing, so
Speaker 5: our sheep showing and our cattle come from Norfolk, Essex
Speaker 5: and Suffolk.
Speaker 4: We've all our sheep classes.
Speaker 5: And our cattle classes are sold near enough sold out
Speaker 5: this year from people coming from.
Speaker 4: All over East Anglis.
Speaker 5: So yeah, it's local community and greater community as well,
Speaker 5: greater farming community.
Speaker 4: And probably more livestock.
Speaker 5: Actually, I mean we've got this, I've got to display
Speaker 5: this year of farming through the ages. So we've got
Speaker 5: a shower horse and then attraction engine, followed by machinery
Speaker 5: from the nineteen sixties and then modern day machinery. So
Speaker 5: that's a bit of arable. But other than that, there's
Speaker 5: a big onus on our local livestock.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this is a thing about these The
Speaker 2: local shows are one of those things that has survived
Speaker 2: quite well within the rural communities, aren't they Because they've
Speaker 2: sort of survived when a lot of other farming enterprises
Speaker 2: and farming community events have for one reason another sort
Speaker 2: of they've disappeared off the calendar. Is the community element
Speaker 2: of these shows a massive? Is that the big thing
Speaker 2: behind it? Is it something commercial? Why do these regional
Speaker 2: shows still keep going so well?
Speaker 4: I think I wouldn't say the one used, The one
Speaker 4: word we.
Speaker 5: Don't use with the Haley Show is commercial. Everything is
Speaker 5: small scale and local rather than worried about the money.
Speaker 5: But I think much like young farmers, it's the traditional
Speaker 5: side of it because it's still got your fair ground rides,
Speaker 5: but you've still got your small stools, your local producers,
Speaker 5: local food, local livestock, and socializing. A lot of people
Speaker 5: come to the Hanley Show and possibly see people that
Speaker 5: they haven't seen since the last show, that you catch
Speaker 5: up with all going on around traditional white wide span
Speaker 5: white marquees and stewards in fascinators, dresses, boiler hats and
Speaker 5: dark suits. And I think people like the traditional side
Speaker 5: of it. That's what say, was it over go into
Speaker 5: a festival?
Speaker 2: I guess if we ever do some scented candles from
Speaker 2: this show, I think one of them has to be
Speaker 2: the smell of a canvas marquee on a hot day
Speaker 2: over trampled grass, you know, just that and the dog
Speaker 2: tent the dog breeds tend to think is the other
Speaker 2: one we said we'd.
Speaker 1: Do not however, I do not want to have a
Speaker 1: scented candle of the scent of the beer tent of
Speaker 1: the Royal Welsh Show. After all, the young farmers no
Speaker 1: be quite a thing, Poppy, Are you doing anything at
Speaker 1: the Suffolk Show this year? Because the young farmers are
Speaker 1: quite famed for being asked to produce creative things as
Speaker 1: well as sort of going on farm busits and talking
Speaker 1: about tractors and pto shafts and the latest drill. You're
Speaker 1: quite often sort of asked to do create tip stuff.
Speaker 1: And I seem to remember that he's quite often shown
Speaker 1: off at the at the Suffolk Show. I mean, is
Speaker 1: that does that still go on? Now?
Speaker 3: Yes, we've actually got at the Suffolk Show this year.
Speaker 3: I think we're making like a wooden box in well,
Speaker 3: like a wooden square box. And I think we've got floristry, baking,
Speaker 3: what a bit of croach showing. I think, so it
Speaker 3: kind of all has to fit in this wooden box.
Speaker 3: It's very random, but it is quite cool. I think
Speaker 3: we've got I'm doing the baking side of it. Actually no,
Speaker 3: the baking doesn't need to be for the Suffok Show.
Speaker 3: That's for the Hadley Show, but they're kind of the
Speaker 3: box is still being used for the Suffolk Show, so
Speaker 3: a bit of like florestry work, which I know someone
Speaker 3: from Young Farmers is doing as they're a florists, so
Speaker 3: it is quite creative. And then I think we've got
Speaker 3: an obstable Yeah sorry, I can't say.
Speaker 1: That obstacle course yeah.
Speaker 3: At Suffolk Show. And then we've got sheep showing as well,
Speaker 3: so we've got a few things going on. Gets quite
Speaker 3: busy for us. And we've got a scrap book as well,
Speaker 3: so and obviously we've got the Young Farmer's stand as well.
Speaker 1: Do you use those shows as recruitment grounds and if
Speaker 1: so does it work? Do you get people sort of
Speaker 1: signing up as a result of that poppy?
