They also have a strong focus on their environment and local community, with a real passion in the way that they farm. The mixed farmer of the year award was sponsored by Massey Ferguson. English farmer, author and television presenter, Adam Henson hosted the awards over five nights live on Facebook, IGTV and YouTube. This year, due to the Covid-19 restrictions the Farmers Weekly Awards took place as an online show. Five episodes screened from Sunday, February 7 to Thursday, February 11, and are still available to watch on YouTube or www.fwi.co.uk/show. The awards are presented to the best farmers in the country.
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Esther and Henry Rudge, Ballingham Court, Herefordshire
As custodians of the countryside, farmers play an essential role in the sustainable management of land, natural resources and wildlife habitats.
Protecting and enhancing the environment lie at the very heart of Esther and Henry Rudge’s family farm in Herefordshire, who farm together with son Monty.
The team have a strong focus on environmental enhancement on their 173ha mixed farm, where they aim to use regenerative agriculture techniques to improve their arable, beef, sheep and fruit farm’s ecosystem.
Managing habitats
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Peter Eccles, Saughland Farm, Pathhead, Midlothian
Enthusiasm, energy and a clear vision, combined with a search for top-notch productivity and technical improvement, make Peter Eccles a remarkable farmer.
He has some impressive results to back this up, having made wholesale changes to the system and breeds at Saughland Farm, taking it from a traditional indoor lambed flock and continental cross cows to outdoor lambing and cross-bred native cows.
The stock is run on a closely monitored intensive paddock rotational grazing system which now produces 668kg liveweight/ha – a 30% increase achieved in four years as Peter’s changes have taken effect.
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Tim Parton, Brewood Park Farm, West Midlands
Tim Parton is a regenerative agriculture pioneer whose main aim is to get his soils working again and harness biology within his cropping system.
As part of this journey, he is slashing his chemical inputs. With fertiliser, he is using microbes to fix nitrogen from the air and also release phosphorus already bound up in soils.
To achieve this, he wanted a direct drill that could place these microbes next to the seed, as well as drill two crops at the same time accurately.