nufsaid

Browse by Tags

• ag
• agricultural science
• Agriculture
• Australia
• australian agriculture
• badger cull
• badgers
• bananas
• barramundi
• BBC
• Brad
• Canada
• CAP
• Caroline Spelman
• cattle
• Celebrities
• cheese
• Chicago
• Communication
• communications
• Conference
• corn
• Countryside
• cows
• dairy
• DEFRA
• election
• emu
• Europe
• farm
• Farmers
• Farmers Weekly
• festival
• fish
• fishing
• Flooding
• floods
• Food
• FW
• general election
• genetics
• German
• Glastonbury
• GM
• goats
• Government
• Guelph
• Gwyn Jones
• harvest
• Illinois
• India
• Indian agriculture
• internet
• Ireland
• Jim Evans
• Lib Dems
• Liberal Democrats
• Lincolnshire
• London
• magazines
• Marty
• matthew naylor
• media
• milk
• Music
• New Media
• NFU
• nfu conference
• Nocton
• Nuffield
• Nuffield Scholarship
• Organic
• Pennsylvania
• Peter Kendall
• pigs
• Politics
• Queen
• Queensland
• queensland floods
• radio
• rain
• research
• RPA
• science
• sheep
• tb
• Television
• tomatoes
• Torquay
• Travel
• Twitter
• United States
• University of Guelph
• University of Illinois
• war
• weather
• Weird
• yfc
• yfc agm
• young farmers

• How farming can butter up journalists

  The past few weeks have been very quiet in Farmers Weekly Towers. At one point, there were so few people in the office that I was worried I’d got confused and accidentally come to work on a Sunday. The supply of serious news always tail off during... Posted Aug 17 2011, 01:36 PM by NufSaid Select Tags... SaveCancel Filed under: Farmers Weekly, Agriculture, farming, media, cows, Weird, Yvonne, butter, NFU Mutual, bavaria [Edit Tags]

• The mega WI

  “You youngsters like things big,” the old dear in the back of the taxi said to me yesterday morning, sucking in her cheeks. “We prefer small things – small businesses, small farms. “Whole villages will be ripped up to make... Posted Jun 09 2011, 09:17 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, Communication, farming, farm, Food, ag, WI, mega farm, factory farm, womens institute, large-scale farming [Edit Tags]

• Naked ambition

  I have an confession to make. If you were at the Farmers Club lunch in London yesterday listening to me speak, in my head you were starkers. Yep, that’s right – completely nakey. Even the tablecloth didn’t spare your blushes. Imagining... Posted Apr 05 2011, 01:25 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Farmers, Agriculture, Communication, London, farming, Nuffield, Farmers Club, emu, public speaking, naked [Edit Tags]

• The language of the CAP

  I can’t remember any German when I need it, but every time I come to French-speaking Brussels it seems to be the only language that leaves my mouth. Having got off the Eurostar I couldn’t even seem to remember how to ask where the taxi rank was in English... Posted Mar 28 2011, 09:21 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, Communication, farming, NFU, Government, CAP, Europe, German, dacian ciolos, Brussels, french, language, common agricultural policy [Edit Tags]

• Doing porridge for a farm photo

  When I was on holiday in Florida a couple of years ago, I managed to convince my friends to pull our hire car over so I could stop off to take some photos of an orange grove. Not being farmer-types, they had a bit of a whinge about the delay. They couldn’t... Posted Mar 09 2011, 04:43 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, Weird, America, United States, Politics, farm, Food, ag, photography, law, Florida, farm access, photos, prison [Edit Tags]

• The funny side of farming

  I managed to hold it together until the stereo started blaring out “Where’s your sausage gone?” to the tune of ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep’. It was at that point – stood outside Downing Street in front of a 16ft, shiny... Posted Mar 04 2011, 09:21 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Farmers, Agriculture, London, farming, Weird, Celebrities, farm, Food, Government, pigs, BPEX, giant sausage, sausage, pig [Edit Tags]

