How many TFF members would support something like this?

Daniel Larn

Member
Getting back to the OP....

............we probably don't need to make a video, this chap has beaten us to it.........
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/harry-metcalfe-on-sustainable-livestock.298603/
That's pretty much what I had in mind but without the 'organic slant'.
The problem with these kind of videos, they do very little to grab the attention of people who aren't interested in the subject matter.

It's essentially countryfile, but possibly worse.

What is needed is something like the OP video, short and sweet and sells a message. It grabs attention and conveys a message without boring people to death with information.

Our idea was to create something entertaining, that people would want to watch, then sneak in key messages that we needed to share.
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
Although we don't have a media department, I'm wondering if I could get the college involved somehow - perhaps we might be able to provide some "farmers of the future" to be on film or something. I'll have a think.
 

Daniel Larn

Member
Did you ever get anything made?
No, sadly not, we had a production team and editors who were willing to produce a pilot on an 'at cost' basis, but it was still likely to cost in excess of £40k for what we had planned.

We had storyboarded it out, ran ideas past a panel of the public in some early consumer feedback testing. Everything!

Spoke to AHDB about getting behind it and they almost laughed the idea off, they loved their 'eat lamb' campaign though.

They wanted to help, but couldn't help fund it. And for us, it was a passion project that we wanted to do as a sideline. We couldn't justify it.
 

Fruitloop

Member
its all in here if you want a interesting read about where all your membership subs go

https://assets.publishing.service.g...ads/attachment_data/file/796572/245E_2018.pdf


Staff numbers was 797 up 40 on the previous year all contributing towards the 10 million £ pension fund also outlined in that document


Interesting bit in the auditors reports identifying that BREXIT is the single biggest threat THEY face as an organisation - maybe explains why they were so opposed from day 1 ?


also a bit shocked to see the NFU mutual insurance which I've always thought was not financially connected seemingly contributing 6.2 million £ of "other income" ?

In summary it looks lIke a bloody good organisation to work for and they are anything but short of money ! no wonder so many are so keen maintaining that status quo
Not sure it is much fun to work for now. Too scared of upsetting people. They were better before they left London when they were drinking with civil servants. Level of technical expertise is surprisingly poor on certain key subjects too. Refuse to employ people with requisite grunt or intellect. Watched them fail a number of farmers who were being stonewalled by Highways England on an infrastructure project. Wondered if the NFU staffer was confused as to who she was trying to help. Woeful if that is the best they have. Better spending your sub on proper representation. Drip drip drip.
 

Daniel Larn

Member
Would people be interested in supporting a new mixed media channel that was pushing out consumer focussed material to raise awareness, as well as industry focused stuff (reviews/discussion groups/QandA sessions etc.)?

With a focus on regenerative agriculture, but perhaps not exclusively.
 

Daniel Larn

Member
in English please (for us non-techies :))
There will be videos produced to a high standard, some published on YouTube for free (aimed at non-farming folk predominantly, but some good farmer focused stuff as well).

Then for folk on here (or elsewhere) who choose to support the project, there will be special videos that will be more farmer focused, that are not available for for free (members only kind of thing).

Probably releasing 3-4 videos per week.

Mainly talking about issues around regenerative agriculture and livestock farming (due to the nature of the partners we have at the moment), but we could include conventional farming and arable as well if the project got the right support.

The more farmers we have who can offer support for the project, the more I can leverage that with commercial partners for sponsorship etc.

The project isn't going to be cheap, but could be very effective if it was done right. Perhaps I went about it the wrong way before, AHDB etc. didn't have any interest, but maybe farmers backing it will allow us to get the funding in other ways.
 

delilah

Member
There will be videos produced to a high standard, some published on YouTube for free (aimed at non-farming folk predominantly, but some good farmer focused stuff as well).

Then for folk on here (or elsewhere) who choose to support the project, there will be special videos that will be more farmer focused, that are not available for for free (members only kind of thing).

Probably releasing 3-4 videos per week.

Mainly talking about issues around regenerative agriculture and livestock farming (due to the nature of the partners we have at the moment), but we could include conventional farming and arable as well if the project got the right support.

The more farmers we have who can offer support for the project, the more I can leverage that with commercial partners for sponsorship etc.

The project isn't going to be cheap, but could be very effective if it was done right. Perhaps I went about it the wrong way before, AHDB etc. didn't have any interest, but maybe farmers backing it will allow us to get the funding in other ways.

