Farm Gate

Wakelyns is an inspirational organic farm in Suffolk; an oasis within a desert of conventional arable farming - it pioneered UK agroforestry and population grain - it runs courses, events and retreats. But Wakelyns is facing an uncertain future, for which community buyout offers a solution.ffinlo Costain is joined by, David Wolfe, Wakelyns' founder and co-owner. To find out more and to buy community shares in Wakelyns - follow this link: ⁠https://wakelyns.co.uk/⁠

In the final week of our 10 More Days of Groundswell series, I talk to Ben Adams (Farmer, Adams Agriculture) and Mark Palmer (Director and farm advisor, Systems4Food Ltd).Cover crops and no-till have transformed regenerative arable in England. But the easy wins are largely banked, and a more honest conversation is starting: what does soil health really look like once you've ticked the obvious boxes? Farmers funded through Defra's ADOPT programme are running on-farm trials testing cover crops with sensing, multispecies cropping, living mulches in maize, and relay cropping at field scale. The original panel was hosted in The Snug by the ADOPT Support Hub.

In the final week of our 10 More Days of Groundswell series - I talk to Doug Wanstall (Director, Beyond Zero), Joshua Wade (Director SG Wade Ltd), and Lottie Hawkins (Founder, Earthly Biochar).This an impromptu in-the-field conversation.Circular farming is the regenerative idea that everything leaving the farm should come back as something useful. Farmers funded through Defra's ADOPT programme are testing what that actually looks like: Black Soldier Fly larvae replacing soya in poultry feed, biochar produced from forestry and crop waste, and mushroom-and-biochar systems converting agricultural by-products. The original panel was hosted in The Snug by the ADOPT Support Hub.

10 More Days of Groundswell wasn't enough! This is the second of four summer bonus in-the-field episodes. With Holly Silvester, Future Resilience Seed Coordinator for the Seed Sovereignty Programme, and Katie Hastings, Wales Co-ordinator for the Seed Sovereignty Programme  at the Gaia Foundation.

10 More Days of Groundswell wasn't enough! This is the first of four summer bonus in-the-field episodes. With James Robinson, Strickley Farm, Cumbria, and Dr. Lindsay K Whistance, Principal Researcher - Animal Husbandry, at the Organic Research Centre.

ffinlo joins other regen farming and rural business podcasters for a chat about storytelling - the power of podcasts and communication - and some of the stories that are influencing farming today.I joined the host of the Six Inches of Soil podcast, Richard Tufton, alongside co-host Claire Mackenzie, for a conversation with Abby Rose from Farmerama, Clay Conry from Working Cows, and Ben Eagle from Meet the Farmers.

First Milk has released a 'white paper' for regenerative dairy. The report celebrates what the co-operative dairy has achieved so far, while making a strong case for Phase 2 of their regen dairy programme - moving from measuring inputs to assessing outcomes: actual soil carbon, actual numbers of birds and insects, actual river quality... To find out more, ffinlo Costain is joined by Lee Truelove, Director of Regenerative Farming & Agriculture at First Milk, and Leona McDonald, their Director of Regenerative Partnerships.

Today we're lying down on our beach towels to tuck into a good summer read. ffinlo Costain is joined by three brilliant authors from the 5m and Unbreaking stables, to find out why their books should be stacked among the sea shells and read between the rock pools.Benedikt Bösel has written Food and Farm Revolution - he's is an agricultural economist and the founder of Gut&Bösel, a regenerative farm located near Berlin. Dr Lucy Williamson is a registered nutritionist and former vet and her book is called Soil to Gut. And Tim Parton's Intelligent Farming invites us to join him on the agroecological journey that he's been on since 2009.Click here to find the books on 5m's website - https://5mbooks.com/

ffinlo Costain speaks to Professor Tim Lang about his report for the National Preparedness Commission - Just in Case: 7 steps to narrow the UK civil food resilience gap.Tim Lang is Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City St George's, University of London. Over a long career he's served as a consultant to the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, and the UN Environment Programme. He's also the author and co-author of several books, most recently, Feeding Britain: Our food problems and how to fix them.

ffinlo Costain learns about fertility-building, rotations, and system design for vegetables from Andy Dibben (Abbey Home Farm), Christine Watson (SRUC), and David Newman (Bucksum Market Garden).

