FARM RADIO IS AT THE CROSSROADS!
If you enjoy
your visits to this site or if your enterprise has been
featured here with positive effects, please could you
take a moment to tell us. We need to be able to
demonstrate your support in order to attract the
resources to take Farm Radio on to the next stages of
development. Statistics are one thing but nothing
is as good as personal testimonials.
Do you think
that you may have something to contribute to the future
of the site? We are planning to start up a
steering group that will have a rôle in the development
of this site and would welcome expressions of interest
in this from our visitors.
e-mail
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Pendragon
Sports - Part 1, The Tour of Wessex
Part 2 about
another exciting Pendragon initiative to follow soon
 
Pendragon Sports have been
organising the expanding cycling mass participation
event “The Tour of Wessex” since it’s inception in 2006.
This is a tough challenge which takes the riders in
three stages on successive days over some of the most
beautiful and hilly terrain of Dorset and Somerset. It
brings a substantial amount of income to the area and
raise awareness of the area, encouraging repeat visits
from participants and supporters alike. Pendragon’s Nick
Bourne hosted a presentation a little while ago in
Somerton to reveal the plans for this year’s Tour of
Wessex. John Holman talked to Nick about how it all came
about and also to D’Arcy Myers, Chief Executive of west
country charity “Heartbeat” who are beneficiaries of
this annual event.
www.tourofwessex.com
www.heartbeat.co.uk
Click on the bale to
listen
(27/02/09)
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Heart of the Vale, Soul
of the Town, Part 5, Clar.
 It is now
more than ten years since the livestock market at Sturminster Newton closed down, bringing to an end 700 years of tradition.
We were involved in a project gathering views and ideas on video from the users
of the market as part of the effort to keep it open. The realisation of
what the closure meant to the people who used it was part of the
inspiration behind the concept of "Farm Radio". So, therefore, it seems
fitting to post some of the footage that we shot here.
I was thinking of calling this section "Where Are They
Now?" but, given the age of some of the contributors and the passing of time,
the answer to that would be all too obvious in so many cases. However, it
would be great to
hear from our listeners with any stories of the subsequent
adventures of the folk featured here so we could follow up their stories.
Perhaps we should call it "What Happened Next?" Video shot and edited by
John Holman.
Click on the bale to
view (26/02/09) Click for
Part 1, Pat and Ted,
Part 2, Ian and Paul,
Part 3, The Auctioneers,
Part 4, Ernie
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Kingston
Maurward College's New Learning Resource Centre
 It
cost several £M, has a sedum roof, 100 workstations, two
laboratories, a huge number of books and could not have
been built at a better time as more land based students
walk through the doors at Kingston Maurward's new
Learning Resources centre. Geoff Pagotto was shown round
by Principal David Henley.
www.kmc.ac.uk
Click on the bale to
listen
(25/02/09)
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Dorset
Wildlife Trust's Agricultural Panel
Back in January
Farm Radio's John Holman made a trip to the Dorset
Wildlife Trust's headquarters at Forston to attend a
meeting of their agricultural panel. First we hear from
Debbie Watkins from DWT who brings the panel together
and then, at a later date on his farm, Wakely Cox the
chairman.
If you would be interested in contributing to the
important work of this panel contact Debbie Watkins.
Click on the Dorset Wildlife Trust logo on this page.
Click on the bale to
listen
(18/02/09)
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The Royal Smithfield Christmas Fair
- Part 4, Nick Hunkin
Click for
Part 1, The British Pig Association,
Part 2, Richs Cider,
Part 3, Dr. Phil Hadley of Eblex
Geoff Pagotto visited the Royal
Smithfield Christmas Fair and recorded seven stories for
Farm Radio.
Somerset pig man
Nick Hunkin is a regular and imposing figure around the
country's pig rings and at Smithfield he was ringside
commentating the pig show exhibits. Geoff Pagotto got
him to talk about his beloved Tamworths and love of all
things "Pig".
Dillington Herd
Nick Hunkin.
