In this Farmers Guardian podcast episode, we are reporting live from LAMMA Show 2024. You can listen to head of Machinery, Toby Whatley, talk all about the mood at LAMMA and the outlook for the machinery market, while online editor, Emily Ashworth, reports live from the careers zone where this year, for the first time ever, 30 children were brought to the show to learn all about the farming world and what opportunities there are. She caught up with some of our campaign ambassadors and farming influencers Will Roobottom from Cowley Hill Farm, and Bizza Walters, to hear all about their experience taking the students around LAMMA. You will also hear from Jennie Devine, head of education at NFU, about the importance of connecting with kids with farming. And last but certainly not least, Jeremy Gibbs talks about his project Forces Farming and how there is a place for army veterans in agriculture - and it could just benefit your business.
In this Farmers Guardian podcast episode, we are reporting live from LAMMA Show 2024. You can listen to head of Machinery, Toby Whatley, talk all about the mood at LAMMA and the outlook for the machinery market, while online editor, Emily Ashworth, reports live from the careers zone where this year, for the first time ever, 30 children were brought to the show to learn all about the farming world and what opportunities there are. She caught up with some of our campaign ambassadors and farming influencers Will Roobottom from Cowley Hill Farm, and Bizza Walters, to hear all about their experience taking the students around LAMMA. You will also hear from Jennie Devine, head of education at NFU, about the importance of connecting with kids with farming. And last but certainly not least, Jeremy Gibbs talks about his project Forces Farming and how there is a place for army veterans in agriculture - and it could just benefit your business.
Up to £3,800 per year for managing ten hectares of soil and up to £4,600 for managing ten kilometers of your hedgerows. That's what you could get through a sustainable farming incentive agreement. Find out how SFI can work for you. Visit gov.uk. Forge slash future Dash. Farming Conditions Apply subject to eligibility. England Only. You're listening to the Farmers Guardian podcast. Last week, LMA 2024 opened its doors and welcomes over 40,000 visitors to the NSC and again, this year was worth the show and it was a record breaking success. I'm Emily Ashworth, the Farmer's Guardian's online editor, and I'm here with machinery editor Toby Whatley. Toby, what was the mood like at Llama this year? Well, Llama 24 was the 42nd edition of the event. And actually looking at the looking event listing to some visitors and dealers and the families that were there, it was really, really positive. And I think when we think about how agri technical was, you know, three months ago, a very, very, very big event, worldwide event. But actually the mood was quite subdued on commodity prices, looking at llama. There seems to be a bit of an uplift on that. The fine arts rate is dropping by and that's giving some real promise and some, I think, some progress to the sector. Yeah, there was really good atmosphere actually, and it was great to see so many people come through those doors. I headed up the careers zone, which returns to lot this year, and for the first time in conjunction with the NFU, we brought students from Non farming backgrounds to the show. You can hear some our ambassadors and some exhibitors live from the careers zone in the second half of this podcast. But first, here's Toby and Ben Briggs talking all things machinery. Well, hello and welcome to this special edition of the Farmers Guide and podcast. I'm Agri Connect group publisher and editor in chief Ben Briggs, and I'm joined by my erstwhile machinery colleague, Toby Whatley, who has spent the last few days here at Llama Withstood on the fence and amidst the hubbub of large crowds, record crowds. As a matter of fact, that this year's lawnmower at the NSC in Birmingham. And Toby, I'm just wondering, as the show draws to a close, what what would your highlight been? The I mean, initially the use of the word erstwhile was a wonderful one. So that's a treat for everybody. So I think looking around and listening, there was a lot of trepidation for the event, for someone, you know, the cost of agriculture going forward, that maybe some instability in the market in terms of commodities, but also the peer costs, in terms of lending to the business and actually listening to manufacturers. There is there is a reserve, I think positivity actually, that as you know, there is some good, good future options there and there is interest from customers and buyers. It's just what face customers are buying and how they're buying them has probably changed. But there's still a there is still a demand. Actually businesses need to progress. I mean, just they need to stay up to date with technology and we need to still be in that forefront of where they want to be for what was the fact that they've chosen to do so. I'm sure for regular listeners to their FG pods, you all tuned into mine and Toby's pontifications from Agri Technica, the German Machinery show in Hanover at the back end of last year. Now that's probably three or four months since we were over in Germany. But I actually think the mood here at Glamor is considerably more upbeat than when we were with our European counterparts at that stage, because looming large over that was it was interest rates was the price of borrowing and but all of which have started to ease a little bit. And there is some to optimism at the start of 2024. And I mean, looking ahead to the rest of the year, I think. LUMMIS That says it very well. But how do you think things will