Toplines and Tales

166 - Characters in Livestock - Wallace Currie

A great chat with communicator and social influencer Wallace Currie from Dumfries, originally from Arran. This young man is such a great orator it’s no wonder he has been assigned the lead of communications for Scotland Young Farmers, a lecturer in farm diversification, and a current Nuffield scholar as well as running a successful podcast.

165 - Characters in Livestock - John Henning

This episode gets fascinating chat with angus breeder John Henning from Northern Ireland.  As well as running the top Drumcorn herd with his wife, former banker John has a busy life throughout the agricultural industry with directorships and trustee roles in some highly prestigious organizations and has been awarded an OBE for his services to agriculture.

164 - Toplines and Tales in Argentina - pt 2 - Wine

The second half of our trip to Argentina took us to Mendoza in the west where we stayed in a vineyard and visited a few more. I hope this has captured some of the culture of the vines, wines and country, as well as a chat with some of our tour guests, and even a sing-song. 

163 - Toplines and Tales in Argentina - pt 1 - Beef

A chance of a lifetime to accompany a trip of great folks to Argentina to look at some cows. The first of two special episodes, where I did my best to explain the trip as well as capturing snippets of conversations with some of the many huge farms that we visited. 

162 - Christmas Special - New Year Kist Party - Part 3

Still at our Christmas Party, which just kept getting better. This time someone posed the question of the best beast that maybe should have won Smithfield but didn’t which set the minds of my highly knowable guests to work. As the drink flowed, Stuart Hunter recalled his last Smithfield kist party drinking out of a Pringles tube, Donald discussed the excessive size of modern show winners with some solid opinions added from some wise men, before eventually persuading Ian Anderson to sing us a ditty!
This is an absolutely priceless listen!

161 - Christmas Special - Smithfield Kist Party - Part 2

In part 2 of our Christmas party, we reminisce about some of the nights ‘downtown’ in London before my fellow cattle steward, Julian, and I have more serious chat about the challenges of running the show. Then follows some stories about the frequent visits of the Royal family, and a few rather hilarious tales around that.

160 - Christmas Special - Smithfield Kist Party - Part 1

This week we hosted an online Christmas kist party for our listeners to celebrate 19 years since we were all last at Royal Smithfield Show together. Taking about legends in the fatstock world, to legends in the fatstock world, we start with a roll of honour for all those champion winners over 50+ years which morphs into more general chitchat and tales from the event with over 40 distinguished guests. As the party went on until 2am, this is the first hour, with more shenanigans and craic to follow as the drink flowed!

159 - Characters in Livestock - Kenny Sutherland

A familiar character about the show scene, Kenny Sutherland and his family run one of the largest livestock operations in the North of Scotland, with 2000 ewes and 400 suckler cows. A past champion winner at Smithfield and an involvement in the Highland show, Kenny discusses their more recent success with the Longhorn breed as a base for their cows, as well as Cheviots, Texels and Suffolk sires in the sheep. They have also diversified into tourism at Sibmister Mains in Caithness.

158 - The Nuffield Farming Scholarship

Started by Lord Nuffield in 1947, the Nuffield Farming Scholarship has been paramount to the success of many candidates who have applied and reaped the rewards. Now with over 1000 scholars being awarded I speak to Nuffield's Charlotte Mersen about the fascinating history of the Lord, the Award, and its current operations in UK and around the world.    

157 - Media Special - Marteye

Marteye has been an incredible success story since the start of Covid lockdown, a system now used by over 100 livestock markets across Ireland and UK to stream online sales and facilitate bidding. I speak with one of its founders, Jamie Nolan, about their journey and what the company now offers 2.5 million farmers who now tune into to sales, bringing local and national marts into their own homes.