As part of Farmers Weekly's 75th anniversary we're launching a major series to identify some farming 'greats'. In this thread, in association with Browns of Wem Ltd,  we are turning the spotlight on the greatest farming figures. Feel free to put any suggestions forward now.

Anyone who puts forward a suggestion for a category will have their name entered into a prize draw to win a free subscription to Farmers Weekly. There will be a prize draw for each of the six categories that are running.

We asked some of the FW writers to put forward some suggestions and here is a brief taster. But what we really want to know is what you think.

James Turner (Lord Netherthorpe)

James Turner was a big man physically and academically. He became national NFU president in 1945 - a position he held for 15 years, making him the longest serving president in the union's history. He led a small team that negotiated the 1947 Agriculture Act with Labour agriculture minister Tom Williams. Its objective was "to promote a stable and efficient industry capable of producing such part of the nation's food as in the national interest it is desirable to produce in the UK".

Lady Eve Balfour

Lady Eve Balfour was a visionary. A farming pioneer, she was a founding figure in the organic movement. Her book called The Living Soil, is arguably the most significant publication agriculture has ever known. It struck a chord with a great many farmers and within three years Lady Eve co-founded the Soil Association. Since that time the association has built on Lady Eve's vision, promoting, lobbying and publicising organic farming and food and creating a multi-billion pound industry.

Tom Williams  -(Baron Williams of Barnburgh)

Tom Williams was probably the most popular agriculture minister British farmers have ever had. He was agriculture minister from 1945 to 1951, a period encompassing the 1947 Agriculture Act - legislation which encouraged farmers to produce more food and rewarded them with high prices for decades to come. Determined that the country would never again face the threat of starvation seen during the war, the Agriculture Act enshrined a system of deficiency payments and guaranteed prices of the kind that could only be dreamed of today.

The Queen Mother

The Queen Mother was a quiet and consistent advocate of agriculture. She helped instil a passion for agriculture in her grandson, Charles - but, while his views have polarised opinion and caused controversy, hers brought unity. The Queen Mother was admitted an Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Butchers in 1976, maintaining a bond with the monarchy that dated back centuries.

Henry Plumb - (Baron Plumb of Coleshill)

One man deserves this accolade - Henry Plumb. Well into his 80s now, his career has seen him combine a life in farming with high-profile public roles, among them spells leading the NFU and the European Parliament. He's worked tirelessly for farmers and farming, equally at ease among top politicians and world leaders as local farmers in his beloved home county of Warwickshire. Staunchly pro-European, he's been a reliable and tireless champion for agriculture in the House of Lords since being made a life peer in 1987. In an age where cynicism about our politicans is rife, Henry Plumb remains one respected for his integrity. He's often referred to in the Lords as "Mr Agriculture". And that says it all really.

Sir Winston Churchill

"Thirty million people all living on an island where we produce enough food for, say, fifteen million, is a spectacle of majesty and insecurity this country can ill afford." Winston Churchill said this in 1953.  As well as being one of Britain's greatest leaders, Churchill is the greatest champion our industry has ever had. He understood and practised farming, and he identified how vital a consistent food supply was to a nation state.

John Cherrington

John Cherrington was a towering figure in every sense.  Before starting to farm in his own right in Hampshire in the 1930s he cut his teeth working as a young man on farms in New Zealand and South America. The "dog and stick" techniques he learned there proved to be ideal training for farming in Hampshire between the wars. He became a pioneer of low-cost dairying and extensive arable farming. But most of all, Cherrington was a witty, independent writer and broadcaster about farming matters over a 40-year career.

Me!

~Meggiewes~

What about Jimmy Docherty? He did some TV shows on the countryside...

~Meggiewes~

This is probably the wrong thing to say and im not much of a lover of TV chefs but..... I must sau these ARE NOT the greatest farming figures of the past 75 years however i think they may have slightly contributed in getting farming recognised.

Gordon Ramsay - didnt he rear sheep and the like....brings an element of farming to our screens and trys to show people where our food comes from and that food shouldnt be just be 'just food'.

Marco Pierre White - Bit of a **** but he shows himself shooting and the like....bringing it more at home to people about where our food comes from

Jimmy doherty - Did quite a bit but again, TV.

The problem i think with the above as there often driven by money.....it adds variety to there programme making more people watch which in turn makes them more money!

jamie oliver  has to be the one who got school kitchens back to british produce to school kids, got the backing of the government, food for miles club?

I have been struggling with this one and resorted to Wikipedia (I know) to see who was born in 1934, no one on 22nd June.