go? And also, how do you feel that the machinery manufacturers and the dealers here at Lonmin are feeling about the year ahead? I think they've compared to what we're seeing, let's say very much, very technical. That's very global. So as we said before, and the feelings there from from a global level were obviously wearing reflected worldwide, likely in Germany. There's a lot of challenges at the moment with there is the long term or long and short term sustainability of German farming in the UK. We are heading to a no to a road without basic payments, but we've been down that one for quite a long time now and I think there is a farming business that's going okay. We know we're going, this is probably happening. It's not unlikely even with the different, different government that we're going to see an overnight return to subsidies and talking to some some of the manufacturers that deliver products in a wide range of of market position and so to say, high end forage equipment that delivering effectively small, small mowers or teddies for a a an upland health on that's managing its own winter product team of forage harvesters that are using an ad market as a case in point that manufacturers turn around. I said actually yes, we're selling less product forward to dealers for your smaller family farm. Maybe part time farming business, because those decisions might be made entirely on when that products are available. You know, I pulled it out, the hedges frozen to by another one. So they have seen a drop back in stock of that that product. The other side, which is your big anaerobic digestion, your big dairy farms that are actually bringing services in-house because they need the security to which they didn't get from a contractor that might be on slightly variable margins. They're seeing a return to people going, I'm in this business, I know what my costs are. I know how I can operate my business and I know how to do it. You know, an increase for the finance, right? Or in the dairy sector increase for finance. Right. And a fall in milk price for some will just be a business problem to manage. They won't be a do or die existence of their business. Yeah. And I think it's it's going to be really interesting as we track the rest of this year. I think, as you say, we're likely to have a change of government later in the year. With many predicted a Labor victory at the back end of the year in a general election. But I think the ultimate reality is that farming policy, particularly in England, is not going to change overnight and we're going to be on the course with that set by switches and, you know, have some different caveats. Grow in some farmers are a bit more positive about and I think crucially stock lending criteria, if the interest rate continues to fall, then that's going to be a boost very for agriculture. And I think definitely we started this year. Llama 2024 with record numbers of visitors and you're talking to different manufacturers. There is an air of positivity, there's an air of, of hope in the industry, but really these shows are about to get bigger is better, some would say. And what are you or I'm just wondering, what are your top three pieces of machinery that you've seen that you've got excited about from this year's llama show? So if you're going on because obviously you now asking me to talk about really, really big kick, which is the change to the five year old, this is apparently staring at me now. And there's obviously that very, very big contract, which is the world's biggest production tractor. I've got to get that quite right, because it doesn't it's not the world's biggest tractor. It's the world's biggest production tractor. And by all means, go and work out the difference between the two because that will fill at least a day on the Internet. The the the truck is the biggest tractor that's here in terms of coal power. It's probably the heaviest tractor that's here. And actually listening and talk to the manufacturers about that product is they're saying even though this machine has been designed predominately for Eastern Europe, this has been designed for the Midwest, where there is a a falling labor pool, there is a a challenge, particularly in a certain part of Eastern Europe, where at some point soon is going to be a big investment in agriculture, is that they're saying actually in the UK it's people who are who are looking for a very, very tight weather window. So here is people who are looking to use bigger machines to account for a falling labor pool or a change in how they operate their business. So as the big tractors for tractors for big, big harvesting equipment, there's not far away from it is New Holland's biggest ever combined. And that's driven not on or certainly that that promoted persons but this is on that are on that they want to combine which is inch cheapest pound per hectare to harvest. So the bigger the combined gets, the more capacity it has the harvest, the cheaper it is the per tonne in what is harvesting to actually operate. And I've never heard manufacturers talk about that before. It's always been on harvest output as just a headline figure of this is how much you can harvest now is going, this is how much you can harvest and then there's a value attributed to it against the cost of the machine. Now that might be largely because the machine is going to cost in excess of a million quid. Yeah, but actually what that trend is almost set the scene is that yes, it costs a lot of money, but if you do something, it might actually work for you. Yeah. And the other parts are designed to that size of machine. You're saying that we're using more and more auto adjustment technology to improve the crushing capacity of the machine now. Okay. Fairly technical