• Sausage signings

  Tomorrow I’m going to be spending seven hours in central London with a load of pig farmers, an ex-Atomic Kitten, an ice-skating Gladiator, a 15ft sausage and a load of marker pens. I am a serious journalist… I am a serious journalist…... Posted Mar 02 2011, 05:39 PM by NufSaid Filed under: London, farming, Weird, Celebrities, Food [Edit Tags]

• A possible hairy situation for the NFU

  Dear oh dear. I can’t image the NFU team are a bunch of happy bunnies at the moment. Having given DEFRA secretary Caroline Spelman a telling off this week for not taking farming seriously enough, this morning it’s emerged government plans for a badger... Posted Feb 18 2011, 08:33 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, NFU, Gwyn Jones, Peter Kendall, Politics, Food, badger cull, badgers, DEFRA, Caroline Spelman, ag, bovine TB, National Farmers Uniona [Edit Tags]

• The day I met a proper journalist

  Had I not chosen a career path which had taken me down a bizarre route into a niche avenue of journalism, I would have like to have become a proper writer on a national newspaper. Like John Pilger, perhaps. Or Jay Rayner. Y’know, Jay Rayner. The... Posted Feb 16 2011, 08:48 AM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, Organic, farming, Celebrities, Food, Television, journalism, TV, Jay Rayner, knorr, marco pierre white [Edit Tags]

• The DEFRA love-in turns sour

  After the glamour of the Soil Association conference in Manchester last week, this week I’m at the NEC in Birmingham for the National Farmers Union’s annual meeting. With no general election on the immediate horizon, union president Peter... Posted Feb 15 2011, 06:24 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, Conference, farming, NFU, Peter Kendall, nfu conference, Politics, farm, Food, Government, food production, DEFRA, Caroline Spelman, ag, Food 2030, Hilary Benn [Edit Tags]

• “It’s starting to blow a bit”

  If I was living in Queensland I’d be starting to wonder who I’d annoyed. After much of the southern part of the state was declared a disaster zone earlier last month thanks to some of the worst flooding ever seen, northern Queensland is now... Posted Feb 02 2011, 08:39 AM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, Travel, Food, Australia, weather, Marty, bananas, barramundi, Queensland, Flooding, Innisfail, Cyclone Yasi, Anna Bligh [Edit Tags]

• Settling back in

  I’ve avoided blogging for a week or so, partly to give you a rest and partly because I didn’t trust myself not to just whinge about the fact that England is BLOODY FREEZING. In just 24 hours on a plane I lost 35 degrees. Seriously, I don’t... Posted Feb 01 2011, 04:02 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Farmers Weekly, London, farming, Travel, Australia, CAP, sun, FW, spring, weather, hobbit, shoes, iced coffee, cold [Edit Tags]

• The end is nigh

  So this is it. After three countries, 101 days, 41 different towns and cities, seven changes in time zone and more than 100 blog posts, I’m on my way home. I’ve met some amazing people along the way, visited incredible farms and businesses... Posted Jan 20 2011, 11:43 AM by NufSaid Filed under: farming, Nuffield, Travel, farm, Australia, fishing, Grand Prix, flood, Flooding, Tim Tams [Edit Tags]

• Water, water everywhere

  Some more flood photos, this time from a friend of a friend’s farm near Rockhampton, another of the areas to have taken a battering this week: Note the pig on the shed roof on this one: Most of the flood waters have receded now and the clean-up... Posted Jan 15 2011, 11:06 PM by NufSaid Filed under: farming, Food, Australia, Queensland, floods, Flooding, queensland floods, rockhampton [Edit Tags]

• I’ve had a go at describing what the floods are like over in Queensland, but this email I received today from past Nuffield scholar Ronald Thompson gives a better impression of what farmers are going through over in the worst-hit areas. Ronald farms... Posted Jan 14 2011, 11:38 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, Food, Australia, Queensland, floods, Flooding, queensland floods [Edit Tags]

