An internet radio station that involves volunteers in making programmes is keeping farmers in touch. Dorset and Somerset Farm Radio – www.farmradio.org.uk – is the brainchild of Trevor Bailey and John Holman, of Somerset’s rural media charity, Trilith, which is best known for its preservation and showing of old film footage in our village halls. The idea for Farm Radio arose after John and Trevor heard from farming families that the closure of virtually all of Dorset’s livestock markets had led to the loss of business and social contact. This was made worse by massive changes in farming and pressure on family farms. Says Trevor:
“We wanted to find a way of helping farming families keep in touch with their own kind and with developments and other people’s experiences in agriculture.”

Each month a new edition of Farm Radio is available to listen to online at any time. All previous programmes also remain on the site.

Professional farming journalists and local volunteers from farming backgrounds make the programmes, which range from up-to-the-minute farming issues and stories about farmers and their approach to the future to poetry, music and sheer fun. Farm Radio aims to take a positive view of farming.

Farm Radio has also developed links with County Limerick in Ireland and is about to launch a children’s version of the website, Future Farming Voices.

• Anyone with a farming background or interest who would like to work in their own community as a correspondent should contact Trilith on 01747 840750 or 840727.

Edition 36, May 2007

AN INTERVIEW with new South West NFU director Melanie Hall can be heard in the latest edition of Farm Radio, an internet-based station for Dorset and Somerset farmers and all those interested in the countryside.

Farming journalist Geoff Pagotto talks to Melanie about the NFU’s plans for the future and you can hear it by logging on to www.farmradio.org.uk

Meanwhile, in Dorset, outspoken farmer and writer Robin Page talks to Celia Messer, from Blandford; farmer Andrew Frampton runs the village pub at Broadwindsor for a week; Kingston Maurward principal David Henley talks about the college’s developing role; Ali Grant finds out about the Holt Discussion Group and we hear the first part of James Crowden’s interview with Jim Webber, now 104, from Stoke Abbott.

What’s in Farm Radio Edition 36

1. Welcome
John Holman welcomes you to Edition 36 of Farm Radio.

2. Melanie Hall talks about future plans
Geoff Pagotto has an introductory piece with new South West NFU Director, Melanie Hall, who has taken over from Anthony Gibson, on the Dorset page of this edition but here, he talks to her about the NFUs plans for the future.

3. Farming 2020
Tom Levitt spent much of his time at the last Oxford Conference gathering predictions for the future shape of farming in 2020, starting with David Milliband.

4. Chris Coxon of MDC
Make spare time and get off the farm is the message from Chris Coxon. He wants more dairy farmers to meet as groups, share knowledge and here he tells Geoff Pagotto a lot can be learnt from just a few hours break every other month.

5. A Cumbrian Hill Farmer
Roger Crisp talks to a Cumbrian hill farmer about the special conditions and challenges to be faced farming at up to 1,000 feet with a climate that leans more to the winter than we have further south.

6. Steve Paul
Somerset-based cattle foot trimmer wants farmers to think preventative when it comes to cows’ feet - Geoff Pagotto caught up with Steve in Dorset and also from Sturminster Newton farmer Mark Tuffin during one of Steve's cattle lameness workshops.

7. Lantra Conference
The Land Based Sector Skills Agreement is the very bureaucratic sounding title for a subject that will touch all farming and countryside people - education. Geoff Pagotto went to its regional launch in Cannington and heard what it means from movers and shakers - Malcolm Gillespie from the LSC, Dr Gordon McGlone of LANTRA, Dr Fred Harper from the SW Food and Farming Futures Group and Ross Etherington from the TUC UnionLearn.

8. Milk Contracts
Tips and pointers from dairy discussion groups are what Geoff Pagotto hears from Chris Coxon, particularly about turn out and milk contracts.