and fairly fairly niche in some circles. The idea being is that if you can make the machine more efficient in its ability to physically track a crop, you have less losses, which fundamentally adds to the profitability of the operation of the machine, which ten years ago coal mines were set up by operators. New Holland aren't saying you're not set to be a little brighter, but to get the figures of their quoting in terms of harvest capacity and ability to operate effectively, you have to use the technology, the machine, to achieve that. So rounding up your top three, what would be where size doesn't matter. What would be your favorite thing? What's that? What's the thing that has got Toby Whatley excited at this event? so on the coke stand is the hydrogen engine and Ben rolls his eyes to see me. Doesn't trust this. Well, I don't trust. And I certainly don't understand. That's why I employ people like you say hydrogen engine from turbo to small four cylinder engine. And it is a effectively a spark plug gas engine that's been developed running a hydrogen. Now, it's not necessarily something that we'd go, that's going to find a place that needs placed in a very, very, very large tractor. But you're listening to carbon from saying, look, something like 60% of all the diesel engines in Europe are in this this smaller 130 horsepower brake in agriculture. That's, you know, that's construction, that's ground care, that's arguably automotive as well. And it's also them going, look, we make more engines and anywhere else in the world. So diesel engines come more than anything else. And they're going we we can see the bulk of the engines we sell are used in smaller vehicles. And they're not trying to say that actually your conveniently 16 liter engine, the contract is immediately going to become hydrogen. But the little engines, we'll see and things will become hydrogen, but also lends itself to putting a little engine in an autonomous vehicle that can then run on hydrogen and it starts to change that dynamic of where that fits. So as a piece of tech on its own, it's quite niche. But how we carry on, how it mutates and enters into the rest of the industry is more is more to me more indicative of where I think we'll end up as best and as we do this. We we battle against the the tannoy announcing our great Connect TV, which Toby and I opened on the first day of the show and to great, great aplomb. But yeah, I think going back to the hydrogen powered the hydrogen engines, I was on the JCB stand and they were incredibly excited about this. And also in terms of what they're doing around just farmer interest in it and the fact that there is a lot more interest from farmers in this kind of technology moving forward. Well, I yeah, and I and I might have the thoughts on that. One is that agriculture has for a long time and we touched on this last time we have set fire to compressed dinosaurs. And I know you delight in this because it doesn't you can't fabricate the idea that any sort of fossil fuel had one sort of face. But we set fire to two dead dinosaurs and now we we've been burning liquefied dead dinosaur for a long, long time. But as an industry, we you know, as a planet as close as we come together forever, but actually as an industry, we're quite good at generating our own energy because, you know, agriculture is harvesting energy from the sun. And there's there's there's social questions around how we use land for land, use for food on land, use for energy. But you've got New Holland looking at methane tractors and meat that the methane that they are using to power their tractors is generated from livestock waste. So it's what they call the future of methane. It's methane which is basically freely available. And you sort of think if you're livestock farming, you have the ability to generate methane, which you do because you have nothing or you have slurry, why wouldn't you invest in this? Because it's it's a lot cheaper in the long term. And also it gives you much better energy security because you're not relying on diesel to power a machine when you could be using the gas that you are currently releasing in the atmosphere. And just by the nature of what happens, yeah, I think that circular notion really of being able to generate your own fuel is is a really interesting one. And I think actually that's going to where that's going to really spare a lot of interest in technology like that for the likes of, you know, whether it's JCB, whether it's Cobalt, I know New Holland have got their methane tractor up in there. And so it's it's going to be a really interesting direction of travel. I mean, I alluded to it before, but we've had record numbers of visitors at this year's event. And I'm just wondering why. Obviously, you know, we work for the companies, organizes agri connect, but it does really seem to us to have popped this year. And I'm just wondering from your perspective, you know, you've been you've been around the world to different events, Why do you think really this year's llama has been so popular? Well, it's it's it could be it could be that there's still you know, there's obviously still an, you know, an interesting tension the industry to progress and consider, but also from an entirely just vision point of view agriculture in Britain through various media programs, including a man who recently presented a television program on cars, has been brought to the fore of the population. A lot more people now have a better understanding through social media, through, you know, the likes of Amazon Prime on agriculture and where your food comes from. And as and I, we're going to have to bring this up because we can't not hear today over the last few days we've had the the farming simulator lead. Now