Tel: 01460 54206
Click on the bale to
listen
(17/02/09)
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Would you
like to work with Farm Radio?
Are you
considering an oral history or media based project for
your community? The Farm Radio team has many years
experience of all aspects of community media work, audio
and video production and
has a long record of involvement in such projects so, if
we can help in any way,
contact us.
Also, we are always keen to find
new volunteers to train and support as correspondents
for Farm Radio.
|
|
Would you
like to see the name of your
enterprise/business/organisation here . . . ?
Contact us to find out what we
can offer.
|
The Dairy Show,
Part 9, Alan Lyons, Show Organiser
(Click
here for Part 1, Will Sanderson
of Milklink,
Part 2, Duncan
Forbes of Kingshay,
Part 3, Paddy Gordan and Peter Edmundson, Vets,
Part 4, Oliver Seeds,
Part 5, David Munday of the Maize Growers Association,
Part 6, Clive Rainbird of Bayer CropScience,
Part 7, Adrian Cottey of Bayer CropScience,
Part 8, Mark Webb and WebbPaton's Farm Waste Scheme)
For Dairy Show
Organiser, Andy Lyons, this was his second show of the
year due to the 2007 version being postponed until
January 2008 and he explains to Geoff Pagotto how
successful it was less than eight months after the
previous one.
www.bathandwest.com
Click on the bale to
listen
(17/02/09)
|
Elder Pruning
at the Orchard Pig
L to R:
Anthony Ward and Ark Redwood of the Chalice Well and
Neil MacDonald of The Orchard Pig
 One
of The Orchard Pig's excellent range of ciders and apple
juices is an apple juice with elderflowers.
Frustrated with the difficulty of picking from unruly
wild elders and wishing to improve the lot of the trees,
they enlisted the help of Ark Redwood and Anthony Ward
from the Chalice Well Garden down the road at
Glastonbury to come and give them a few pointers about
pruning. It turns out that there is more to the
elder than meets the eye and pruning or interfering with
them in any way is not to be undertaken lightly.
This report ends on a local story of the elder's strange
powers recounted to John Holman by June MacFarlane of
The Orchard Pig and Anthony Ward from the Chalice Well.
Click on the bale to
listen
(09/02/09)
To hear more about The Orchard Pig
in general
click here to be taken to a previous article in Farm
Radio Edition 40.
www.orchardpig.co.uk
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IMPORTANT
ANNOUNCEMENT
HEALTH & SAFETY EVENT FOR NEXT
GENERATION OF FARMERS IN DORSET
The Health and
Safety Executive (HSE) and Kingston Maurward
Agricultural College in Dorset are hosting a practical
farming safety event for the next generation who want to
work the land.
This evening
training course will be held on 19 February 2009 at the
college in Dorchester and organisers are keen to hear
from as many interested people as possible.
Aimed at 16 to
30-year-olds who either want to start off their career
in farming or who already work on a farm, the course
will include practical demonstrations on ATV safety,
livestock handling, working at height, manual handling,
safe operation of telehandlers, hydraulics’ safety and
machinery maintenance.
HSE organiser,
Glenda Treneary, explained the purpose of the event:
“We are trying
to get young people out of the classroom and into the
workshop – putting some of that theory into practice! We
will have qualified trainers who are also farmers, so
they will be able to demonstrate sensible practical ways
of keeping safe from ‘first-hand’ experience.
“We’ll also be
making sure that no-one’s concentration flags with
plenty of refreshments – including a pasty supper – and
numerous interactive exercises and we’ll be providing
each young delegate with an information pack and
certificate of attendance when they leave.”
Those interested
in attending the event should register at:
glenda.treneary@hse.gsi.gov.uk.
Farm
Accidents are regrettably on the rise - can you afford
not to get up to speed on this subject?
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The Royal Smithfield Christmas Fair
- Part 3, Dr. Phil Hadley of Eblex
Click for
Part 1, The British Pig Association,
Part 2, Richs Cider
Geoff Pagotto visited the Royal
Smithfield Christmas Fair and recorded seven stories for
Farm Radio.
