Will’s World: The class of 1901 can teach us a thing or two

The majority of my time over the past few weeks has been spent in a tractor cab sowing winter barley, but I did manage to escape for a day last week to scrub up and attend the launch of Harper Adams’ 125th anniversary celebrations.

As an alumnus it holds a very special place in my heart, and I was proud, if a little nervous, to be co-host for the afternoon with my good friend and colleague on the board of governors, Barbara Bray.

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It crossed my mind that if I could tell the young man who barely got through his first year HND Agriculture exams way back in 2000 that 26 years later he’d be standing on a stage addressing various VIPs and attempting to make mildly amusing remarks to an audience of 250, including HRH the Princess Royal, he’d have looked at me like I had two heads. But I suppose this is what happens when you’re appallingly bad at saying no to things.

See the fact that I have numerous adolescent daughters for further evidence of this – enough said.

Choir practice

Speaking of them, part of my duties for the day was to interview several Harper alumni members of the Hawkstone Farmers Choir live on stage.

It isn’t easy for a chronically uncool farmer dad to impress his haughty teenage offspring, but when I casually dropped into conversation that I’d be doing this, they were mightily impressed.

I’m not sure which is the greater achievement, winning Britain’s Got Talent, raising a small fortune for farming mental health and wellbeing charities, or causing cynical teenagers to be awestruck for a few minutes.

Either way, they’re doing an incredible job in representing the very best of farming communities, and it was a privilege to meet them all.

Being an anniversary bash, the marquee was filled with brilliantly designed displays highlighting the rich history of the institution, while also showcasing the cutting-edge robotic technology currently being designed and built by the boffins there.

Regular readers of this page won’t be surprised to learn that I was far more drawn to the Ferguson TE20 than I was to the shiny self-driving solar-panel-bedecked moonbuggy-looking thing next to it, but I can’t help being a history nerd.

I know which of them will still be going in another 125 years’ time, by the way.

But the thing I enjoyed the most was looking at the many black and white photos taken in the early years of the 20th century, from typical farming scenes to groups of youthful Edwardian students staring intently into the camera.

I did lean in close to see if I could hear them whispering “carpe diem” to me, and if you’ve never seen the film Dead Poets Society, then you won’t know what I’m talking about, but if you have, well, I’m still hoping that someone will address me as “O Captain! My Captain!” one day.

Turn of the century

Were those young people in 1901 very different to today’s youth? Almost certainly not.

I expect they were excited about the future and confident they could make an impact in an industry that was then in the depths of a prolonged economic crisis driven by cheap foreign grain imports and a government that steadfastly stuck to a free trade stance.

Many farmers were then shifting away from labour-intensive arable crops toward livestock, dairy and poultry farming, which faced less severe competition. I wonder how many of those early students were part of this movement.

There were, as there are now, great opportunities in adversity.

Happy anniversary Harper Adams, here’s to the next 125 years.