Farmer-led innovation, and the research that backs it up. Farm Gate’s ffinlo Costain is joined by Thomas Slattery (ADOPT Support Hub), Matt Smee (Agricology) and Katherine Lewis (Ag-Impact).They discuss what it takes to put farmers at the heart of on-farm trials - the role that agricultural research and good knowledge sharing play - and how all of it connects to regenerative farming and broader agroecology.

What is resilience - and how can landscape-scale collaboration help to deliver it?ffinlo Costain meets Alex Robinson (Moor Wood Farm and Zora Ecosystems), Jenny Phelps (FWAG), and Alex Donnelly (Berks, Bucks, and Oxon Wildlife Trusts) to discuss the role of farm clusters in helping to restore nature's infrastructure.

We need a new generation of inspirational regen leaders, landscape transformers, communication stars, and R&D wizards. Farming professions test every part of the human being, and offer remarkable soul-enhancing rewards. So why are parents and schools still pushing young people toward AI-vulnerable careers in medicine and law, and into burning hot cities and suffocating wards and offices?ffinlo Costain talks to Jonty Brunyee (Farmer and Co-founder, Emergent Generation), Mitch Green (Stockman & Steering Group, Emergent Generation), Sophie Gregory (Organic dairy farmer and Nuffield Scholar), and Lucy Robbins (Farmer, Nosehill Farm).

I talk to ADOPT facilitators, Daniel Kindred (Agronomy Research Circle) and Harriet Scott (Raft Solutions), to find out how good ideas can become great on-farm research projectsThis is Day 6 of 10 More Days of Groundswell – a series of conversations, recorded in-the-field at Groundswell.

Day 5 of our 10 More Days of Groundswell series, which continues every day for 10 days.I talk to Hannah Thorogood (Inkpot Farm) and Jamie Jack (Pasture for Life, Scotland) about how sheep can be a fantastic ecological force for good.

Day 4 of our 10 More Days of Groundswell series, which continues every day for 10 days.I meet Martin Lines (Nature Friendly Farming Network), Vicki Hird (Wildlife Trusts), Alice Groom (RSPB), and Joe Stanley (GWCT Allerton Project). I find out what they thought of the Secretary of State's address to the Groundswell Big Top audience - and what needs to happen next with English farm policy?

Day 3 of our 10 More Days of Groundswell series, which continues every day for 10 days.I meet Sally-Ann Spence down in the Groundswell fields as we sift through cowpats and discuss the role of entomology in archeology.

Day 2 of our 10 More Days of Groundswell series, which continues every day for 10 days.This time:Sam Beaumont (Gowbarrow Hall Farm) and Helen Browning (Soil Association) discuss the benefits of agroforestry - both as a commercial venture and for on-farm resilience.

This is the first of our impromptu in-the-field programmes, recorded at Groundswell 2026. 🪱 "We've got to tell the truth." That's the ethos behind of the new ⁠Centre for Dynamic Soils⁠ — a new farmer-led research venture co-founded by ⁠Andy Neal⁠, ⁠Andy Gray⁠ and ⁠Mel Bradley MBE⁠, backed by ⁠Yeo Valley Organic⁠, ⁠Wildfarmed⁠ and ⁠Waitrose & Partners⁠. 🎤 I spoke to the two Andys - We discuss soil structure, glyphosate, and why real farms beat university plots for soil science every day of the week.Find out more here: https://www.centrefordynamicsoils.org/

It's that time again - it's Groundswell, the key festival of the UK regenerative farming year - an event that's now been running for 10 glorious years. This is our essential guide to the festival's hot tickets.So who's with me? It's only bloomin' Alex Cherry, the Director of Groundswell and of Lannock Farm - and Sally-Ann Spence is here - an entomologist and farmer and Britain's Got Talent winner... We've got the fantastic Annie Landless, the Farm Manager at Ampney Brook Farm - and I'm thrilled to be sharing a screen and a microphone with Thomas Slattery, the ADOPT Programme Lead... ADOPT has very kindly agreed to sponsor not only this programme, but all of Farm Gate's content at Groundswell.