Dr Phil Hadley
from EBLEX drew the short straw in the seminar sessions
this year as he had double the workload by talking at
both the Sheep and Beef industry sessions. Geoff Pagotto
asked how much truth there was in reports of market
downturns from credit crunch thrifty meat shoppers.
Dr Phil Hadley
0870 608 6610 - 07779 304 185
www.eblex.org.uk
For previous
Farm Radio items with Dr. Phil Hadley see
Edition 41 and
Edition 50
Click on the bale to
listen
(04/02/09)
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The Dairy Show,
Part 8, Mark Webb and WebbPaton's Farm Waste Scheme
(Click
here for Part 1, Will Sanderson
of Milklink,
Part 2, Duncan
Forbes of Kingshay,
Part 3, Paddy Gordan and Peter Edmundson, Vets,
Part 4, Oliver Seeds,
Part 5, David Munday of the Maize Growers Association,
Part 6, Clive Rainbird of Bayer CropScience,
Part 7, Adrian Cottey of Bayer CropScience)
Providing a
practical farm waste plastic collection scheme has been
a success for land agents WebbPaton, as over 1,000
members can testify, but as Mark Webb explains this is
only the tip of the farm plastic waste iceberg with many
still yet to make a decision on what is a growing
problem on farm.
www.webbpaton.co.uk
Click on the bale to
listen
(04/02/09)
|
Would you
like to work with Farm Radio?
Are you
considering an oral history or media based project for
your community? The Farm Radio team has many years
experience of all aspects of community media work, audio
and video production and
has a long record of involvement in such projects so, if
we can help in any way,
contact us.
Also, we are always keen to find
new volunteers to train and support as correspondents
for Farm Radio.
|
|
Would you
like to see the name of your
enterprise/business/organisation here . . . ?
Contact us to find out what we
can offer.
|
The
Symondsbury Mummers and The Village Band
When Ken
Bodycombe moved to Broadwindsor from Bridport, he was
determined to get the Symondsbury Mummers along to
perform over Christmas and New Year. So the village’s
Jubilee Group, whose joint secretary is Farm Radio’s
Margery Hookings, jumped at the offer and organised a
concert to raise money for the annual summer fun day.
And with local musician Simon Emmerson and his friends
who formed The Village Band, the event went with a
swing. Margery recorded the event so you can hear the
Mummers’ entire performance here – and in parts,
especially the hilarious sequence with Tommy the Pony,
you will just have to use your imagination!
Towards the end
of the last century many English villages still had
their Christmas Mummers. A number of young men would
form themselves into a company of from five to eleven
members, according to the size of the play. Some plays
were much longer than others. The meaning of the word
Mumming is 'to make diversion in a mask'. The
Symondsbury Mumming Play is the most complete of any of
these plays. This play has eleven characters, Father
Christmas, Room, Anthony King of Egypt, St. George, St.
Patrick, a Doctor, four warriors and Dame Dorothy. One
of the strongest mummers takes the part of Tommy the
Pony.
A while ago,
Trilith made a video production based on a film of the
Symondsbury Mummers shot in 1952. We hope that we will
be able to post some of the material specially shot for
this production on this site soon - so do come back
again soon!
Click on the bale to
listen
(04/02/09)
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Butchery
and Sausage Making at Empire Farm
Sally and Adrian
Morgan run a series of courses throughout the year at
Empire Farm, their 100 acre organic farm at Templecombe
in Somerset. The courses are proving to be in demand
with people attending from as far away as Warwickshire,
London and the Isle of Wight. Vouchers for the courses
were obviously popular as Christmas gifts as Farm
Radio's Colleen Jackson found out when she talked to
some of the people on a Pig Butchery (with butcher Ken
Davison) and Sausage Making day in early January. There
was also a television crew filming the course as part of
a forthcoming documentary about a Warwickshire village
community Pig Club.