we naturally know a lot about this. We don't know. We're obviously, you know, with that Toby and I are not big players of farming simulator, but it is one of the most downloaded video games in the entire world. So it's and I'm quoting figures now, like I've learned it because I have 25 million downloads, 25 million users on platforms and 90 million downloads. Now, from a from my position, I look at it and go, that's that's really rather huge. But but actually it sort of says that there is a huge interest in farm machinery, you know, in it with a group of people, a huge, huge, enormous group of people the agriculture probably never connects with. And the the point that I sort of pedaled around a few times is that if we're thinking about a world of economy and a world where we can't get hold of staff, a game which is fundamentally remote control of tractors, the to that there must be a commonality and a common ground between saying you can you can drive very, very accurate, surprisingly accurate versions of tractors on a game. We're not that far from driving actual tractors remotely And then suddenly as an agriculture's labor pool, there's a huge, you know, 25 million plus 90 million downloads whenever, you know, we're thinking about great population in Britain. But that's that's quite an astonishing labor pool that is actually didn't exist we didn't know existed five years ago. Yeah. And one of the things we're doing at Farmers Guardian Agri Connect is the jobs in Agriculture brand and really trying to promote careers in the industry. And I think anything where we have a hope to entice people back in and either back into the industry or into the industry for the first time has to be a positive thing for agriculture. And as a whole. But I our time here at the NSC kind of draws to a close on this, the shortened review of of plumber. If anybody did hear on aggregate technical musings, they will realize that we spent quite an inordinate amount of time at Bremen Airport talking about the sartorial designs of the German farmers where there was a high prevalence of sport shoes and more kind of mainstream clothing. But it's great to see that the UK in January we've gone back to a strong showing for dealer boots, jeans and a show full well. It's I need to probably balance that. We spent a lot of time discussing it. Ben spent a lot of time talking about it. But if we are going to go into shoes, we are looking to develop some sort of award scheme based upon the the quantity of tasseled boots that you could wear that isn't actually true. Or if it is true, then it is a really good idea. We'll cut that accordingly. Yeah, but you are right. The the well-known premium brand satisfaction favorite has been well represented. And when I was on the train down from Lancashire on the first day of the Man show, it was really like the party train. It was an 11 and 11 Koch Pendley no wall to wall form as at 730 in the morning, many of them having a really good drink already. So that aside, it has been an absolutely fantastic show here at the ABC. And as it's had record numbers, it's had record numbers of visitors, exhibitors, and it's been a brilliant showcase of UK agriculture. So for me that breaks in from him. Toby Whatley, thank you for listening and we'll speak to and see. That was good to hear Toby and Ben live from the event. I am talking all about careers. Nick So there was a real buzz in the career zone this year and share our passion for farming with the students was really exciting. First up, we hear from two of our careers ambassadors Will Rowbottom and Busi Walters. You've got to show the students around the show. Then we'll hear from Jenny from NFU Education. And last but not least, Jeremy Gibbs from follows his farming. So we are alumni and this year we have had students in the career zone for the first time ever. And I'm actually here with two of our ambassadors Buser and Wil, and I'm just going to hand over to them so they can tell you a little bit about what they do farm wise. And then it will be great to hear how you both kind of got on with the students today. So, Will, do you want to start? Yes. So I'm on the family farm at home. I run the sheep lock enterprise, the farm itself, the produce and Hayley's for the world and yeah, more recently and the farming, YouTube and stuff like. But is that so. Yeah. Like, well we're farming farm at home around 500 acres of sheep. And our goal we run a 600 head of North Country mill flock. I've also got my own sheep. I don't actually work full time on the farm. I help out, but I have my own flock of sheep as well. So fence to keep us busy. We also have diversification such as a feed, much business model lads, lots of stuff. So lots going on, lots going on. I need my time to come and help us out today, which is fantastic. So Will, I'm busy actually have the job of taking the students around. Let me show now these students from non backgrounds and they have no idea about farming, no connections. So from your point of view, did you enjoy it and kind of did it highlight just how much we need to make that connection to, you know, kids, especially outside the farming industry? Yeah, it was great fun. It just shows you and you have to realize how little people don't know that are from a farming background line. You can't assume that people know everything. We actually need to teach people the basics, really. So our farm is actually based about ten miles from here, and we think that I've come ten miles down the road into this environment where it's full of agricultural care and there's people here that I've no idea what does what. So it's for me actually, Yeah, it's interesting seeing how they're interacting with farmers like ourselves and also seeing this kit for the