Farmer Focus: Imagine a farmer on Dragons’ Den

I had a fascinating two days at Cereals, which seemed to be a success despite concerns regarding the venue.

Obviously, it took the usual time to get in and it poured with rain on the second morning.

But it didn’t seem to put people off and probably benefitted the farm looking at the Niab soil pit that revealed an extraordinary amount of crushed paving slabs about 20cm down.

See also: Potato trials show little benefit from NUE products

About the author

Andy Barr

Andy Barr farms 320ha in mid-Kent, aiming to farm as regeneratively as possible. He stopped ploughing 25 years ago and over this time restructured the business with less land farmed and increased the use of contractors, environmental areas and diversification projects.

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I enjoyed as much as ever chatting about research I’ll probably never see the benefit of and the various new varieties, machinery and fertilisers available.

But back home in the office, looking at the figures, it has never been so apparent that, unfortunately, we now need to be a diversified rural business rather than just a farm.

A number of lovely arable units have recently come up for sale around the country, but can you imagine a farmer, perhaps of average farmer-in-the-UK age and a recent host of the Cereals event, entering Dragons’ Den in an effort to raise a few million for such a purchase?

It might start with a chap called Kaleb attempting to demo an agricultural robot, only to start swearing when it doesn’t work and the remote diagnosis identifies the need for a new motherboard that’s on back order from Germany.

“Have you tried turning it off and on again,” pipes up a derisory Bartlett, while Suleyman glances down the row in confusion.

Then enters Jeremy the farmer, who enthusiastically spouts forth on the joys of grain carting before his faithful figures man, Charlie, explains how, although they might well lose money in the first few years, there is certainly a chance of breaking even in the future, provided of course the weather and politicians behave themselves.

At this stage, Meaden struggles to choke down a laugh, Jones throws down his pen in disgust and the two hopefuls depart down the lift, unsuccessful.

“We may as well have sent Gerald in to do the presentation,” mumbles a disgruntled Jeremy.