Speaker 3: And we definitely have our stands to promote young Farmers
Speaker 3: and spread not awareness, but spread it about, spread the
Speaker 3: word about what we do and what it is like.
Speaker 3: But I'd say maybe for juniors it gets a bit
Speaker 3: more popular because obviously you're there with your parents you're
Speaker 3: a lot younger, and you go around and I think
Speaker 3: it's something parents look at and go, oh, look here
Speaker 3: it is, and then you show what you do and stuff.
Speaker 3: So maybe for younger children, definitely. I'm not so sure
Speaker 3: about maybe sixteen year olds and that, but definitely for
Speaker 3: younger children I think.
Speaker 1: I mean, well, you've always had a very thriving club.
Speaker 1: You mean you ran the junior section as well as
Speaker 1: part of your thing. I mean, how did you go
Speaker 1: about recruiting this disparate group of young people because I
Speaker 1: mean there are very few of them are actually farmers,
Speaker 1: sons or daughters in your your juniors. I noticed when
Speaker 1: I last spoke to them, surprise surprise about hedges at
Speaker 1: the Black Flea Barn.
Speaker 4: Was it Flee Barney?
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, so I mean there's a lot of non
Speaker 1: far How do you go about recruiting these young people?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Like probably says a show is a great place for
Speaker 5: a parent to be dragging their child in to go,
Speaker 5: oh you want to sign.
Speaker 4: Up or to sign up.
Speaker 5: But I think the best advert for young farms at
Speaker 5: the moment to get people involved is through social media.
Speaker 5: It's so easy to put a post up of what
Speaker 5: fun you're having, or the variety of meetings you're having,
Speaker 5: or the sports you've won, or anything. Because it's you
Speaker 5: can orchestrate a good photo on social media to show
Speaker 5: a crowded room or a variety.
Speaker 4: Of people in a photo.
Speaker 5: And that's how, especially in junior's clubs, I've I came
Speaker 5: to have waiting list of people wanting to come because
Speaker 5: we had so many people wanting to come that it
Speaker 5: would have made it unsafe to have them all, good
Speaker 5: God to come at once.
Speaker 2: Well that's that's the result. What's the what's the spread
Speaker 2: of ages?
Speaker 4: Then?
Speaker 2: Now for young farmers? What's the lower and upper limits?
Speaker 5: So ten to sixteen for juniors in Suffolk and then
Speaker 5: sixteen to twenty eight for seniors.
Speaker 4: So I spent I think.
Speaker 5: I spent five years giving up my Friday nights to
Speaker 5: play games and find people to talk to a group
Speaker 5: of ten to sixteen year olds. So yeah, it definitely
Speaker 5: came me out of the pubs anyway.
Speaker 1: Trying to keep that age group of young people infused
Speaker 1: their attention span and where it makes my Cocker Spaniels
Speaker 1: look like they're sort of you know, studious thinkers. It's
Speaker 1: absolutely bonkers. Did you end up tearing your hair out
Speaker 1: having to go and try and find something to entertain
Speaker 1: these young rural hooligans.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, there's not been.
Speaker 5: There's not many times I've had a talk from someone
Speaker 5: such as I don't know the local Lowland Search and
Speaker 5: Rescue and the end of the night with the game
Speaker 5: of Duck Duck goose to try and get a bit
Speaker 5: of energy before I send them home. I mean if
Speaker 5: I if I tried that, Hadley now, I think that, yeah,
Speaker 5: I'd be the only one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I can, I can. I can see that.
Speaker 1: How are your numbers poppy at Debenham I mean, what
Speaker 1: do you have a junior section at Debenham So we've got.
Speaker 3: A genius and then we're there's more in it seniors.
Speaker 3: So I think at the moment we've got like sixty
Speaker 3: five members. But obviously they don't all come every week.
Speaker 3: A lot has you know, come when they can. I mean,
Speaker 3: lives are busy, aren't they. So we're certainly getting more
Speaker 3: I think definitely through other people and then they're like, oh,
Speaker 3: my friend she's going to come this week, or they're
Speaker 3: going to come, which is really good because it gets
Speaker 3: around the world, gets found.
Speaker 2: How does it working. Is that was the club I
Speaker 2: was in? You just sort of knew the club, and
Speaker 2: then you knew the next town sort of had a club,
Speaker 2: but there was one further along. Is it that each
Speaker 2: club is like its own separate organization or are you
Speaker 2: part of the county or how does that work you?
