Episode Details

Today on the Tales of a Nuffield Scholar series I had the pleasure of chatting with Kate Speke Adams 🎙️ Kate is Managing Director of the Herefordshire Rural Hub, a farm support organisation helping farmers and rural businesses navigate everything from regulation and resilience to succession and business change. She is also a 2015 Nuffield Scholar whose study looked at how farmers can be re engaged with their soils through fear, finances, regulation or education 🌾

This episode also brings us to the end of series one of Tales of a Nuffield Scholar, eight episodes looking at those eligible for the Bullock Award. What a way to finish with the current holder of that award. The Bullock Award recognises the scholar who has made the most significant impact in the decade following their scholarship through leadership, innovation or contribution to the wider industry 🚜

We spoke about Kate’s upbringing on a dairy farm in Herefordshire and how her career has sat right at the intersection between farming and the environment, from work with organisations like the Environment Agency and Rivers Trust through to leading the Herefordshire Rural Hub today. Her Nuffield study focused on how farmers engage with soil health and what really drives change, whether that is education, financial incentives or regulation. One of the biggest takeaways from her travels was the power of peer to peer learning, farmers learning from farmers, something she now builds into much of the work the hub delivers 🌍

Kate shared some brilliant insight into the challenges farmers are facing in Herefordshire today, particularly around water quality, regulation and changing weather patterns. We also spoke about a huge landscape recovery project she has been leading that could reshape over 5,000 hectares of farmland along the River Wye, bringing farmers together to rethink how food production, environmental recovery and long term resilience can work side by side 🌱

We finished by talking about the Bullock Award itself and what it meant to reflect on the ten years since her scholarship. Kate spoke about how Nuffield builds confidence, opens doors and creates a network that continues to shape careers long after the travel ends, something that really sums up the spirit of this whole series.

We’ll see you for the next series with a new focus in two weeks.

Thank you to NFU Mutual for their support of this project.

Enjoy! 🙂

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