Martin Lines (Nature Friendly Farming Network), and ffinlo Costain (Farm Gate) discuss England's hot-off-the-press Farming Roadmap - what to make of Brexit 10-years on - what values Andy Burnham might bring to Number 10 - and the new UK/EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement.They are joined by Alex Gray, a farming and environment lecturer on the Brooksby campus of Loughborough College, and ask how to get progressive farming better-embedded into college and university courses, and how to attract young people into agroecological farming practice.#farming #AndyBurnham #policy #Agroecology #regenag #climatecrisis #foodsystem #naturalcapital

What could the future could look like for European pigs, egg laying hens, and broiler chickens?ffinlo Costain (8point9.com) is joined by Dr Jenny Yngvesson from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, by Dr Catherine Pfeifer, lead researcher in the FiBL Switzerland Agri-Food Systems Group, and by Dr Lizzie Rowe, a farmer and researcher, and the founder of Leaf and Feather, an eco egg company based in the UK.This is the fifth of our programmes investigating Pathways - a 5-year EU Horizon 2020-funded research project that's been running since 2021.

ffinlo Costain talks to Dr Frédéric Leroy (Vrije University, Brussels) and Dr Jason Rowntree (Michigan State University).Frédéric and Jason's new research paper argues that while livestock systems represent a considerable environmental challenge, anti-livestock and anti-meat perspectives over-simplify the issues, ignore regional variations, and rely on unbalanced carbon accounting. They argue that carbon tunnel vision is a threat to good climate policy.* Find out more and read the research at 8point9.com

What's the future of ruminant farm systems in Europe? What are the priorities for farmers, policy-makers and the public? Are they price, carbon emissions, carbon drawdown, animal welfare...? In this programme, we're looking at pathways for ruminant agriculture: cattle, sheep, and goats, producing meat and dairy products. ffinlo Costain is joined by Simon Moakes, a research fellow at Aberystwyth University in Wales - by Dr David Yáñez, a research professor at the Spanish National Research Council - and by Sara Hall, a PhD researcher working in the research team at Pasture for Life in the UK.This is the fourth of our programmes investigating Pathways - a 5-year EU Horizon 2020-funded research project that's been running since 2021.

The creation of bustling, thriving regional economies is an enormous opportunity to create food system resilience - and to bring wealth and wellbeing to rural areas. To do this we need infrastructure - and we need the finance to support the rebuilding and the re-establishing of that infrastructure.A new report from the Place Finance Lab addresses these issues. ffinlo Costain is joined by the report authors and founding partners of the Place Finance Lab: Tamara Giltsoff and Matteo Vanzini, and by report contributor Matthew Thomson, a director of Sustainable Food Cornwall.The Place Finance Lab has been incubated at Climate KIC, which has also supported this podcast - Climate KIC is Europe’s leading climate innovation agency and community, creating climate-resilient communities and fighting climate breakdown by mobilising systems change in countries, regions, cities, and businesses. Together with partners across the globe, Climate KIC orchestrates solutions and facilitates learning to bridge the gap between climate commitments and current reality, driving faster and more ambitious action.

ffinlo Costain is joined by Martin Lines (Chief Exec NFFN), Nic Renison from Renison's Farm, and by Jenna Hegarty, Head of Policy at Nature Friendly Farming Network.We find out what's happening at Papley Grove in June - we discuss farm business resilience in the face of climate change - Nic talks about her farm and what it's like living under the Helm Wind - and Jenna presents NFFN's new report, The Nature of Business: Delivering resilience, food security and economic value through nature-friendly farming.

This is the third of our programmes investigating Pathways - a 5-year EU Horizon 2020-funded research project that's been running since 2021.We discuss the scenarios work that provided the foundations for Pathways. These were designed as plausible future storylines for how European livestock systems might evolve under different economic, environmental, technological, and social conditions. In particular, they helped researchers to test trade-offs between different sustainability goals and outcomes. ffinlo Costain is joined by Pierre-Marie Aubert, director of agriculture and food policies at the French think tank, IDDRI - by Dr Tom Staton, a senior research fellow at the University of Reading - and by Dr Jessica Bosseaux, a postdoctoral research associate, also at the University of Reading.