Colleen previously talked to Sally
Morgan last year and you can also listen to this
interview in
Edition 42 (April 2008). A list of their courses for
2009 can be found on their website.
www.empirefarm.co.uk
Click on the bale to
listen
(26/01/09)
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Report on the
Meeting
to Present the New Sustainable Communities Act, Dorchester
Corn Exchange, Friday 16th. January
The main purpose of the meeting was to
launch locally the new Sustainable Communities Act. John
Holman went along for Farm Radio and, shortly before the
meeting, was able to record an interview with Ron Bailey
from "Local Works", the massive coalition that campaigned to
push the legislation through. Here Ron explains what it is
all about and you can hear some clips from the meeting.
Mayor of Dorchester,
Kate Hebditch welcomes everyone to the
meeting. She mentions a presentation of Dorchester's
Transition Town project but, as we decided to concentrate on
the Sustainable Communities Act here, we plan to bring you a
further item dealing with the Transition Town project.
The meeting was supported locally by Transition Town
Dorchester: (www.transitiontowndorchester.org)
chaired by Town Crier,
Alistair Chisholm, and the panel was made up of
Oliver Letwin (MP for West Dorset),
Robert Gould (Leader of West Dorset District Council),
the aforementioned Ron Bailey and local writer Andy McKee.
For more details and to find out more
about Local Works
www.localworks.org
Click on the bale to
listen
(23/01/09)
_______________________________________________________________________
For a recording of the entire meeting
Click on the bale to
listen
(23/01/09)
|
ANNOUNCEMENT
www.richscider.co.uk
(15/01/09)
|
The Royal Smithfield Christmas Fair
- Part 2, Richs Cider
Click for
Part 1, The British Pig Association
Geoff Pagotto visited the Royal
Smithfield Christmas Fair and recorded seven stories for
Farm Radio.
Celebrating
their 50th year Richs Cider from Watchfield Somerset
were doing a roaring trade in the Food Hall with a
wonderful mulled cider. Geoff Pagotto found out how the
harvest was looking this year and how this 100,000
gallon a year business looks for 2009.
www.richscider.co.uk
Richs
Cider are holding a Wassail on Saturday 17th January.
For more details visit their
website
Click on the bale to
listen
(15/01/09)
|
The Dairy Show,
Part 7, Adrian Cottey of Bayer CropScience
(Click
here for Part 1, Will Sanderson of
Milklink,
Part 2, Duncan Forbes of Kingshay,
Part 3, Paddy Gordan and Peter Edmundson, Vets,
Part 4, Oliver Seeds,
Part 5, David Munday of the Maize Growers Association,
Part 6, Clive Rainbird of Bayer CropScience)
 Establishment
of maize seems essential in any year but particularly in
wet years such as this, Bayer has a new seed dressing
that combats pests such as wireworm, fritfly and leather
jackets all taking a nibble out of your future profits,
it also protects against unseen symphylid pests and, as
Adrian Cottey explains, new ones that could be on the
climate-change horizon.
http://www.bayercropscience.co.uk
Click on the bale to
listen
(15/01/09)
|
ANNOUNCEMENT
Further
to the
announcement below about the meeting at Dorchester
on Friday 16th. January, Dorchester Transition
Town Chairman, Mike Jones, sent us the following:
". . . there
will also be a short presentation on Transition Towns.
One aspect I intend to promote during this presentation
is that as much food as possible should be sourced
locally and that there is an opportunity here for
cooperatives to be formed to break the stranglehold of
the supermarkets with the obvious benefits of reduced
damage to the environment, support for the local economy
and greater food security."
(13/01/09)
|
Heart of the Vale, Soul
of the Town, Part 4, Ernie.
It is now ten years since the livestock market at
Sturminster Newton closed down, bringing to an end 700 years of tradition.
We were involved in a project gathering views and ideas on video from the users
of the market as part of the effort to keep it open. The realisation of
what the closure meant to the people who used it was part of the
inspiration behind the concept of "Farm Radio". So, therefore, it seems
fitting to post some of the footage that we shot here.
