James Rebanks

[JP1]

He seems very likable, and I'm all for farmers getting a good press and talking sense.

Having said that, he is really lucky in the "story" he's got : World class landscape, really cute sheep, plenty of honest toil, proper rural yokel stuff, self - improvement through education.... All that washes really well with readers of the waitrose magazine.

And the rest of us are a bit of a disappointment for not being like that.

I think all of that's true. Good for him

Last year I went to Castle Douglas belted Show and sale. Between him with crowd funding and another acquisitive businessman the bids climbed too high on some of the lots and I yielded. I don't resent them and know what my Grandad told me "nothing that's easy can last"

 

[Highland Mule]

Well if those crusties causing all the disruption are anything to go by I'll take my chance without number 2 thank you.

+1. I’m not even sure that the environment and the crusties are allies. Far more and far better done for the environment by those that work away quietly.

 

[Treg]

Have just skimmed that looking for the paragraph that matters; in any article there is generally one paragraph that contains the salient point, with the rest just being padding to get it up to the word count demanded by the editor.

We need to make being an ecologically sound farmer financially viable. That requires a new deal between farmers, government, retailers, taxpayers and the consumer — a deal that protects and supports good farming and environmental stewardship. A deal that creates viable local food economies in which everyone has access to affordable good food.

He is almost there.
1) Market share is the root of all evil. Reverse the concentration of market share in food retailing and the required changes in the rest of the food chain will fall in to place.
2) UK agriculture and the environment movement are each others greatest allies. Neither can achieve its objectives without the support of the other.
3) All ELMS area payments should go to PP.

I've still got £10 here with your name on it if there's a decent payment for PP .
I personally don't think anyone in control has the foggyest about the environment & biodiversity.
I think all payments will be directed at the farmers that have destroyed the most to improve what there doing .
The New payments will be evidenced based so if your already farming in harmony with the environment how will you show a improvement?

 

[Tubbylew]

Just finished it, spoke an awful lot of sense, (to me at least) well worth a read.

 

[PhilipB]

The audiobook is now on Audible, but I'm not sure I can cope with the narrator. Sounds a bit whiney.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Have just skimmed that looking for the paragraph that matters; in any article there is generally one paragraph that contains the salient point, with the rest just being padding to get it up to the word count demanded by the editor.

We need to make being an ecologically sound farmer financially viable. That requires a new deal between farmers, government, retailers, taxpayers and the consumer — a deal that protects and supports good farming and environmental stewardship. A deal that creates viable local food economies in which everyone has access to affordable good food.

He is almost there.
1) Market share is the root of all evil. Reverse the concentration of market share in food retailing and the required changes in the rest of the food chain will fall in to place.
2) UK agriculture and the environment movement are each others greatest allies. Neither can achieve its objectives without the support of the other.
3) All ELMS area payments should go to PP.

What about rotational grass and getting biology back into the arable rotation?

 

[JohnGalway]

I think all of that's true. Good for him

Last year I went to Castle Douglas belted Show and sale. Between him with crowd funding and another acquisitive businessman the bids climbed too high on some of the lots and I yielded. I don't resent them and know what my Grandad told me "nothing that's easy can last"

The crowdfunding was a really good idea, but you have to be quite well known for it to work. I saw another farmer just as committed to some of the things James Rebanks is doing try it and there was a chasm in £££ donated. Anything to do with people is all about the relationship already built.

 

[PhilipB]

I see he's got a new book out.

Should we rush to buy, or wait till it gets to the charity shops?

I've just finished the audiobook.

Pretty good, I though. Though I found him frustratingly vague on his finances, and couldn't quite follow the chronology.

But the basic picture seemed to be that he turned green after arable ceased to be in any way possible for him.- Its easy to berate an industry that you can't be a part of.

His message that people ought to not to have super cheap food is lovely, I'm all for that, but it's an impossible message to sell, and I don't think this book really changes that.

 

[Danllan]

Just to be pedantic, James Rebanks wrote ‘The Shepherd’s Life’. ‘A Shepherd’s Life’ is the classic written by W H Hudson in 1910 about shepherding on the Wiltshire Downs - an excellent read if you can get hold of a copy. Fairly sure that Rebanks imitated the title on purpose when he wrote his book.

Hudson's book is very interesting reading; for any who've read it, I wonder what struck you most, for me it was the poverty of the times and the people. 'Grinding poverty' is a phrase too often used in this regard, but even for a well-respected and, for the time, reasonably paid shepherd it seems apt.

As for Rebanks... Mrs Danllan read his book and liked it, so I did and didn't, much. A few quite interesting bits, and probably a good introduction to the realities of one type of livestock farming for a layman. But I didn't like his style of writing, so I guess it's more down to personal taste than general criticism.

 

[Johngee]

Hudson's book is very interesting reading; for any who've read it, I wonder what struck you most, for me it was the poverty of the times and the people. 'Grinding poverty' is a phrase too often used in this regard, but even for a well-respected and, for the time, reasonably paid shepherd it seems apt.

As for Rebanks... Mrs Danllan read his book and liked it, so I did and didn't, much. A few quite interesting bits, and probably a good introduction to the realities of one type of livestock farming for a layman. But I didn't like his style of writing, so I guess it's more down to personal taste than general criticism.

Hudson’s described a way of life which had been around for centuries, one which my grandparents would have been familiar with, but which is gone forever now. It was an inspired choice for him to record it - there’s plenty of records of the upper classes of the time, but not of the peasantry.
Rebanks’ latest book is ok, I think it’s aimed at the general public not farmers. There are some inspiring stories in there about his family, past and present, but there’s a lot of romantic scenes as well. I agree about his style, it’s very poetic and doesn’t flow.
I’ve ordered a copy of ‘Farmer’s Glory’ by A G Street now after seeing it mentioned by Rebanks.