Topical food and farming chat - with ffinlo Costain (editor, 8point9.com), Joe Stanley (author, writer and Head of Sustainable Farming at the GWCT Allerton Project), and new co-host, Nikki Yoxall (farmer and Technical Director, Pasture for life).We discuss fertiliser, regenerative farming, national security, agricultural resilience, the rural economy and food system research.

This is the second of our programmes investigating the Pathways project - a 5-year EU Horizon 2020-funded research project that's been running since 2021. Today we’re looking at Pathways modelling, which addressed a range of important areas including the greenhouse gas emissions and nutritional value associated with livestock and individual food products, as well as farm animal welfare and biodiversity impacts in livestock systems.ffinlo Costain (8point9.com) is joined by Dr David Yáñez (Spanish National Research Council), Pierrick Girad (French Institute of Pork), Dr Jenny Ygnvesson (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) and Dr Tom Staton (University of Reading).More land use news at 8point9.com.

In this episode of Martin's Farm, ffinlo Costain and Martin Lines (farmer and chief exec of the Nature Friendly Farming Network) discuss water - and how nature and beavers work to keep it in the landscape.They're joined by guests, Ali Morse, the Water Policy Manager at The Wildlife Trusts, and Chris Jones from Woodland Valley Farm and the Cornwall Beaver Project.

ffinlo Costain and Martin Lines (farmer and chief exec of the Nature Friendly Farming Network) discuss water - and how nature and beavers work to keep it in the landscape. They're joined by guests, Ali Morse, the Water Policy Manager at The Wildlife Trusts, and Chris Jones from Woodland Valley Farm and the Cornwall Beaver Project.

We're discussing the parasite burden in cattle: the life-cycle of lungworm and gutworm - how to manage your land and your herd to reduce the parasite risk - the role of vaccination - and how to work with your vet to avoid costly medical interventions.ffinlo Costain is joined by two Somerset farmers: Catherine Pickford from Alford Fields Farm and Lydia Partridge who manages the young stock at Drummers Farm - and by Lucy Hepworth, a vet from Friars Moor Livestock Health who have also kindly sponsored the programme.#livestock #parasites #veterinary #vet #farmanimals #animalhealth #landmanagement #cattle #dairy #farming

A 5-year EU Horizon 2020-funded research project - Pathways - has been running since 2021. It aims to reduce environmental impacts while addressing societal demands for safe, nutritious and affordable meat and dairy products. Over the next two or three months we'll investigate the project and its outcomes across six episodes, and meet some of the academics leading the research.In this programme we'll find out more about the origins of the Pathways project - its objectives and chief priorities.ffinlo Costain is joined by Dr Laurence Smith, Associate Professor in Agricultural Systems at the University of Reading - by Dr Jessica Stokes, Associate Professor in Farm Animal Welfare Science and Policy at the Royal Agricultural University - by Dr Catherine Pfeifer, lead researcher in the FiBL Switzerland Agri-Food Systems Group - and by Dr Nikki Yoxall, the Technical Director at Pasture for Life.

'Regenerative agriculture...? It'll never work on my farm!' The truth is - it will work - and most successful regen farmers have gone through the tunnel of doubt only to emerge happier, more resilient and more profitable than before.In this programme we'll find out how two farmers have made regen work for them - and we'll discuss the challenge of regenerative cereals... is no-till enough? ffinlo Costain is joined by Tom Edmondson from Cranley Barn Farm near Milton Keynes - and James Johnson from Mallard Grange, near Rippon in North Yorkshire.This programme has been kindly supported by Regenerate Outcomes.