1934 was the birth year of

• Gloria Steinem of feminist stance (agricultural influence to see women in farming?) 
• Yuri Gagarin the first man into space (the seminal image that saw the planet photographed from the moon on 24th December 1968, the only colour in all space).
• Ralph Nader (the consumerism champion)
• Mary Quant (the fashion Queen)
• Wendell Berry ( a particular hero of mine, a poet and commentator on agriculture)
• Brigitte Bardot (well I am aboy of a certain age and she certainly inspired me)

A wonderful bunch, I am still no further forward on the greatest farming figure. At present I am stuck on Sir George Stapledon. I will ruminate further before I cast my vote.

Here's three mighty chaps for you to consider:

Rex Patterson: buck rake, fertiliser spreader, strip grazed low cost production from dairy cows etc etc.

Anthony Rosen: Big dairy units, outside finance, Corporate farming, way way ahead of his time!

John E Moffit: Hunday herd, single-handedly saved UK dairy genetics from oblivion (well almost).

Just some of many farming heros

Bon courage,

JC.

The Greatest Farming Figure it is for me Gerrit Marsman, the man who had the courage to fight his father and transforme a conventional farm in a organic farm.Gerrit not only made his farm organic, but he is also following all the principles of organic farming, truly and fairly. His farm is a open to all who want to learn about eco friendly agriculture and way of life.He is the living prove that it is possible to be a farmer and still to follow your principles.Meeting him was a turning point in my life and made me a better person.

How about a trio of George Stapledon, R Boutflour and A G Street?   The first two gave us the bases of modern grassland and dairy cow management, while the third put the farmer's pov to the public in a never-to be equalled way.   (That he also managed to acquire well deserved financial stability into the bargain shows what can be done by a good practical farmer)

TonyW 

tonyw:

A G Street

Yes. Top man. There does seem to be a bias to grass and dairy, I wonder if that says something. I have put hands up on this and am stuggling I think Derek Barber is worth consideration as well. At present I am batting with Stapledon, Barber and Street.

Guy Smith from Essex has emailed me with this following contribution.

The greatest farming figure of the last 75 years is Colonel Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith. He was born in 1899 and after a brief but distinguished military career serving on the north-west frontier ( that's the Pakistan/ Afghanistan border today) he was invalided out and took a farm in the Surrey hills. He became NFU president in 1936 at the young age of 37. At the time it was the constitutional rule for NFU Presidents to serve just one year but the membership implored him to do another year and happily waived the rule when he agreed. He was elected an MP in 1936 and became Minister for Agriculture in 1939. He is the only man to have held both posts of NFU President and Minister of Agriculture. Dorman Smith's contribution to British agriculture in the twentieth century cannot be over-estimated. In the second half of the 1930s, largely under his influence, the Government reversed its policy of ignoring the importance of home agriculture by relying on imports.

In this period we imported 70% of our food. It was as Minister of Agriculture in 1939 that Dorman-Smith argued with Churchill at Cabinet ( Churchill was then Lord of the Admiralty) over Churchill's proposal for the mass slaughter British livestock and a build up imported stocks of food. Instead Dorman Smith proposed the ‘plough up' campaign where farmers were given cash incentives to produce more food and grants to invest in new technologies. Thus farming became the third line of defence against the Nazi threat. Also in 1939 Dorman Smith placed a large Government order for thousands of Fordson tractors, and it was this initiative that led to the first sight of the tractor in many British farm yards. The irony for Dorman Smith was that when Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940 he was petulantly booted out of office for having to have dared to object to Churchill's less than visionary ideas for the future of British agriculture. It was ill-reward for a man who laid down the basis for the policy of "producing more from our own resources" that was to colour government thinking for half a century and a shabby was to treat a man who had the vision to kick start the "mechanisation" revolution that went on to transform British farming.

Ted Sclater has emailed me this nomination:
I feel you should consider Harry Ridley for your farming 'greats '. Those of my peers in the farming world will be full of thanks for Harry Ridley for not only promoting the then infant Mule breed in the 60's through to the present day in the UK, but also, and  more importantly, for the invention of the revolutionary Ridley Rappa fencing system in 1970 and being manufactured in quantity  to the present day and now sold all over the world.( now known as Rappa fencing ). Without this unique fencing system the world wide sheep industry and other livestock species too  - pigs -cattle - ducks - horses - hens - goats and more, would be the poorer for it.As an innovator, he put large flock sheep keeping back within arable/ grass rotations on farms in the UK with his fencing systems.
When Harry died last year, there were many letters of heartfelt thanks from the farming industry, not only in the UK, but from all over the world - an overwhelming thank-you for all his good work.

