UFU podcast - Have you listened in yet?

​If you have not listened in yet, be sure to check out the list of episodes that

are now available on Spotify and Amazon Music.

The Farmer’s Wife

Helen Rebanks lives with her husband James (farmer and author) and four children on their family farm in the Lake District. In this bonus episode, Helen chats about her new book, The Farmer’s Wife. It’s a role that resonates worldwide and is arguably iconic, but instead of being celebrated and characterised with dignity, it has been continually deprecated by society – until now.

Taking the narrative into her own hands, Helen is extremely honest and open, in writing and in person, about her journey to date. She discusses many subjects including relationship dynamics, raising children to value domestic work, the importance of sustainable food and home cooking, farming with nature, and support for agriculture.

A chat with Claire Taylor

Claire Taylor is an agricultural communicator and a 2023 Nuffield Farming Scholar.

From the west coast of Scotland, Claire grew up on a small farm and is honest about her reroute back into agriculture six years ago. Since then, she has been championing UK agriculture by word of mouth, utilizing social media and participating in media interviews.

The Scottish native is well travelled with a worldly view and the conversation was hugely insightful from beginning to end. Claire talks in depth about engaging with the public, their relationship with farmers, food production at home and abroad, and her agricultural travels.

A focus on social farming

Social Farming is an innovative use of agriculture to promote therapy, rehabilitation, social inclusion, education and social services in rural areas. Delivered by local charity Rural Support, there are currently 15 active social farms in Northern Ireland.

Robert Davis, Laurelview Equestrian Centre and Farm, and Jacqui Magennis,

Magennis Farm, are both social farmers. To raise more awareness of this initiative, they discuss their journey to become social farmers, the benefits for everyone involved and why it needs to become more mainstream in Northern Ireland.

The impact of TB on farm families

In March of this year, bovine TB herd incidence in Northern Ireland reached a record high. Armagh farmer Sean O’Hanlon knows all too well about the devastation TB causes. A truth that cannot be articulated by figures or statistics.

In 2018, Sean lost his dairy herd to TB despite taking all measures within his control to protect his livestock. In this episode, Sean recalls that difficult period of his life which hit his family hard and changed the future of the family farm.

Catching up with Macra Na Feirme president

Farmer and physio Elaine Houlihan became the 39th president of Macra Na Feirme in April of this year. Alongside Vanessa Kiely O’Connor, she was recently appointed to the Teagasc Authority by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D.

Kicking off the third series of the podcast, Elaine spoke frankly about keeping

pressure on politicians, cattle culling, part time farmers and being anything but, a token woman.

To find any of the episodes listed above, plus episodes from the previous seasons, simply search UFU podcast Farming 24/7 on Spotify.