first time when we're literally ten miles down the road. It's such a it's two different worlds, really, but it's nice to bring them all together here and with the students kind of interacting with activities like with getting stuck in with a interesting kind of what they have to say. Definitely like a little thing, a little kit. Look, you go relish and never share before. So. it's a track to life, not just any track to any of them. They're excited bikes. They only just want to jump on the sea like that. Yeah, I mean, you and I see tractors, single bikes every day and you think, nice to find another tractor or that's a quad whizzing past is nothing very exciting for us. But yeah, as was just said to them, it's, it's, it's a new world and it's, it's exciting seeing them excited about it. It's like we say all the time, you know, we take it for granted because you're in it. And sometimes you need to take a step outside to actually appreciate that. You know, I'm not looking to have that, you know, such close proximity to, you know, what we do. And. Okay. So just to finish, if you could kind of say anything to if there's one thing that you can say to the students, Yeah, take away from this show, this experience, what would it be? I think if I've got a real interest in agriculture, I want to explore even more is to just ask questions. I mean, there's no such thing as a stupid question. I don't know much about dairy farming, and I would ask what I think is the most stupid question that people want to answer. They want you to learn, they want to help you. So that's my advice. Just ask any sort of question whether you think it's stupid or not. It's not. And people want to help. You know, Congress might say one thing to wildlife. Any of them are seriously interested. They might not be local. So the young farmers saw it as a great step in the industry and it kind of can bring people from a non farming background. Just showed a little bit of farming. Yeah, yeah. So I am at Llama show with Jenny who is the NFU Education manager, and today we have done something that was never done before. LLAMA, which is have 30 students come to llama show and hear all about careers in agriculture. And before we get onto that, Jenny, do you want to just tell me a little bit about your background and how you kind of came to work for Dan, if he was specifically doing the education science? Yeah, you do. Do okay. Yeah. So, so I was a I'm a primary school teacher for five years. I was leading maths in my in my school. And then I started to look for different opportunities where I could reach more children rather than just having science. Every year the job came up for a education manager at Stoneleigh. So I applied and I pitched a project I've been using a lot in my classroom during the interview, and that's how I that's how I came to start working on the interview. So this is now five years later. After that. And it's been it's been a steep learning curve and yeah, but we've done loads of really exciting things and we now have reached millions of children rather than just they started I used to work with. I think it would actually be nice if we can. Can you maybe highlight a couple of things that you have done education wise with the energy you really proud of all that, you know, really made a difference in terms of connecting kids with farming? Yeah, absolutely. So it is it's really rewarding. I'm starting to change stereotypes around food and farming, but also to reconnect children with why that food comes from, because it's such a useful context for STEM teaching and learning. But a lot of teachers, unless you make that connection for them because it's not on the national curriculum, they're not going to see it unless you put the resources, high quality and easy spec of news in front of them. So the thing that I'm thinking proud of is finding STEM surprise, which is the project I came with to my first ever interview with. And that's basically it takes the STEM curriculum and it links in all the ways possible to agriculture and it gives teachers a really engaging real life context for their STEM teaching that will engage their children. And, you know, everybody eats and it's something that everyone can relate to and exposes them to some of the opportunities that are in the industry. That project was actually we delivered that at Downing Street just last term, which to me so I guess what said that was something I'm very proud of and also very proud of the life lessons we do. We've been doing the life lessons for three years now. We've reached a million children do that, which is something that is on the national curriculum. It's something that I'm very proud to have been able to achieve. And do you want to also just explain the so the 30 students who are here today. Yeah. Where they're from. Yeah. So we've invited 39 students from schools in urban locations who don't have a agricultural background, haven't necessarily thought about agriculture as a as a career path and the idea is to just to expose them to some of the of the wealth of opportunities available within agriculture and get them to start thinking about that teaching careers, how they can apply their interests. Like some of the children are interested in science, some of them are interested in technology, some of them are really interested in journalism. And this was a place for all of them here. It's definitely a hard target group to kind of, you know, in terms of showcasing what we actually do. But llama is the perfect place to actually be able to, you know, connect what we are saying to them to then actually seen around them because, you know, we could tell people until we're blue in the face that agriculture is full of technology. But you walk around the show and