 I believe that the Greatest Farming Figure of the past 75 years is John Bingham – arguably the pioneer of modern wheat breeding.

 I was going to be cheesey and say my dad who I wasn't sure if was the same age as the FW but worked out he's 3 years younger.

These came from Ian Dickenson in South Australia:

Sir Dorman-smith may actually have saved britain from starvation and surrender, more important than the "few" or the royal navy.

Without the plough up campaign and early recognition of the threat, we would have been doomed.

A predecessor tenant in this farm campaigned for home production and fair treatment for tenants before ww1, but failed, although he lived to see the near famine of 1917.

Professor Wynne Jones, soon to be retired, Priciple of Harper Adams University College. No one has done more to encourage, inspire and nurture up and coming agricultural talent.

My Father Wilfred Ernest Hill.

He did many a thing in his 82 years of farming.

He demonstrated sheep shearing for the young farmers,he designed a plan for a potaton planter (he never took it anywere),he supplied Ambrosia with milk for a while,He ran his own dairy,he whipped in for the Dulverton East for a long time.

Tim.Relf:

Ted Sclater has emailed me this nomination:
I feel you should consider Harry Ridley for your farming 'greats

Well I share a surname here, but nothing else, certainly not able to fit this man's shoes. Also know Ted so thought a response a sound thing to do.

What is depressing is the number of the people nominated are political and not scientists. Agriculture is a science. I think some of these good folk mentioned are indeed wonderful but have left more problems than answers.

I think with this 'greatest' panel it is possible that some can sit across the lot like Ferguson. I think that they should be only 'allowed' one shot at glory.

Therefore I think plant breeding is the great innovation, notably dwarfing wheat (so regrettably trumps the men who did).

I am still inclined to A G Street as farming figure. This is based on history shows us that poets are remembered more than politicians. Street was/is a poet, which is to say a great communicator of agricultural science to the bottom feeders like me.

One in by post:

I see Tom Williams has been chosen as a farming great; always remembered for introducing the 1947 Act. I think the first Labour Minister of Agriculture deserves some credit. He was Dr Christopher Addison (1930-31). Laster as Lord Addison he produced a policy for agriculture; a hardback stamped ‘for the left book club only, not for publication.' In his forward he writes "when travelling across the country as Minister it grieved me to see vast areas of farmland derelict and abandoned to scrubland." At the same time millions of families in the industrial areas were suffering from starvation and malnutrition and thought "why not put this land into better use growing health food." I will not go into the details of his book but in his summary he says "the purpose of these policies is to produce an abundant supply of food for the nation at advantageous prices."

In 1938 war clouds appeared, the government of the day took note and introduced the £2 an acre ploughing grant to bring the land back into production (£2 was a farm worker's weekly wage). We all know what happened after that, Labour came into power. Most of these policies were the foundation of the 1947 Act. Addison also wrote about access to the countryside and national parks saying the heaths and moorlands should be opened to all people from towns and industrial areas to enjoy exercise and get fresh air into their lungs.

Now almost 92 I have been a regular reader for over 70 years. I met James Turner and Henry Plumb as they were then. I also attended the NFU Annual Dinner when Winston Churchill was guest speaker, his opening words were "Never have I seen so many farmers gathered together - not in their working kit." (Great laughter).

Best wishes for the future and thank you all for supporting agriculture.

Kenneth Lewis

Flintshire

Michael Wale emailed in this:

I would support Tom Williams, the only Min of Ag who supported farming, ironically he was a Labour MP, but there you are. He supported farmers and saw to their interests in the House of Commons. Who could name todays Min of Ag? 

I know Prof Jones and many of his staff at Harper Adams UC. If you also knew him I would suggest he would not even figure on the list of candidates.

Many of the lecturers would take a similar view. I am sorry by The Prof was far too interested in building an empire of his own to qualify. H

tom parker

Henry is a popular staring point. I would plump for Plumb if he had not been so pro-European. I voted against the UK joining and would do so again given a chance. The UK is not part of Europe, either historically or culturally, and even geographically is stretching a point or two. Ferguson is a clear winner in the Innovations category so I go along with Motley that he should be barred from this one. That leaves Brewis. If you cannot laugh at yourself through his works, especially keeping sheep, of which I had 1500 in Oz, then you lack a sense of humour and maybe should not be farming.

Some of the nominees, as in the Innovations nominations, did not directly benefit all farmers (great respect for John Moffitt, but how many of us have dairy farms?) so on an all round basis, and given his many rôles over many years, I think it has to be Lord Plumb despite his European leanings.