High quality media, aimed at the general public, explaining the importance of livestock farming ?
Can't think of anything that is needed more urgently.
However,
and you know what is coming now.
Many farmers would question why they should put their hands in their pockets when they consider that they already pay their advertising budget via the AHDB levy.

3-4 videos a week sounds a hell of a commitment to sustain. Can you not go back to AHDB with a pitch for just say half a dozen as a pilot ? Surely they can find the money for that ? If they get good public response you then have more leverage.
 

Daniel Larn

Member
High quality media, aimed at the general public, explaining the importance of livestock farming ?
Can't think of anything that is needed more urgently.
However,
and you know what is coming now.
Many farmers would question why they should put their hands in their pockets when they consider that they already pay their advertising budget via the AHDB levy.

3-4 videos a week sounds a hell of a commitment to sustain. Can you not go back to AHDB with a pitch for just say half a dozen as a pilot ? Surely they can find the money for that ? If they get good public response you then have more leverage.
Couldn't agree more.

3-4 videos a week is fairly standard for content creators on YouTube, many produce 7-10.

The problem is that AHDB aren't, or at least weren't, interested in funding something that was being produced in the way we wanted to produce it (I could go back to them, especially if we were to get a number of levy players to endorse the project).

I wanted something very modern, stylish and entertaining. AHDB felt that it wasn't possible, and even if it was, the metrics for measuring success would be to vague.

Therefore they couldn't justify it to the levy payers.

...ironic eh.
 

delilah

Member
Couldn't agree more.

3-4 videos a week is fairly standard for content creators on YouTube, many produce 7-10.

The problem is that AHDB aren't, or at least weren't, interested in funding something that was being produced in the way we wanted to produce it (I could go back to them, especially if we were to get a number of levy players to endorse the project).

I wanted something very modern, stylish and entertaining. AHDB felt that it wasn't possible, and even if it was, the metrics for measuring success would be to vague.

Therefore they couldn't justify it to the levy payers.

...ironic eh.

However many levy payers you got on this thread saying they support it, AHDB would rightly say it's not many of the total.
Can you go to, say, the 10 biggest producer groups, who market many thousands of finished animals a week on behalf of their members, and get them to support it ?

And you can't say this to AHDB as you want a relationship with them, but I can, their marketing to the public is utter shite.
 

yellowbelly

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
N.Lincs
The problem is that AHDB aren't, or at least weren't, interested in funding something that was being produced in the way we wanted to produce it (I could go back to them, especially if we were to get a number of levy players to endorse the project).
However many levy payers you got on this thread saying they support it, AHDB would rightly say it's not many of the total.
Can you go to, say, the 10 biggest producer groups, who market many thousands of finished animals a week on behalf of their members, and get them to support it ?
Here's the list of AHDB livestock board members...
http://beefandlamb.ahdb.org.uk/contact-us/meet-the-team/board-members/
Surely some members on here will know/farm near some of them. Can we put some pressure on them individually??
See new thread.
 

Daniel Larn

Member
This project of ours is looking more likely to go ahead regardless now.

Hopefully we won't actually NEED sponsorship from AHDB, but getting a group of farmers to chip in (even a token £0.99) shows to our other potential sponsors that there is a lot of interest and is likely to help us get more support from them.

Perhaps, once it starts rolling out, AHDB will come round.
 

delilah

Member
This project of ours is looking more likely to go ahead regardless now.

Hopefully we won't actually NEED sponsorship from AHDB, but getting a group of farmers to chip in (even a token £0.99) shows to our other potential sponsors that there is a lot of interest and is likely to help us get more support from them.

Perhaps, once it starts rolling out, AHDB will come round.

well you'd best get a shufty on........

(and by you, I mean the livestock industry, not you personally :) )

https://metro.co.uk/2019/10/17/best...RsL3wPeMxR_P2TqzYHl5kBma06k3VMMCic5a3lvU7svZQ
 

Daniel Larn

Member
well you'd best get a shufty on........

(and by you, I mean the livestock industry, not you personally :) )

https://metro.co.uk/2019/10/17/best...RsL3wPeMxR_P2TqzYHl5kBma06k3VMMCic5a3lvU7svZQ
I am back on the farm today, and have to get a few bits of footage for a small job for the NFU.

I will cut a few bits together over the weekend to hopefully give everyone a flavour of what we want to create.

...although I should add that I am not the best video editor around, so it's likely to be fairly short and sweet.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,285
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top