Rural Hub News

How to use social media to promote farming and rural businesses was the topic discussed at our event on 24 October 2019.

Hosted by NFU our first speaker was their social media lead, Charlotte Coates.  Charlotte explained how NFU used Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to promote a positive message for farming and to raise the profiles of their campaigns.  The growing importance of using short videos was highlighted and we all learned how to take a good selfie!    Sharing beautiful shots of our countryside, tagging key influencers, following industry hashtags and showing pride in our industry were Charlotte’s top tips.   We also learned how to deal with any negativity.  Our second speaker was Amanda Morris from Sunflower VA who gave some case studies of local businesses who had successfully raised their profile through social media, some statistics on why every business needed to get social and tips on the best times of day to post stories and tweets.    There was plenty of questions from the floor as many members of the audience used their iPads and ‘phones to get online. 

We would like to thank Charlotte and Amanda for delivering their wisdom and George Bostock, NFU Warwickshire Assistant Adviser, for his help in organising the room.

Diversification via development of rural property assets was the theme of the Rural Hub event on 24 September 2019 at Deer Park Hall, Eckington near Pershore. Rural Hub Business supporters sponsored the event and provided the speakers. Firstly, Dan Jackson from Sheldon Bosley Knight explained the rules behind Class Q permitted development rights of agricultural buildings. Then Daniel O’Donnell of Rosconn Strategic Land gave an overview of Promotion Agreements. The letting of agricultural buildings was covered by Tony Rowland of Sheldon Bosley Knight and the seminar concluded with a presentation by Douglas Godwin of Parkinson Wright on the legal perspectives to consider. Breakfast bacon rolls gave the delegates plenty of time to network. The Rural Hub would like to thank its business supporters for their sponsorship of this event.

Biodiversity offsets are conservation activities in one location that compensate for losses in another (e.g. following housing developments). Landowners are ideal candidates to create new habitats – such as ponds, woodlands and hedgerows – to replace those that have been lost and Warwickshire County Council is looking for landowners who would like to enter long-term funding agreements. that can cover 100% of the costs. At our event on 10 September 2019 delegates heard from David Lowe of WCC who gave an overview of biodiversity offsetting, the few rules that will need to be complied with through the legal agreement and offered landowners the opportunity to write their own grant scheme and payment terms. The NFU then gave its own perspective on the scheme and explained how they would prefer marginal areas of land to be used in the scheme, rather than land that is currently producing food. We would like to thank NFU for hosting the event and providing lunch.

The Rural Hub was pleased to be invited to attend the Rural Crime Prevention event at Stratford Livestock Market on 11 July 2019, organised by Rural Crime Adviser for South Warwickshire, Bob Church.  Alongside Warwickshire Police there were several companies with products that aim to combat rural crime, as well as the NFU and pastoral support organisations Farming Community Network and RABI.  The Hub was able to recruit several new members and also spoke to several existing members.

Jon and Sally Slee of Abbey Farm, Wolvey were our hosts for the Rural Hub moth evening on 5 July 2019.  After members had toured the wildflower meadow and visited the pond at Abbey Farm we looked at the moth specimens which had been caught by the Warwickshire Moth Group on the previous evening in various local gardens and farms.  These included the beautiful Elephant Hawk Moth (pictured) a nocturnal moth which flies from dusk onwards and which feeds on honeysuckle and favours habitats such as rough grassland, hedgerows, sand dunes and gardens.  After answering our many questions on moths the group members then went off to trap and record the moths on Abbey Farm, working well into the small hours of the night.  Rural Hub members also enjoyed a barbeque kindly provided by Jon and Sally.

Our grateful thanks go to Jon and Sally and Alan Prior and the Warwickshire Moth Group for making this event possible.

Thomas Maynard, Director of Hatton Farms Ltd, was announced as the winner of the Forsyth Lapwing Trophy for 2019 at a Syngenta farmer’s meeting on 1 July 2019.  The trophy, sponsored by Syngenta, is awarded for excellence in environmental farming and conservation on a commercial Warwickshire farm.

As well as retaining and managing such features for wildlife as woodlands, ponds and hedges Thomas has also taken an archaeological feature out of cultivation.   Winter bird seed plots, beetle banks and pollen and nectar mixes have been introduced to the farm and Tom uses grass leys to help control black grass and on arable headlands to improve arable gross margins, field operation efficiency and improve soil structure.

Hatton Farms hosts regular visits from schools and bird surveys.

Thomas Maynard was presented with the Forsyth Lapwing Trophy to retain for one year plus a Syngenta seed mixes voucher by south Warwickshire farmer Anthony Forsyth.  The runner up for 2019 was Jonathan Hince, Farm Manager of HJ and CF Beecham of Tidmington, near Shipston on Stour.

The judges of the Forsyth Lapwing Trophy are Belinda Bailey, Sustainable Farming Manager with Syngenta and Hugh Darbishire, a Warwickshire farmer and former winner of the Trophy.

Photo: Left to Right – Jonathan Hince, Anthony Forsyth, Thomas Maynard

A walk around Hodnell Manor near Ladbroke on the evening of 25 June 2019 demonstrated just why the farm won the prestigious Forsyth Lapwing Award, sponsored by Syngenta, in 2018.  The Award rewards farmers who have demonstrated integration of wildlife conservation alongside commercial agricultural activity on a Warwickshire farm.

Nearly 50 Rural Hub members joined the tour led by farmer Rebecca Sunang-Joret and assisted by Farm Conservation Adviser, Bob Slater.  Rebecca and Bob explained how wildflower and seed plots had increased the number of farmland birds and how wildlife corridors ensured that wildlife was able to move around the farm.  Networking between neighbours has resulted in adjoining farms also improving their own land for wildlife.

Following the walk we are feasted on Napton Buffalo Burgers supplied by Forsyth Lapwing Award sponsors Syngenta and further networking took place between farmer members of the Hub.

Twenty five Hub members visited Fenny Compton tunnels on 6 June 2019, which is an area managed by Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire. Led by volunteer Mike Slater we heard how the group’s work in the county has ensured that 13 rare butterflies are thriving in Warwickshire. Mike gave members advice on how we could encourage butterflies to our own land by growing plants such as creeping cinquefoil, wild strawberry and birds foot trefoil. We also saw a common blue, a grizzled skipper and a brimstone, to name a few.  One of the Hub members said “the wildflower range for phenomenal for such a small area” and another commented “a fantastic opportunity to see the key conservation work being undertaken in Warwickshire”.

Thank you Mike for leading us through such a fascinating and beautiful area.

The Rural Hub would like to thank Richard Meredith at AHDB for organising the visit, Rob Fox for hosting us and Phil Bicknell for joining the tour.

Thank you to Sheldon Bosley Knight, Ellacotts and Rosconn Strategic Land for sponsoring our Diversification via Development event on 30 April 2019 and providing the speakers. We had a fantastic turnout of over 80 delegates who learned all about promotion agreements, Class Q permitted development rights and considering those all important tax implications. And the bacon baps provided a great networking opportunity!