the amount of tech and science that's on display is pretty incredible. So do you think that when they leave llama, you know what they're going to take away from this? Do you think? It's opened their eyes a little bit to the world of farming? absolutely. I think you're right. They were only as of an hour and a half in. And I think already we've shown them so much, so many opportunities, so much technology, so much innovation and so many places where they could be applying that skills and that interest within the world. The fate of farming. So, Jeremy, you all from forces farming, you obviously farm yourself as well, but do you want to just tell people a little bit about what forces farming is and how you kind of run it? Yeah, so forces farming, I say, represents the link between the armed forces and agriculture, and it's something I've been building probably for the last three or four years in terms of up to now connecting, leaving or serving personnel with opportunities in agriculture, either into specific career paths like engineering or shepherding or dairy, for example. But now going forward, we're launching an initiative to focus on supporting serving personnel as they come up to leave into placements with partner farms under the six by six program. We're obviously at LLAMA and you've got Stanton in the career zone, and every time I've looked over you've always been speaking to somebody, which is great to see. So what's the reception been like? Have you spoken to farmers? Have you spoken to businesses? What what's today been like? So the day has been really interesting. The two days actually have been really interesting because the level of engagement in a different kind of initiative that touches on the social part of farming that also brings in a bit of structure has been really positively received. I've had probably an endless list of farmers that need people, and we know there's a massive industry shortage of skills and and attributes and whatnot for agriculture, but overall farmers have been really positive about the idea of having a structure and an organization to help ex-military and help service personnel move into the industry and as well stay in the industry and increase retention. This is you know, you've got proof, you know, on your stands that this can work and you can positively take, you know, and someone who's left the army and find them a place in farming. And so do you want to maybe just talk a little bit about some of the success stories that have come from what you're actually doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So one of the most recent people that were hired, actually, he got in touch with me, I think it was about two years ago, so he knew he was coming up to his medical discharge. So we started his resettlement or started his resettlement support quite early on. And the added value that forces farming brought to the table was giving his resettlement officer and team someone to work with and a reference point for the industry. So rather than just saying I want to work in farming, having forces farming in the mix provides a bit of structure and a bit of contact and reference for someone that is going to be, let's say, either either discharged medically or leave the forces to come into agriculture. So yeah, we've had a few winds recently of people moving into the engineering sector. That is a natural crossover for people that have been fixing and mending stuff in the armed forces. And also one of the nice things is we've had quite a lot of dealings recently with reservists, so people that are still serving under a reserve or part time basis to the armed forces and how that fits into their jobs. So that really area that that highlights some areas where businesses by working with reservists can leverage a lot of skills that are taught in the armed forces, but also can be leveraged in the civilian jobs and civilian world. So just to finish on add on, I mean, and this is put me quite simply, but you know, if you what would you say to the farmers or businesses who, you know, have kind of the capacity to offer experience to, you know, and these Army veterans because it kind of ticks two boxes then as well, doesn't it? That's helpful. You and you offering someone kind of a bit of a gateway into the industry and it doesn't actually take that much? And have you asked the whole time Exactly. You hit the nail on the head there. It doesn't take that much effort. More time. And talking to contractors here, lama finding the right people that can take someone who's coming out of the forces and almost accept upfront they're not going to be the finished article. I'm going to have to invest a little bit in training and I'm going to have to invest some time in making sure that this person's the right, the right kind of operator or the right kind of person to work with livestock or whatever. But on the basis that if you invest a little bit of time and training upfront, the loyalty and the retention is there for the long term. So if someone's looking for, let's say, maybe seasonal workers or for, you know, placement placement opportunities, I'm looking in particular for farms that have a very strong focus on the health and safety side and especially for the kind of new entrants and nonagricultural people I'm dealing with. I'm looking as well to almost have a model of a kind of like a plus one on the farm. So if I can help you find someone who's transitioning out of the armed forces, they won't be a full employee. But if they can come onto the farm as a plus one over the sort of six weeks or six months, they can potentially start to add value and and give the business a good return on investment in terms of investing in people and talent and the skills. Now just to end the