The early results from one of the largest soil carbon measurement programmes in UK dairy show measurable increases in soil carbon stocks on farms adopting regenerative practices.British farmer-owned dairy co-operative, First Milk, working with soil carbon measurement specialist, Agricarbon, has undertaken interim re-sampling on three member farms nearly four years after establishing a large-scale soil carbon baseline.The early findings show soil carbon stocks increased on all three farms, with average gains of 8.9tC/ha (8.2T CO2e/ha/year). And importantly, a positive relationship was observed between the level of regenerative farming activity and the degree of carbon increase observed.ffinlo Costain is joined by Lee Truelove, the Head of Regenerative Agriculture at First Milk, and Mark Brooking, their former Chief Impact Officer, who's continuing to work with the company on carbon removals.

ffinlo Costain meets David R Montgomery, the author of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilisations. In a warm conversation, they discuss worms, the plough, soil bank accounts, regenerative farming, human nutrition and much more. ffinlo also finds out why human health improved in the UK during the Second World War. Montgomery is also co-author (with Anne Biklé) of What Your Food Ate and The Hidden Half of Nature. His new book, ReGen: A New Future for Farming, Food and Health, is out later in 2026.

In this episode of Farm Gate Leaders, ffinlo Costain speaks to Lieutenant General Richard Nugee.Nugee is a retired British Army officer who served in senior roles, including Chief of Defence People. He's also a Soil Star - a member of a group of scientists and experts, each a pioneer in their respective field, who share a commitment to soil as a lever to deliver action on climate change.

ffinlo Costain (8point9.com) and Martin Lines (Nature Friendly Farming Network) discuss what's happening on Papley Grove farm in the coming month of April. They also turn their attention to English farm policy - and then to the Welsh and Scottish Government elections, coming this May. ffinlo and Martin are joined by Rhys Evans (NFFN Cymru) and Nim Kibbler (NFFN Scotland).

New pests and diseases are threatening UK livestock, crops and forests. They're coming to the UK in the wind, with birds, on people and in imported soils. Why are these pests and diseases migrating? Can we prevent them from coming? And what do we need to do to mitigate the risks?ffinlo Costain is joined by Catherine Harries, Senior Crop Protection Scientist at AHDB - by Kate Palmer, the Technical and Industry Support Manager at Confor - and by Yoav Alony-Gilboa, livestock vet and director of Friars Moor Livestock Health.

Cattle in regenerative farm systems deliver remarkable ecological value at the same time as producing food and fibre. In this programme, we focus on methane and hydroxyl radicals - the highly reactive molecules that wash methane out of the sky, dismantling it back into its constituent parts of carbon and hydrogen.We talk about where hydroxyl radicals come from, and why, in well-hydrated regenerative pastures there are more of them - meaning that they can work more rapidly to break down the methane produced by the grazing cattle present in those managed ecosystems.To take us through the science, I'm joined by the blogger known on X as @Regenetarianism. Stephen shuns the spotlight and speaks publicly only extremely rarely. He isn't an academic, but he is someone that high level academics turn to for insight on these subjects, because his knowledge is so deep and broad following a great many years of research, synthesising knowledge from hundreds of peer-reviewed papers that address methane's physical and chemical processes, and working to understand them in the context of ruminant agriculture. Stephen has kindly written a referenced blog to accompany this podcast. It's called - On hydroxyl radicals and increasing the atmospheric oxidation capacity: key points and an outline. The blog can be found at lachefs.net.Direct link: https://lachefnet.wordpress.com/2026/02/15/on-hydroxyl-radicals-increasing-the-atmospheric-oxidation-capacity-key-points-an-outline/

The government has published England’s first ever Land Use Framework. What does it all mean?ffinlo Costain (8point9.com) is joined by Sue Pritchard (Food, Farming and Countryside Commission) and by Phil Stocker (Chief Executive of the National Sheep Association and Chair of the Dartmoor Land Use Management Group).

Which of our farms will exist in 20 years? Can they survive a breakdown in global supply chains? Do we need to change our stocking rates, our breeds, cropping and soil health? These are not academic questions - they're real, immediate and practical - and to discuss them ffinlo Costain is joined by a fantastic panel of southwest farmers and rural professionals.Helen Rogers is a farmer, a vet and a director of Friars Moor Livestock Health. Dan Gammon is a new entrant organic dairy farmer from Oakvale Farms. Hugh Morrison is a tenant farmer producing cereals, sheep and beef, both at Stonehenge and Amesbury. Ollie Blackburn is Farm Manager at the Dillington Estate in South Somerset. Greg Ridout is a partner and the head of agricultural auctions at Symonds and Sampsom estate agents.