Speaker 2: There's a national Federation, isn't it. That's kind of a
Speaker 2: really loose collection.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so there's there's NFY, the National Federation, and then
Speaker 5: under that we have the Suffolk Federation, right, and then
Speaker 5: we're clubs under that federation. Yeah, so plenty of people
Speaker 5: to tell you what you can and can't do when
Speaker 5: you're trying to plan a party.
Speaker 1: Or how much did the Clarkson factor influence the spiking membership? Was?
Speaker 1: Was it? Do people go and watch Didley squat and
Speaker 1: they went I want some of that? They wanted to
Speaker 1: be Caleb? Did you did you see a spike poppy
Speaker 1: because of because because of Clarkson?
Speaker 3: No, I don't think so. To be honest, I haven't noticed.
Speaker 3: To be honest.
Speaker 1: With you, I think well that ruined that ruined that,
Speaker 1: that question, didn't it?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Bill, did you notice.
Speaker 2: Just loading in this question?
Speaker 4: I'm going to say yes, that really will.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yes, I think so because people were because Clarkson
Speaker 5: was so honest about what was going on and the
Speaker 5: good and the bad. We And it also came just
Speaker 5: after COVID, didn't it. So I think there was a
Speaker 5: there was a correlation between COVID happening and Clerks unhappening,
Speaker 5: and I think both had a positive impact. People were
Speaker 5: trying to get out again. People were either good joining
Speaker 5: sports clubs to try and get out and appreciate seeing people,
Speaker 5: or young farmers. And I think, yeah, a lot of
Speaker 5: people got into young farmers at that point because they
Speaker 5: realized that it wasn't that industry that was pretty food
Speaker 5: of old people talking about the archers and realized it's
Speaker 5: a group of young people talking about the Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Think it's different. Like I've definitely well, I point noticed
Speaker 3: the difference in like maybe young people doing more tiktoks
Speaker 3: around farming, and I'm not sure if that's because of
Speaker 3: Harriet and Caleb and the whole the whole series of that.
Speaker 3: I think that definitely influenced young farmers to do more
Speaker 3: social media because of Caleb and Harriet.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's interesting. So I mean it is I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not on TikTok, I have to say, but you are.
Speaker 2: You just don't know it. I put them on there.
Speaker 1: Oh dear shit, what time it does? It does seem though,
Speaker 1: because they then sort of morph over, sort of six
Speaker 1: weeks later onto what the old people are on Instagram
Speaker 1: and X and I do see more, you know, younger farmers,
Speaker 1: and they are when it's lambing season there they are,
Speaker 1: everyone's lambing. And then it seems to be that there
Speaker 1: was a uniform for lambing and oh hello, we're sudden
Speaker 1: in our tractor again, and everyone's got that same shot
Speaker 1: of them, you know, so it's looking through the steering
Speaker 1: wheel at them. That's interesting is that that has helped
Speaker 1: the sexying up of farming too, because you think that
Speaker 1: the TikTok generation of the new agriculturists, even if they
Speaker 1: come from Peckham, that's quite interesting.
Speaker 4: I suppose farmers have always been a bit of a
Speaker 4: del boy, haven't they.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's something we had when we
Speaker 2: started this stupid bloody podcast, which is about there about
Speaker 2: six months in where we thought we just wind it up,
Speaker 2: and then people were getting in touch saying now I
Speaker 2: listened to you when I'm out in the tractor, you
Speaker 2: know you're you're because when you're in a tractor going
Speaker 2: back and.
Speaker 1: Forth, particularly sort of this.
Speaker 2: Time of year, when it's you're on your own in
Speaker 2: the field and you've got four hundred acres to do
Speaker 2: before the end of the week, there's not a lot
Speaker 2: of talking and stuff to do, is there. So is
Speaker 2: the social and media element maybe a way of connecting
Speaker 2: with some other poor sod whoes in another tractor doing
Speaker 2: their four hundred acres. That like, you've sort of building
Speaker 2: a remote community that's not reliant on having to see
Speaker 2: somebody in person or somebody coming up to the to
Speaker 2: the cab to talk to you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think.
Speaker 5: I think a lot of people in previous generations didn't
Speaker 5: have a phone in the middle of a field, barely
Speaker 5: had a radio and they might have listened to the
Speaker 5: radio one road show over harvest and that was that
Speaker 5: highlight of their year. But I think now, because we're
Speaker 5: connected all the time, it's made the job of sitting
Speaker 5: on our track to a bit more fashionable. Again, I
Speaker 5: think people because you're not disconnected from the outside world
Speaker 5: while you're sat down not really.
