Down on the Farm is our regular podcast from Essex Farmer, Guy Smith.
These podcasts are aimed at KS2 and 3 children, looking at the daily life 'down on the farm'.
You can subscribe to this podcast and be informed of updates by using the subscribe facility on the left. Otherwise, check back soon for your regular update from the farm.
* We apologise for the wind noise on this recording, we hope to have resolved this in time for Episode 2 *
Matthew Naylor
Matthew Naylor is a farmer and flower grower from Moulton Marsh in Lincolnshire. He has a reputation in the industry for growing flowers that are taller than he is and he claims that potatoes from the Lincolnshire silt land taste much more potatoey than those grown elsewhere.
Matthew farms in partnership with his father, Nev, and the family business was started by his grandfather, Ken, 60 years ago. Most of the farm was reclaimed from the sea by the Romans. They are a LEAF marque farm and supply Waitrose and Marks and Spencer. The Naylors have been farming in the same village for over 10 generations - how unambitious is that?
Matthew gets annoyed when people tell him that he sounds like Alan Titchmarsh (which actually he does a bit). He writes a regular column for the Farmers Weekly. He was the Young Farmer of the Year way back in the days when he was still young.
HE LOVES cooking, travelling, tank tops, Radio 4, gardening, skiing, Georgian architecture and the sound of his own voice.
HE HATES Bluetooth earpieces, line dancing, leylandii and men with ponytails.
HIS MOST ANNOYING CHARACTERISTICS ARE pomposity and talking too much.
YOU WOULD NEVER GUESS TO LOOK AT HIM BUT...Matthew has a bed in the shape of a Land Rover in a spare room (and sleeps in it occassionally)
Episode 7
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Episode 6
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Episode 4
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Episode 2
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Buzz Game
Have a go at encouraging biodiversity on a farm. Play on your own or against your classmates.
The Buzz game has been developed to simulate changes you can make to a field over three years. Choose your field margins, beetle banks and bird crop and away you go!
Take a trip through a milking parlour, courtesy of the world's first ever COWCAM. Ever wondered what the milking parlour looks like through the eyes of a cow? Well now you can find out.
Five Young Farmers from the English and Welsh borders created digital stories providing an entertaining insight into contemporary farm life while revealing the uncertanties felt by every young farmer today.
Guy talks about sowing pea seeds and introduces his companion Ragwort.
Tim Teague
Tim farms a mixed beef and grain farm in the beautifull South Shropshire hills. The farm produces wheat, barley Oilseed rape and oats from the cropping part of the farm. The grassland feeds beef cattle which are all Hereford crosses valued for their superior eating quality.
The river Corve runs through the farm and with a small tributary add up to 5 kilometers of river bank. This is currently part of a conservation plan to coppice the riverbank trees and keep the cattle out of the river with new fencing.
Tim is a second generation farmer, his father not coming from a farming background. Sue is married to Tim and they have a little boy called Charlie, a terrier called Tag, two horses and rare breed chickens and a cat called JaJaBinks.
Likes - food, cooking and eating (except game), reading and being beside the sea, (Charlies favourite too)
Dislikes- petty rules, bad coffee and opening the mail.
Favourite fruit... Lord Lambourne apple from the garden.
Ian Pigott
Ian Pigott grows wheat, barley and oilseed rape in the heart of the commuter belt. A proportion of the land is now farmed organically.
Having previously worked in London as a commodity trader, Ian now farms in partnership with his parents, John and Jessie. Family legend has it that they have farmed in and around the Herts/ Beds border since 1300’s…..Pigotts are even less nomadic than Naylors!
As well as growing grains for the biscuit and malt whisky market, as the surname suggests they used to be pig farmers. Sadly, the pigs have been evicted and their sties are now rented offices and stables.
Unlike Matt, Ian no longer writes in the farmers weekly…. He founded Farm Sunday which is a National farm open day organised by LEAF (www.farmsunday.org) Last year over 150,000 visitors pulled on wellies to visit 500 farms around the country. Surprisingly, he was awarded the Farmers Weekly, Farming Champion of the year award in 2006
He loves his unruly foxterrier Scruffy, (which he recently ran over), his tall Canadian wife, Gilly and their two piglets. He is very fond of sport, wine and pink shirts.
He hates pushy parents, disobedient dogs (see above), and moaning farmers.
His most annoying characteristics are….endless
You would never guess to look at him but…Ian is not very tall
Episode 8
It's late spring and Guy and his friends find colour on the farm.
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Episode 5
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Episode 3
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Episode 1
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Podcasts
'Down on the Farm' is our regular podcast from Essex farmer, Guy Smith, especially aimed at KS2 and 3 children.
'Pure Tilth' is a food production themed podcast produced by a group of farmers from around the UK.
Five Young Farmers from the English and Welsh borders created digital stories providing an entertaining insight into contemporary farm life while revealing the uncertanties felt by every young farmer today.
Pure Tilth is a podcast produced by a group of people involved in agriculture and food production. This podcast although not specifically aimed at school children, contains relevant current affairs, debates and questions and answer sessions on the business of food production today.
Take a trip through a milking parlour, courtesy of the world's first ever COWCAM. Ever wondered what the milking parlour looks like through the eyes of a cow? Well now you can find out.
Down on the Farm is our regular podcast from Essex Farmer, Guy Smith.
Matthew Naylor is a farmer and flower grower from Moulton Marsh in Lincolnshire. He has a reputation in the industry for growing flowers that are taller than he is and he claims that potatoes from the Lincolnshire silt land taste much more potatoey than those grown elsewhere.
The new FACE Farmyard Screen Saver has been created by cartoonist Alan Rowe depicting a traditional farmyard through the seasons.
Five Young Farmers from the English and Welsh borders created digital stories providing an entertaining insight into contemporary farm life while revealing the uncertanties felt by every young farmer today.
Tim farms a mixed beef and grain farm in the beautifull South Shropshire hills. The farm produces wheat, barley Oilseed rape and oats from the cropping part of the farm. The grassland feeds beef cattle which are all Hereford crosses valued for their superior eating quality.
Ian Pigott grows wheat, barley and oilseed rape in the heart of the commuter belt. A proportion of the land is now farmed organically.
'Down on the Farm' is our regular podcast from Essex farmer, Guy Smith, especially aimed at KS2 and 3 children.
Let the Mouse do the walking on the Virtual Farm Walk.
Web cameras from Sugar Brook farm in Altrincham, Cheshire.