Positive View of Food and Farming

Having started HPF in 2012 the record of people who’ve been helped to get started in their careers in farming by The Henry Plumb Foundation has been significant. Virtually all of them through a balance of knowledge, determination and careful mentoring. These people through harnessing their own skill and ambition, their own thought and hard work are making their way in the world of farming and very much a part of the future. Several of our scholars have appeared in press articles and trustees experience huge satisfaction in finding so many different approaches to the business. During the last few months, even when farming life has been unusually difficult, we’ve found ourselves amazed at the high standard of young people who’ve developed ideas and made their way to us making distinct marks in the farming world of the present and future.  Many of these ideas are running with a trend but often completely against the tide.

Our Trustees have been Amazed

Without naming anyone The Henry Plumb Trustees have been amazed to see the folk we’ve been able to help, we’ll talk about them a few months down the road when their plans have had a chance to move forward. Several have come from non-farming backgrounds, and all have done some worthwhile homework with good plans to take them forward. One lady who’d moved out of London and on paper looked to have an idea which would be difficult to bring to profit and  we shall be watching her with interest. She married a farmer who she then persuaded to let her have a small amount of land and a building or two which could be converted for milk production but unusually not in a big way. She’d been attracted to the idea of setting up a small herd of Jersey cows producing high-quality milk, her own butter and cheese and generally opening up the business as an opportunity to show townsfolk what milking could be about. She’d worked out from simple surveys that there was a real demand for quality Jersey milk, got some tangible and practical help from a fellow Jersey enthusiast, achieved a regular clientele for her high quality Jersey milk and with just a few cows will be able to grow the business into an opportunity to show her clientele for milk products that her form of high level quality production and animal care is a matter which, in this very odd world, can be capitalised on in a carefully structured way. Her mentor is a senior livestock lecturer from one of our best-known teaching and research establishments.  A true case of having an ambition, reading the public facing messages and turning it all into a thriving business. Early days yet of course but the pattern is good, the enthusiasm infectious and all the early indicators are that it will develop.

Careful Encouragement

Another young lad in the North of England sent in a very short application letter which with a bit of careful encouragement brought in one of the best applications we’ve ever had. This young man had some handicaps which he’d learned to live with, he’d been brought up with parents in the Hotel Trade with a strong dislike of the education system, enough said.  He then left school determined to carry on with educating himself in the matters which interested him, part of which found him working at an auction market part time and at the same time working what hours were left learning the dry stonewalling trade which was being promoted by The Northern Dry Stone-Walling Association. At 15 years old he won the competition for young enthusiasts of the trade and a year later he won the senior walling competition. He then gradually worked away to grow his own sheep farming business with dispersed blocks of land and eventually got the tenancy of a ten-acre farm with some buildings in need of repair.  It was at that stage that he came to The Henry Plumb Foundation to help him take the next step. He wanted a mentor who could help him with the necessary paperwork and because of the development of his business which involves moving sheep from one spot of grazing to another he found that he needed a good stock trailer. A good secondhand trailer was acquired with a substantial leg up from The Henry Plumb Foundation but he is clearly heading in the right direction.

Both of the above are unusual and it is that which prompted their publication. Most are far more close to the industry. Typical was a young man who in the course of attending an NFU Scotland meeting on the next generation was asking some pointed questions about going in for sheep production. He was approached by a Henry Plumb Foundation enthusiast at the meeting and asked about his circumstances and intentions. It transpired that he was from a farming family who’d been steered away from sheep by his father but realizing that farming was already in his blood had returned home with the thought that he should find a new direction. He approached the Henry Plumb Foundation which provided him with an experienced Mentor and some financial help to move him into a positive practical direction.

During his first lambing he reared 116 lambs from a flock of 68 gimmers, an excellent first attempt by any standards, let alone a single-handed young individual. His lambs were reared and finished off grass and sold at the local auction over a two-week period in July 2025. In year two the flock was extended to over 200 ewes with similar excellent results with 90 ewe lambs being retained for adding to his flock.

Clearly the financial help, the mentoring and general practical guidance has set him up to be a successful sheep farmer. We have a number of similar experiences. All of which start with the question, where can I get some help with my idea? Whatever it is even if it seems to be a new thought or one which is established and well proven. The Trustees of the Plumb Foundation enjoy the challenge of helping young people get started as someone who I worked for over half a century ago told me, it costs nothing to ask, and the Henry Plumb Foundation has been created to help young farmers get started. There is no charge to apply, and it could easily change your life.

John Thorley, Chairman, HPF