I was thinking of calling this section "Where Are They
Now?" but, given the age of some of the contributors and the passing of time,
the answer to that would be all too obvious in so many cases. However, it
would be great to
hear from our listeners with any stories of the subsequent
adventures of the folk featured here so we could follow up their stories.
Perhaps we should call it "What Happened Next?" Video shot and edited by
John Holman.
Click on the bale to
view (07/01/09)
Click for
Part 1, Pat and Ted,
Part 2, Ian and Paul,
Part 3, The Auctioneers
|
ANNOUNCEMENT
Dorset Public Meeting on new
Communities Law
Fri 16th Jan,
The Corn Exchange, High East Street, Dorchester.
DT1 1HF
Time: 7pm doors, 7:15pm start to
9pm.
This is a public meeting – it is
free and no booking is required.
Come and hear how you and your
community can use the amazing new Sustainable
Communities Act to protect and promote local services,
shops, trade and the environment and create a thriving
place to live. This Act did not come from government in
Westminster – it became law because of a huge
grass roots coalition campaign called Local Works
(www.localworks.org).
Also please spread the word and
urge friends, family, neighbours etc to come too so we
can show
Dorset’s councils that we want them to use this new law
too! If our councils choose not to "opt in" the
people of Dorset will not be able to benefit from this
legislation so it is vital to demonstrate that we are
keen for this to happen. In Somerset, Bath and
North East Somerset, Mendip District and South Somerset
District Councils have already signed up.
Chair: Alistair Chisholm
(Dorchester and
Champion
Town
Crier)
Speakers:
Oliver Letwin (MP for
West Dorset),
Robert Gould (Leader of West Dorset
District Council),
Ron Bailey (Local Works Director),
Andy McKee (Local Environmentalist, Writer and Author)
If you would like to help publicise
this meeting by distributing flyers please contact Steve
Shaw on 020 7278 4443 or
steve@localworks.org
More info is available at
www.localworks.org
Click
here for a flyer
Supported locally by Transition Town
Dorchester:
www.transitiontowndorchester.org
(07/01/09)
|
The Royal
Smithfield Christmas Fair - Part 1, The British Pig
Association
Geoff Pagotto visited the Royal
Smithfield Christmas Fair and recorded seven stories for
Farm Radio.
UK Pig breeders broadly have two very different
organisations the BPA and the NPA. Geoff Pagotto got
BPA's chief executive Marcus Bates to briefly explain
the distinction and why members are feeling provoked at
the moment while Somerset pig farmer and BPA deputy
chairman Alan Rose describes how they plan to take on
this challenge.
www.britishpigs.org
01223 845100
Click on the bale to
listen
(05/01/09)
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Poem by
William Percy Withers - "Yet Another Spring
Song"
Somerset
folk singer George Withers - the uncle of Farm
Radio's Margery Hookings, reads "Yet
Another Spring Song", a poem
by his late father William Percy Withers, 1894-1970.
Percy fought with the North Somerset Yeomanry in
World War I where he saw service in the Somme and
lost many dear friends and comrades. When the
war ended, Percy took up a farm tenancy in Barton
St. David, Somerset, before moving to farm at Donyatt, near Ilminster, in 1920.
Click on the bale to listen
(05/01/09)
Further poems from
William Percy Withers:
"The Mendip Hills",
"Memories",
"Farewell to Pottery Farm",
"The Things I Love"
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|
Would you
like to see the name of your
enterprise/business/organisation here . . . ?
Contact us to find out what we
can offer. |
DAAS
(Dorset Agricultural Advisory Service into 2009
Farm Radio and
DAAS ( Dorset Agricultural Advisory Service ) started
around the same time 5 years ago. Geoff Pagotto found
out from Katherine Sealey and John Rowe that DAAS is now
firmly part of the Dorset farming scene and goes into
2009 in a very robust condition.
Contact DAAS on:
01305 215167
or see for all
contact details:
www.kmc.ac.uk/daas/
Click on the bale to
listen
(05/01/09)
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