July 7, 2025 • 5 mins
Our UK farming correspondent comments on the Groundswell Ag Festival, his royal connections and whether Wimbledon will break the summer drought after the driest spring on record.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's a UK farm and correspondent to Tom Martin farmer
Tom Martin, that's his moniker on social media. He is
an influencer, Tom. Were you influencing at the recent Groundswell
Regenerative agg Festival which is sort of probably near your
place because it's just north of London.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, it's about half an hour down the road. I
mean I go to Groundswell to be influenced. There's basically
everything that's going on in the world of regenerative agriculture,
mob grazing, all that kind of stuff is happening there
and you normally graciously send a kiwi are two over
and I think you sent us a good one, Thishy,
didn't you tell us chat with a good idea?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, well we've sent a Southlander over there, Grant Lightfoot,
with his sustainable bail net wrap. It's made from plant fibers,
so you can wrap up your hay or your bailage
and then the cattle can eat the rap as well.
I think it's a great idea and apparently Prince William
just loved it. And apparently I hear from your days
in Hollywood Tom and the previous life that you were
(00:56):
sort of mates with the likes of Prince William and
Meaghan Markle that they might.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
That's that's that couldn't be further from the truth. My
closest brush with that kind of fame is I used
to sell DVDs of soups, which is of course what
Megan Markle appeared in before she married Harry. So I
don't think that counts as a close personal friend or
even a kind of loose acquaintance. But you know, William
(01:22):
was at the festival, spent a lot of time walking
around meeting people. I mean he and he his father
and well his grandparents and the whole family are very
environmentally minded, very much interested in farming, food and rural life.
So it was great to have him there. And he
gave a fifteen minute address in the Big Top which
I did, which I didn't go to, but you know,
(01:43):
very well received and good to have some royal support.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Just on a side note, have you met any of
the rules?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah? I meant yeah. I met Prince Philip some years ago.
Princess Anne and I went on holiday together to Singapore.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Who are you and Prince You went on holiday to
Singapore with Prince is saying how come the tabloids didn't
pick up.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
On that because I was with about one hundred other
people for the Royal Agriculture Society of the Commonwealth conference.
But it sounds better if I say I went on
holiday with there.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So this Groundswell Agricultural Festival is a big deal. And
Prince William, as you say, very environmentally, we are like
a father. Is he a great supporter of British agriculture.
I'm assuming he is, and as he must be, he
must be at odds with the current labor government.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
They're big supporters of agriculture and you know, Charles was
way ahead of his time in terms of the environment.
I mean that the Royal family have various different estates.
I've got a friend who runs one of the states
in Norfolk. I mean they are interested, they are progressive,
they're environmentally minded. You know, they're a good a good family.
(03:02):
And of course they've got the Dutchy Originals brand which
is there, which is their organic brand from the Duchy
of Cornwall. So yeah, they are they're very much on
the money, very much on the money.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
The drought that we've been talking about, the dryest spring
on record in the UK. This drought has been broken
and on you this would happen Wimbledon comes along bumper.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well you called it, Jamie, but I mean having had gosh,
what have we had about thirty mili rain since the
first of March, and we normally expect to be five
times out amount had we had sixteen milimeters of rain overnight,
so half an inch in old money. I'm not quite
sure that's the drought broken because we're now going to
(03:43):
get back up into the low to mid thirties in
terms of temperature this week. But yeah, it's going to
be it's going to be a scortchire Thursday Friday, and
we'll probably forget that overnight rain that we had last
last night. We're just getting into harvest. We've harvested some
of our winter balley, winterstone bali, so yeah, we're getting
into it and half is moving forward.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Well what is it Monday your time as we record
this interview, Tom, So you've still got another five or
six days or one more month, so you're not without
hope at all. When it comes to the heat wave
wave we've seen scenes of this not only in the
UK but also in Europe. Put it into some sort
of historic perspective. How hot has it been.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah. I mean we haven't broken any records here in
the UK, but I see record and particularly overnight records
of overnight lows going in or around the Mediterranean. There
was a an incredibly rare event of sea surface temperatures
in the Mediterranean which is I can't remember quite. It's
not a one in a thousand year event. It's a
(04:48):
one in a something million year event, which is which
is incredible heating of that of the sea surface temperaure
around the Mediterranean. So it's been extraordinarily warm. That said,
as a farmer, I'm obviously watching that, but I'm watching
the impacts on the major grain producing regions around the world,
and Russia still seems to be doing okay, Ukraine not
(05:10):
too bad. The corn in North America is extraordinary. I
was there a couple of weeks ago and they say
me high by the fourth of July, whether it was
shoulder high before the fourth of July. So they're really
they're really doing one over there. So it's not it
doesn't give us any good news in terms of our
grain prices here, and in fact we're seeing some i
think probably historically low grain prices with our historically high
(05:33):
temperatures across the Mediterranean, so it's a bit of a
double whammy for versus farmers. And then and then the
backdrop of course of our situation with taxation. As you
mentioned earlier, Yes.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
The inheritance text not very popular at all. Were so
lucky in this country by comparison, Well, at least you
got the lions to look forward to. Farmer Tom Martin,
thanks for some of your time and I hope you
get some more rhyme go lions.