Speaker 4: Doing a lot.
Speaker 5: And yeah, I think social media has really helped with that.
Speaker 5: But then also similarly, I find myself now coming out
Speaker 5: the other side of the whole social media bubble, and
Speaker 5: I'm now ringing my friends a.
Speaker 2: Lot more good law.
Speaker 5: And I find I've got my closest friend in particular.
Speaker 5: I think we've phone in each other most days to
Speaker 5: have a chat, to catch up to ask what so
Speaker 5: and so is doing next door. But he's actually the
Speaker 5: habby and Farmer's chairman this year. But yeah, we speak
Speaker 5: to each other every single day on the phone. We
Speaker 5: probably message each other once in a blue moon, but
Speaker 5: we will speak religiously every day just for a chat,
Speaker 5: and because I know that he's sat on the tractor
Speaker 5: all day seeing no one. And again, I think it's
Speaker 5: the traditional aspect that a lot of people are coming
Speaker 5: back to just having a proper chat rather than and
Speaker 5: yeah Facebook message or something coffee.
Speaker 1: Is that the same with you? What's your social media useage?
Speaker 3: Other ones don't really. I mean I use Instagram, but
Speaker 3: I don't really do TikTok or Facebook very well. I
Speaker 3: do use social media for my job. Like Will says,
Speaker 3: it does spread the word in it gets people knowing
Speaker 3: where you are as a lot of coffee band, so
Speaker 3: I'm in different locations, so it does help to spread
Speaker 3: the word where I am. For my own personal useage,
Speaker 3: I don't use it too much.
Speaker 1: No, no, But do you mean is it something you
Speaker 1: find with your fellow club members? Is that you know
Speaker 1: when they are sat on that tractor, is that this
Speaker 1: is their world, this is their only means of communication
Speaker 1: with their peers. Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, I do have a few friends that do work long,
Speaker 3: long hours, and I do get some phone calls. I
Speaker 3: get some snapchats of what they're doing. So yeah, no,
Speaker 3: I do, especially when it's longer days and they're on
Speaker 3: their own harvest. If they can't make somewhere like what
Speaker 3: we're doing in an evening, then I'll just call them instead, okay,
Speaker 3: because it can be really lonely for them.
Speaker 2: So last couple of questions then, for both of you,
Speaker 2: Because well, as we know Richard Nigus over there is
Speaker 2: he is pretty much neolithic now. He is incredibly old
Speaker 2: and judging about his writing as well as actually from
Speaker 2: the nineteenth century. And I'm well on my way there.
Speaker 2: I'm sort of older than my years, although my leg
Speaker 2: is catching up with me in aging.
Speaker 1: Bits of it are very new.
Speaker 2: Yes they are quite bry on it. Yes they're still
Speaker 2: cooling down. But when you listen to sort of you know,
Speaker 2: from forty or above talk about farming and the countryside,
Speaker 2: it strikes me that all the commentators are very doom
Speaker 2: and gloom and all this and all the challenges and
Speaker 2: these are all the problems. But whenever I speak to
Speaker 2: somebody who's under thirty, they're quite positive and they're quite
Speaker 2: cheerful about things. And it seems to be like there's
Speaker 2: a lot more energy and enthusiasm at the bottom end
Speaker 2: than there is in the because what are we average
Speaker 2: age of a farmer's sixty two or something like that
Speaker 2: for a farm owner. So why is that something you
Speaker 2: guys have experienced yourselves. Is it something that you've noticed
Speaker 2: that sort of your peers are more cheerful about things
Speaker 2: and there's a load of misery old gets at the
Speaker 2: top end. Will's thinking of his future career there as
Speaker 2: well and calling his colleagues miserable old gits.
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, and I think, yeah, there's definitely there's definitely
Speaker 5: young people that are glass half full, and there's a
Speaker 5: lot of older people which are glass half empty.
Speaker 4: There's of course those ones that cross over.