 

[JP1]

Hudson's book is very interesting reading; for any who've read it, I wonder what struck you most, for me it was the poverty of the times and the people. 'Grinding poverty' is a phrase too often used in this regard, but even for a well-respected and, for the time, reasonably paid shepherd it seems apt.

As for Rebanks... Mrs Danllan read his book and liked it, so I did and didn't, much. A few quite interesting bits, and probably a good introduction to the realities of one type of livestock farming for a layman. But I didn't like his style of writing, so I guess it's more down to personal taste than general criticism.

Read Patrick Laurie’s Native . I prefer his writing style

 

[Sharpy]

Hudson’s described a way of life which had been around for centuries, one which my grandparents would have been familiar with, but which is gone forever now. It was an inspired choice for him to record it - there’s plenty of records of the upper classes of the time, but not of the peasantry.
Rebanks’ latest book is ok, I think it’s aimed at the general public not farmers. There are some inspiring stories in there about his family, past and present, but there’s a lot of romantic scenes as well. I agree about his style, it’s very poetic and doesn’t flow.
I’ve ordered a copy of ‘Farmer’s Glory’ by A G Street now after seeing it mentioned by Rebanks.

You won't regret reading Farmers Glory, a very good read and insight into a bygone age.

 

[Danllan]

You won't regret reading Farmers Glory, a very good read and insight into a bygone age.

See below...

...I’ve ordered a copy of ‘Farmer’s Glory’ by A G Street now after seeing it mentioned by Rebanks.

One of my greatest weaknesses... I dearly love books, so I've just ordered a copy too; the general reviews are good, so it should be an interesting read.

A lot of people romanticise the past, there is no doubt many things were more picturesque and a few very probably were 'better', but a hell of a lot was bl**dy awful. My father was born in the early 1930s, his father was born in the late 1880s, the stories I heard courtesy of them - both first and second-hand - have left me with no illusions as to how hard things often were.

But, they've also left me with the definite view that we've lost 'something' they had; I think that is because farming now employs much fewer people, and because those remaining - me included - spend less time in each other's company. Hard to see how these can now be changed for the better...

 

[Stuart J]

Farmers glory is excellent.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Farmers glory is excellent.

I think the best farming book ever written. A book about farming in the past but with so many similarities with the present.
It was AG Street’s first book (of many) too.

 

[PhilipB]

You won't regret reading Farmers Glory, a very good read and insight into a bygone age.

Interesting.

I've never read any A G Street. But I see I've got a copy of "farmer's glory"

I'll give it a go

 

[Johngee]

See below...


One of my greatest weaknesses... I dearly love books, so I've just ordered a copy too; the general reviews are good, so it should be an interesting read.

A lot of people romanticise the past, there is no doubt many things were more picturesque and a few very probably were 'better', but a hell of a lot was bl**dy awful. My father was born in the early 1930s, his father was born in the late 1880s, the stories I heard courtesy of them - both first and second-hand - have left me with no illusions as to how hard things often were.

But, they've also left me with the definite view that we've lost 'something' they had; I think that is because farming now employs much fewer people, and because those remaining - me included - spend less time in each other's company. Hard to see how these can now be changed for the better...

Well I finished ‘Farmers’s Glory’ yesterday and thought it was excellent, really compelling, with Street’s descriptions of the different systems he’d experienced and the changes he’d witnessed by the time was 40.
I was aware of the outdoor milking system as I was at university with one of the Hosier family and knew the history. But you become aware in the book of Street’s transition from a son of a gentleman farmer, via the Canadian prairie, to someone who gets up at 4am to milk cows in the open air in all weathers, before doing his milk round. And he describes it all so well.
So, what’s our next book to read then? Any farming classics we could catch up on? I’ve got Amanda Owen’s latest offering and Emma Gray’s book here which Mrs JG bought recently. Any other suggestions?

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Well I finished ‘Farmers’s Glory’ yesterday and thought it was excellent, really compelling, with Street’s descriptions of the different systems he’d experienced and the changes he’d witnessed by the time was 40.
I was aware of the outdoor milking system as I was at university with one of the Hosier family and knew the history. But you become aware in the book of Street’s transition from a son of a gentleman farmer, via the Canadian prairie, to someone who gets up at 4am to milk cows in the open air in all weathers, before doing his milk round. And he describes it all so well.
So, what’s our next book to read then? Any farming classics we could catch up on? I’ve got Amanda Owen’s latest offering and Emma Gray’s book here which Mrs JG bought recently. Any other suggestions?

On the Smell of an Oily Rag by John Cherrington.

 

[JP1]

On the Smell of an Oily Rag by John Cherrington.

And Outbursts by Oliver Walston

 

[Sharpy]

Well I finished ‘Farmers’s Glory’ yesterday and thought it was excellent, really compelling, with Street’s descriptions of the different systems he’d experienced and the changes he’d witnessed by the time was 40.
I was aware of the outdoor milking system as I was at university with one of the Hosier family and knew the history. But you become aware in the book of Street’s transition from a son of a gentleman farmer, via the Canadian prairie, to someone who gets up at 4am to milk cows in the open air in all weathers, before doing his milk round. And he describes it all so well.
So, what’s our next book to read then? Any farming classics we could catch up on? I’ve got Amanda Owen’s latest offering and Emma Gray’s book here which Mrs JG bought recently. Any other suggestions?

Anything by John Cherrington, as above "On the smell of an oily rag" is very good and makes you think.