'Well, I'm not going to read that to the kids at bedtime' - ffinlo Costain (Farm Gate/8point9) and Joe Stanley (GWCT Allerton Project) discuss rock 'n' roll science, the profound effects of pesticides on soil, the new Sustainable Farming Incentive for England, the intelligence chiefs' biodiversity assessment - and Joe asks, 'Is ffinlo a spy...?'More food, farming and land news at 8point9.com

Farm Gate Leaders: Nikki Yoxall, Regenerative farmerNikki Yoxall, a regen farmer based in the north-east of Scotland, embodies the UK regen farming movement - young, passionate, outspoken, media-savvy, first generation into farming, focussed on the ecological impact of her system just as strongly as she is on her cattle management and the food that she's producing.In this programme, ffinlo Costain finds what makes Nikki tick.

A new report, the RegenCompass Version 1.0, developed by EARA (Euro Alliance for Regen Agriculture), offers the first comprehensive, farmer-led evaluation of the systems designed to identify and distinguish genuine regeneration while remaining accessible and valuable to the farmers doing the work. The report evaluated 29 monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems.ffinlo Costain joined by report author, Simon Kraemer, co-founder and policy steward at the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture - by regen farmer, Clare Hill, from Planton Farm - and by Adele Jones from Rooted Strategies who worked for many years with the Sustainable Food trust on the Global Farm Metric.Read the report here: https://8point9.com/eara-releases-first-farmer-led-assessment-of-regen-verification-systems/https://8point9.com/eara-releases-first-farmer-led-assessment-of-regen-verification-systems/

At its heart, regenerative agriculture is an opportunity to reset a farm's relationship with both nature and economics. Most farmers who take the time to re-think their system, to reduce their use of expensive inputs, to mix livestock and crop production into long rotations, and to maximise the efficacy of free natural resources (such as sunlight and water), find that they are more economically resilient, that nature thrives in their fields and that they're just happier and healthier people.In this programme we hear from four UK farmers who've unleashed the power of regeneration on their farms - we'll hear their stories, and we'll ask what tools have enabled their success.With Graham Rutherford from Viewlaw Farm in Northumberland, Verity Megginson from Kirkburn Manor Farm in East Yorkshire, Rhys Jones from Pearson Gape Farming Partnership in Cambridgeshire, and Sian Jones from Moelogan Fawr in North Wales.This programme has been sponsored by Regenerate Outcomes.Farm Gate is part of 8point9.com.Listen to the edited audio version by searching for Farm Gate wherever you get your podcasts.

Antibiotics are critical medicines for humans and livestock - but profligate use has led to rapidly increasing resistance, which is a threat for animal and human health. How then do we replace, reduce and refine the use of antibiotics in farm settings? And what are the opportunities for livestock producers?ffinlo Costain is joined two southwest dairy farmers - Sophie Alexander from Hemsworth Farm, and Karolina Klaskova from Higher Mere Park Farm - and by two livestock vets, Rebecca Price and Lucy Hepworth, both from Friars Moor Livestock Health.

Brazil has lifted 40 million people out of food insecurity in just two years. This historic achievement was driven by political choices that put family farmers and food access first. ffinlo Costain is joined by Elisabetta Recine, the President of the Brazilian National Food and Nutrition Security Council - and by Raj Patel, a professor of food systems from the University of Texas.

Integrated pest management is about establishing a farm as a connected ecosystem. To investigate the subject ffinlo Costain is joined by horticulturalist, Andy Dibben, the head grower at Abbey Home Farm near Cirencester - by Patrick Barker an arable farmer from Lodge Farm near Westhorpe in Suffolk - and by Angus Walton, a livestock producer from Peelham Farm in the Scottish Borders.

Martin's Farm: February. ffinlo Costain finds out about integrated pest management and a hedge-laying competition run by Martin Lines at Papley Grove. Martin and ffinlo are also joined by Peter Craven, head of agriculture at Natural England, who’s talks through Natural England's new strategy and what it means for farmers and food production. ffinlo Costain is the editor of 8point9.com and producer of the Farm Gate podcast.Martin Lines is Chief Executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network.