Speaker 5: But I don't know whether that's because people aren't in charge,
Speaker 5: so they're just worrying about what shiny piece of equipment
Speaker 5: they've got, what the numb plate is on their tractor
Speaker 5: and not where, wondering whether money's coming from, and haven't
Speaker 5: got to worry about their inheritance yet. But then the
Speaker 5: other ones that are glass half empty are I suppose
Speaker 5: we've seen it, or we've been here, we've done that,
Speaker 5: we've tried it, it doesn't work, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 5: I think they're too settled in where they are and
Speaker 5: but not thinking about outside the picture and what it
Speaker 5: could be as such.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think it's hard. I think a lot
Speaker 3: of people, maybe from not just Debenham like all over,
Speaker 3: especially the people that are have their own home farms,
Speaker 3: do struggle and it's hard to be positive. And I'm
Speaker 3: not saying that they they're not being negative, but I
Speaker 3: think they're being realistic and I think they do struggle
Speaker 3: and they do find hard to see the positives because
Speaker 3: I suppose there is a lot at the moment that
Speaker 3: isn't positive. And I think when you are on a
Speaker 3: little farm, family farm of your own you do worry.
Speaker 3: It's hard not to.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean do you get fed up with winging
Speaker 1: old toads like me gain? Well, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: It's the bloody Labor Party. It's one they've done. They've
Speaker 1: naked from me.
Speaker 2: Are you asking Will and Poppy that or me?
Speaker 1: But obviously we know where you're at, right right? Just
Speaker 1: shut up? Is it something I look at everything through
Speaker 1: the prism of the farming and I need healthy, wealthy
Speaker 1: farming to continue my business. So I am just as
Speaker 1: impacted as the farmer. You know, if the farm goes,
Speaker 1: my work goes. So it's something that I do look at.
Speaker 1: Is that we've got to have a political party that
Speaker 1: or parties that have some inkling and support of farming.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're now leaving young farmers. Will you're part
Speaker 1: of a family farm. Is it something that you're looking
Speaker 1: in the future and you think, regardless of what changes,
Speaker 1: we're stuffed or do you have or you are that
Speaker 1: Are you that half that glass half full character who's thinking, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's an opportunity here and it's still worth being in
Speaker 1: this industry.
Speaker 5: Well, I look at other people and think they're miserable,
Speaker 5: so they probably think so throughout me. But I'd like
Speaker 5: to think glass half full. I mean, everything could be
Speaker 5: could be better, but it could also be a lot
Speaker 5: lot worse. I mean, you don't have to look far
Speaker 5: around the world to find a country with an agricultural
Speaker 5: industry that's worse than ours and well better than ours.
Speaker 5: I mean we're stuck in the middle. I mean we're
Speaker 5: still there's still people trying to sabotage us, but there's
Speaker 5: people trying to help us out and find the route
Speaker 5: to make it work, and there's reward for that and
Speaker 5: there's a result from that. So I think, yeah, I
Speaker 5: don't think it's worth being miserable about because just because
Speaker 5: it's the way it is, it doesn't mean we have
Speaker 5: to like it. But in another four years time, we
Speaker 5: may have a different government and Niger Frage might be
Speaker 5: changing things and there might be Yeah, we might be
Speaker 5: in a different, completely different way of living.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, well that's I think a jolly good
Speaker 1: place to end the main part of the show, because
Speaker 1: that is on a note of positivity. There is sunlit
Speaker 1: uplands possibly and a glass is half full, and more
Speaker 1: importantly mine's completely empty. The Adnams supply has run dry.
Speaker 1: Richard's with oh look it's all that so we can't
Speaker 1: see poppy Unfortunately, visual media again, Suffolk Internet has just
Speaker 1: sort of you know, done its thing again. Well look,
Speaker 1: thank you both for coming on. I think that we'll
Speaker 1: put some links on to the young farmers, so that
Speaker 1: should anyone listening to this be interested and how they
Speaker 1: can contact their local club. One final thing, because you
Speaker 1: know it's our show and we're allowed to do it.
Speaker 1: Will you've got one minute to tell everyone why they
Speaker 1: should come to the Hadley Show. Go good.
Speaker 5: Well, the Habby Show is the best advert for farming
Speaker 5: and the community in one place. Where else do you
Speaker 5: think you'll ever be able to buy a bag of fudge,
Speaker 5: see a sheet in fancy dress and also watch the
Speaker 5: high school cheerleaders In such a small area, the concentration
Speaker 5: of community will have a bit of everything and something
Speaker 5: for everyone.
Speaker 1: Fantastic date. Well, when's the.
Speaker 5: Date sixteenth of May twenty twenty six at wholbexs Park,
Speaker 5: hald happen excellent.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you very much both of you for coming on,
Speaker 1: and thank you for putting up with the slight metallic
Speaker 1: creaking sound that is my friend Richard Prudeaux thank you,
Speaker 1: goodbye everyone, thank you.
Speaker 4: So much for having goodbye. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: Well, that was a spiffing out for