9. Izzy’s Trip to Canada, Part 2
John Burgess finds out more about Izzy’s Canadian trip.

Dorset

1. Introducing Melanie Hall
Geoff Pagotto introduces the new NFU South West Regional Director, Melanie Hall who, he finds out, is no stranger to Dorset having been among other things a member of the steering group which set up “Chalk and Cheese”, Farm Radio’s major source of support in Dorset.

2. John Randall
Celia Messer speaks to John Randall, no stranger to Farm Radio, at the Dorchester Show about his involvement with the show over the years, his writing and his thoughts on successfully showing sheep.

3. Sturts Farm
In 1940, a Viennese paediatrician called Dr Karl Konig set up the first of what is now 50 communities supporting vulnerable children and adults. The first community was called Camphill House and was based in Aberdeen, but the name Camphill is now linked to all the communities that can be found right across the UK and in the Republic of Ireland. Sturts Farm near the village of West Moors in South East Dorset was set up as a working farm to give young adults with special needs the chance to learn about all aspects of agriculture and food production. Ali Grant visited Sturts Farm one very wet day where she was shown around by office manager Vivienne Hill, but first she met the farm manager, Markus Konig, who explained the farm set up.

4. Andrew Frampton, Landord (Temporarily) of the White Lion
Is there anything our hero farmer Andrew Frampton won’t try? Oscar Wilde, or was it George Bernard Shaw, once offered “Try everything once - apart from country dancing and incest”. Well, Andrew was not going to turn down the chance of running a pub while the licensees went on a well-earned break. Margery Hookings gets the whole story down at the White Lion in Broadwindsor.

5. Dan, part 2
Continued from Edition 35, Brigid Hillier carries on her conversation with Dan, perhaps the youngest farmer in the Levels and Moors area.

6. Ian and Denise Bell’s new farm
Fancy moving farm lock, stock and barrel? Well Ian and Denise Bell, the biodynamic farming couple, had to move out of one tenancy and into a new one. A month on and the dust is just settling. Geoff Pagotto discovered a tired but invigorated couple, full of plans for the future.

7. Hunt Supporters’ Skittles
Celia Messer visited a skittles league fixture to hear from the contestants about their determination to keep the hunt supporters’ networks alive and kicking.

8. Loaders
When Al and Nikki Wingate-Saul took over Loaders grocery shop in Sturminster Newton last summer, they decided to leave things as they were for a few months to give customers the chance to get used to the shop’s new owners. But with a passion for fine and local food - and Al’s family farm just down the road at Lydlinch being well placed to supply the shop with beef - they recently embarked on a complete refit and restock of the shop. Despite the work he’s having to put into the shop, Al also still works on the farm, and Ali Grant visited him at Loaders to find out why he’s branched out in this way and what his plans are for the new shop, which as well as changes in stock also include giving it a new name - Holbrooks - named after the family farm.
If you’re a local food producer and would like to see your food being sold in Holbrooks, Al and Nikki would love to meet you at their shop at Market Place, Sturminster Newton

9. Robin Page
Outspoken doesn’t seem to quite describe Robin Page. Whatever you may feel about his views there is no doubting his passion for the countryside and rural communities. Celia Messer took the opportunity to interview Robin when he was the speaker at a meeting of the Cerne Sheep Group.

10. Holt Agricultural Discussion Club
Farming has to be about the most isolated occupation you can get, which is one of the reasons why many farmers get great support from going to groups like the Holt Agricultural Discussion Club. Set up initially during the Second World War so that farmers could learn about the new technologies needed to provide food for the nation, these groups now play a different role in this age of forced diversification. Ali Grant joined the members of the Holt group to find out why it's still so important to them today.

11. David Henley
Geoff Pagotto talks to David Henley, principal of Kingston Maurward College, Dorchester, about the developing rôle of the college, its proactive policies and something of his personal commitment.

12. James Webber, Part 1
Continuing with our series of interviews that made up James Crowden’s “Dorset Man” book, here is the first part of James Webber’s story where he talks about his early days. In his case this means before the First World War!