podcast, I quickly caught up with Georgina Lam from the farming community to network llamas, charity partner, all about resilience and the mental health debate that took place at the show. I am here with Georgina from CNN, and today at Llama, there has been a panel which she's been discussing mental health. So do you want to just tell us a little bit about what you've been discussing on that panel that was, you know, maybe the outcome of it? We had a really frank and honest conversation about how we as an industry address mental health and how we actually talk about it. So possibly that in this day and age we're talking about it a little bit more negatively and leading with the negative and not looking at positivity and resilience and coping mechanisms for farmers. So almost setting the next generation up to think that there's going to be problems when actually there's a lot to celebrate and how we as an industry come together and show support and normalize asking for help. So it's a real great conversation, very positive and taking great care of each other as an industry and making sure that support is there when it is needed. Yeah. And in terms of, you know, obviously this is a great space to kind of interact with people as well and talk about this subject. Has there been kind of interest in the stand here? We have people approaching here. Have you been able to talk quite openly with, you know, visitors? We've had a great couple of days and all different walks of of life and society, of common visitors from from younger farmers to the older generation, people that knew about the charity and actually people that know of people that have been supported. And I think that's really great that people are coming to talk to us and we're not seen as talking to have seen as a sign of failure or but would very much normalizing the conversation that we're just another resource here to support those in difficult times. So yeah, it's great. It's been very busy and I've appreciated the opportunity to fly the flag for CNN. And in terms of obviously before you just touched on, you know, the next generation and kind of almost preparing them and it's a new year. It's January. Looking ahead, I mean, we know informing the public is can crop up overnight. And, you know, that's just the nature of the beast. But what do you urge people to do in terms of, you know, talking about mental health and actually just saying to people is, okay, like you just mentioned, that perhaps it might be seen as, you know, what are people going to think if I visit the FCA and stand by what you want to say to people? I think that it's really important to accept your vulnerabilities as well and understand that it's okay that there won't always be a great day. But tomorrow, you know, with help and with encouragement and learning from from each other, that there are better times ahead and there is hope. Agriculture, it's really encouraging to see so many people in agricultural colleges and even farmers clubs wanting to join what can be a great life and very encouraging with their eyes wide open, knowing that GPS payments are being phased out, knowing that there are challenges. But still seeing farming is a great life and great potential for the future. And we talk again, we lots of people about, you know, the next generation. And obviously we are as an industry, definitely taking mental health more seriously. And it's, you know, breaking down that stigma that is happening. Well, is that sort of, you know, is it really true to say that the next generation talk about this more or have we kind of got that perception wrong? I think that personally, I feel as though the next generation have got it almost harder because you can you can't you can hide behind a perception of how great your life is on social media and post all the rosy days because you don't want to look like things aren't going so well, so very much seeing your peers succeeding and and having to live up to that expectation of what life is supposed to look like. Older farmers tend to tell you a little bit more about how bad things have been and how, you know, difficult times have been. But the stresses and strains of of living up to expectation and the pressures of social media, I think is a huge thing for the next generation that challenges are different than the old ones. But I think that checking in on your friends, no matter what age they are and having time to have those sometimes to full conversations. Yeah. Are you okay? Let's go and have a chat. Let's go for a walk. Let's just step away from it and try and get a little bit more clarity when things might not be what they seem yet. Hopefully anyone who's visited the town today can kind of take that away as well. So that's only positives. Absolutely. But championing, you know, British agriculture and really demonstrating that there is support out there for anybody, no matter what the challenge, big or small, but hopefully reaching out to people way beyond, way before the point of crisis. I think that's really and let's try and help each other before times get increasingly challenging. That was really fantastic to hear all that back because it really was such a successful event and tell it, you want to just tell everybody where they can go to. Find highlights from Lima. So on our Fiji Farmers Guardian website on the machinery section, we've got highlights and some in-depth reviews of the event. Looking at some of the products that were on display and some feedback from manufacturers and visitors. Great. And make sure to check out all social media as well because there are some fantastic videos with some visitors and exhibitors on there as well. That's it from the Farmers Guardian podcast this week. And we'll be back next week.