• Spuds at Spud’s

  I’ve come to the conclusion I’ll have to start wearing platform shoes if I spend any more time on farms. I understand the need for giant cars when you’re driving across bumpy and muddy terrain, but does the clutch on four-wheel drive... Posted Jan 13 2011, 04:17 AM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, Travel, Food, Australia, australian agriculture, planting, potatoes, western potatoes [Edit Tags]

• Floody hell

  I’ve mentioned the rain and floods several times over the past few weeks and months, but things have started to get scary over here in Australia. This is Toowoomba, where I drove through in December: Over the past couple of days, Toowoomba has received... Posted Jan 12 2011, 01:02 PM by NufSaid Filed under: farming, Travel, Food, Australia, rain, Queensland, Brisbane, toowoomba, floods, Flooding [Edit Tags]

• Having brainwashed his children into realising the joys of Robin Hood (oo-de-lally), I’ve left Rob’s pad to travel three hours south-west to a place called Busselton. As well as some fantastic beaches and scenery, Busselton is home to Ed Cox... Posted Jan 09 2011, 11:51 PM by NufSaid Filed under: farming [Edit Tags]

• Watery extremes

  Having heard about nothing but rain for the last two-and-a-bit months, today I finally got a taste of what things are like on the other side of Australia. Flood waters are expected to peak today in Rockhampton and Bundaberg - two of the towns I’ve... Posted Jan 02 2011, 01:34 AM by NufSaid Filed under: farming [Edit Tags]

• Boxing Day races

  What could be better than spending your Boxing Day going to see the start of the famous Sydney to Hobart yacht race? Shame this was all we managed to see of it: Unfortunately, Princess and I assumed the ships would set sail in the harbour, so didn’t... Posted Dec 26 2010, 12:05 AM by NufSaid Filed under: farming [Edit Tags]

• A Christmas orphan

  I’ve flown back to Sydney, bringing Christmas to Bondi Beach. No, the other cards didn’t arrive in time. It’d had better be sunny on Saturday or I’m going to be mightily narked I’m missing quality bingo prizes, mouldy carpets... Posted Dec 23 2010, 11:34 PM by NufSaid Filed under: farming [Edit Tags]

• A load of abalone

  Every year when me and my sister were little we would go up the road to my grandparent’s for Christmas day. Aside from my grandad’s amazing stuffing (I still regret not ever finding out the recipe), chocolate eclairs and fancily-cut tomatoes... Posted Dec 19 2010, 11:18 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, Food, Australia, kangaroo island, abalone [Edit Tags]

• Blending in with the greenery on Kangaroo Island

  I’ve been experimenting with a new look today. Nice, eh? Obviously, this is Grotbags and not me. As if I’d wear a hat like that. I’m referring more to the green skin. It’s a good look, and one I managed to achieve pretty well thanks... Posted Dec 18 2010, 10:40 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, Travel, Food, Australia, Government, fishing, ferry, fisherman, seasick, grotbags, Kangeroo Island, china, cray fish [Edit Tags]

• Getting stuck into bee-keeping

  I don’t know whether all guests get this treatment or whether it was just reserved for me, but I was greeted today by a Nuffield chum armed with a roll of duct tape and a pair of rubber gloves. It’s not as weird as it sounds. Or not quite... Posted Dec 16 2010, 10:57 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, Nuffield, Travel, Food, Australia, bees, Tintinara, apiarist, Apiary [Edit Tags]

• A floody good time in Keith

  Bearing in mind the amount of rain I’ve seen in Australia so far, it’s hard to get my head around the idea that the land is not usually so green and irrigation systems are vital to crop production. The farm I’m currently staying on is... Posted Dec 16 2010, 01:22 AM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, Nuffield, Travel, Australia, lucerne, Keith, flood irrigation [Edit Tags]