He's a UK farm and correspondent to Tom Martin farmer
Tom Martin, that's his moniker on social media. He is
an influencer, Tom. Were you influencing at the recent Groundswell
Regenerative agg Festival which is sort of probably near your
place because it's just north of London.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, it's about half an hour down the road. I
mean I go to Groundswell to be influenced. There's basically
everything that's going on in the world of regenerative agriculture,
mob grazing, all that kind of stuff is happening there
and you normally graciously send a kiwi are two over
and I think you sent us a good one, Thishy,
didn't you tell us chat with a good idea?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, well we've sent a Southlander over there, Grant Lightfoot,
with his sustainable bail net wrap. It's made from plant fibers,
so you can wrap up your hay or your bailage
and then the cattle can eat the rap as well.
I think it's a great idea and apparently Prince William
just loved it. And apparently I hear from your days
in Hollywood Tom and the previous life that you were
(00:56):
sort of mates with the likes of Prince William and
Meaghan Markle that they might.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
That's that's that couldn't be further from the truth. My
closest brush with that kind of fame is I used
to sell DVDs of soups, which is of course what
Megan Markle appeared in before she married Harry. So I
don't think that counts as a close personal friend or
even a kind of loose acquaintance. But you know, William
(01:22):
was at the festival, spent a lot of time walking
around meeting people. I mean he and he his father
and well his grandparents and the whole family are very
environmentally minded, very much interested in farming, food and rural life.
So it was great to have him there. And he
gave a fifteen minute address in the Big Top which
I did, which I didn't go to, but you know,
(01:43):
very well received and good to have some royal support.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Just on a side note, have you met any of
the rules?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah? I meant yeah. I met Prince Philip some years ago.
Princess Anne and I went on holiday together to Singapore.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Who are you and Prince You went on holiday to
Singapore with Prince is saying how come the tabloids didn't
pick up.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
On that because I was with about one hundred other
people for the Royal Agriculture Society of the Commonwealth conference.
But it sounds better if I say I went on
holiday with there.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So this Groundswell Agricultural Festival is a big deal. And
Prince William, as you say, very environmentally, we are like
a father. Is he a great supporter of British agriculture.
I'm assuming he is, and as he must be, he
must be at odds with the current labor government.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
They're big supporters of agriculture and you know, Charles was
way ahead of his time in terms of the environment.
I mean that the Royal family have various different estates.
I've got a friend who runs one of the states
in Norfolk. I mean they are interested, they are progressive,
they're environmentally minded. You know, they're a good a good family.
(03:02):
And of course they've got the Dutchy Originals brand which
is there, which is their organic brand from the Duchy
of Cornwall. So yeah, they are they're very much on
the money, very much on the money.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
The drought that we've been talking about, the dryest spring
on record in the UK. This drought has been broken
and on you this would happen Wimbledon comes along bumper.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well you called it, Jamie, but I mean having had gosh,
what have we had about thirty mili rain since the
first of March, and we normally expect to be five
times out amount had we had sixteen milimeters of rain overnight,
so half an inch in old money. I'm not quite
sure that's the drought broken because we're now going to
(03:43):
get back up into the low to mid thirties in
terms of temperature this week. But yeah, it's going to
be it's going to be a scortchire Thursday Friday, and
we'll probably forget that overnight rain that we had last
last night. We're just getting into harvest. We've harvested some
of our winter balley, winterstone bali, so yeah, we're getting
into it and half is moving forward.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Well what is it Monday your time as we record
this interview, Tom, So you've still got another five or
six days or one more month, so you're not without
hope at all. When it comes to the heat wave
wave we've seen scenes of this not only in the
UK but also in Europe. Put it into some sort
of historic perspective. How hot has it been.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah. I mean we haven't broken any records here in
the UK, but I see record and particularly overnight records
of overnight lows going in or around the Mediterranean. There
was a an incredibly rare event of sea surface temperatures
in the Mediterranean which is I can't remember quite. It's
not a one in a thousand year event. It's a
(04:48):
one in a something million year event, which is which
is incredible heating of that of the sea surface temperaure
around the Mediterranean. So it's been extraordinarily warm. That said,
as a farmer, I'm obviously watching that, but I'm watching
the impacts on the major grain producing regions around the world,
and Russia still seems to be doing okay, Ukraine not
(05:10):
too bad. The corn in North America is extraordinary. I
was there a couple of weeks ago and they say
me high by the fourth of July, whether it was
shoulder high before the fourth of July. So they're really
they're really doing one over there. So it's not it
doesn't give us any good news in terms of our
grain prices here, and in fact we're seeing some i
think probably historically low grain prices with our historically high
(05:33):
temperatures across the Mediterranean, so it's a bit of a
double whammy for versus farmers. And then and then the
backdrop of course of our situation with taxation. As you
mentioned earlier, Yes.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
The inheritance text not very popular at all. Were so
lucky in this country by comparison, Well, at least you
got the lions to look forward to. Farmer Tom Martin,
thanks for some of your time and I hope you
get some more rhyme go lions.
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