R2Kast - People in Food and Farming/All In

This podcast has three main sections, a painfully successful start to a career in a male dominated industry, a fitness journey and…a literal near death experience!Bethany who I met at a haunted castle experience 4 years ago seems to be forward for awards consistently and always is knocking down barriers to progress in what is the biggest construction company in the country, Balfour Beatty! She also has set her sights on bodybuilding and was really getting there with stage performances looming, Covid caused an issue at first and then a major challenge came her way!At the start of the year a friend of Bethany’s won a like, tag and share competition on Instagram to head to Base Camp of Everest…I’m entering the wrong ones clearly!!With three months training they headed off and we’re doing fine until Gorakshep (the last town before Base Camp). Try to remember that Gorakshep is still 5100m up! At this stage Bethany started to have some major issues…you’ll have to tune in to find out what! An insane story with someone who hasn’t ruled out an attempt at Everest itself one day! What a gal!Enjoy!

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Much like Friday today I welcome on another friend, this one much newer in John Austin!John, from a dairy farm tenancy in Dumfries talks about the volatility of the milk price, discussing pure vs cross bred cattle for milk and his life away from the farm.He speaks about his November and December taken up by Christmas tree harvest as well as his time in young farmers from Lower Nithsdale chair to D&G chair and convert to Croatia!Fun chat with a great guy!Enjoy!

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Today we welcome on a friend. It’s always fun to talk to someone you know well and still find out more about them! Todays guest I’ve known since 2014 when I went to Ayr to start out my academic career! Louise Paterson from ex-QMS Monitor farm, Hartbush in Amisfield near Dumfries has a fair old story to tell!Whether it’s the exemplar farm she comes from and works on, her new job as a land agent, her young farmers career which has seen her secretary, treasurer, 80th year secretary and much more of Lower Nithsdale as well as not holding the post of Dumfries and Galloway District chair! Another great episode!Enjoy!

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Two hours ago I had sent a total of 7 messages to todays guest and now we’re making sure that we stay in touch after a good bit of craic! Izzi Rainey who studied textiles with a focus on print at Glasgow school of art always had a hankering for cows. You can see her love for cattle throughout as her face lights up with similarity to that of the queen when cows appear at her fancy party thing she had! Izzi lives and breathes art and cows and has created a business out of both of them! On the art side, alongside her friend Lara has created a business almost 10 years old supplying upwards of 50 shops with goods and on the farm side has taken a very sweet token retirement gift from her father of 3 heifers to a notable sum of 75 split between Lincoln red and highlander aiming for beef boxes in the local area! Cher them out @batesmoorfarm on Instagram! As always!Enjoy!

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In the UK we have Greg James, in Norway they have Martin Holmen!Martin and I met in Tanzania and the best way for those of you that know me to describe Martin is this, we were told we were on the same energy level and in truth I think he might even top me! An inspiring story of a kid from Norway becoming a nationally known TV and radio personality who had to run after this podcast to finish his script to introduce the world renowned Oslo Philharmonic!On top of this Martin is the national chair for Norwegian 4H hence our meeting in Tanzania at the global summit!I don’t want to ruin a really important part of this podcast so please listen for the full story but Martin goes quite in depth about the struggles and fears he had heading to a country that is very unaccepting of the LGBTQI+ community as a gay man!Great episode with every emotion!Enjoy!

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Diversifications come in various forms, today we welcome a man who farms full time and is working his way up in the world of comedy!Grant Barr from as mixed a farm as you can get, beef, sheep, dairy and arable…the full shabang recently found himself performing at the fringe but there’s a lot more to his story! Having been involved in young farmers for some time Grant also finds himself chairing the national committee of competitions and events overseeing in his words a group of people that make his job very easy! A fun fact is grant has been a national SAYFC champion…to find out what in you’ll have to listen!Just a fun episode with a couple lads enjoying a bit of craic!Like I did be sure to..Enjoy!

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Over 15 thousand likes in the last week, over 0.2 million followers and a devout following on Facebook live! Figures of a pretty notable account, is it in the states, is it in Australia? No it’s about 2 miles from my flat in Dumfries! Ben best comes on to talk about his families utter juggernaut of a social media presence, Dalscone Farm. They stream for half an hour a day in the farm to the whole planet and have a never ending 24:7 stream in twitch allowing their viewers to follow the stories of their animals.Ben speaks about his dedication to education as well and the importance of promoting the sector!A great episode with another analytical geek which I loved!Enjoy!

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Today I get to share the best episode of the R2Kast to date. That in no way belittles anyone who has been on before, this truly has everything!For those who follow me on social media you will have seen my travels with 4 other members of SAYFC to Tanzania and Rwanda for a global 4H summit and signing of a partnership between SAYFC and RAYF respectively!I could say what you’ll expect to hear in this podcast but there’s no point, I advise you to get a cup, a biscuit…or listen when you have time to proper take it in. I won’t say the topics but I’ll say what’s involved, a group that felt like a family for a fortnight reminiscing about the extremes of emotion they went through together, happiness, sadness to the point of confusion and so many ‘you had to be there’ stories!As always, enjoy!

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Todays guest is a family friend of ours and seeing her grow as a person since the little girl I remember had been nothing short of inspiring! Isla found herself wanting to follow in her dads cattle showing footsteps, which she has but on top of that has created a career for herself in the sector at the age of 22!She ventured to Harper Adams and fell in love with it! Her third year placement was carried out with McDonald’s and what an experience she had.She had also travelled to Australia and New Zealand and currently finds herself in the running or the national agriculture student of the year award!Good luck with the award next month isla and enjoy your new graduation position with ABP!Enjoy!

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8 years ago this week the McMaster family based on the Southend of the Isle of Arran held their inaugural stock judging, a bit of fun aimed at showcasing their Texel flock prior to tup sales. This also marked the first official event that Arran Young Farmers. This was a club that I made a point of starting along with a few others from the island, acted as chair, and a few other jobs to get it going and unfortunately over time the club stopped operating after what was a good few years. Due to Arran being home for me I assumed that was it for me and YF…little did I know I’d find home again!After speaking at a couple of events for the local club Lower Nithsdale I knew it was time to go back and I feel like part of the family straight away!Today we start a series that could literally take years to complete! I would like to have every SAYFC club in the podcast, so if you’d like your club to be involved, get in touch!There was only one place I was starting though, in this episode, Ross, Joanne, Evan, Tasha, Aileen Molly and for that matter myself speak about what this wonderful club has to offer, what we’re up to (including a fundraiser currently well in excess of 10k) and what’s next given next year is the 80th year!It’s a belter and I look forward to welcoming your club on!Enjoy!

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