Diversification Awards The Farmers' Country Showdown

Across the country,

thousands of farming families work tirelessly around the clock.

Stop arguing, girls. Give over.

SHRILL WHISTLE

But there's one day each year

where they get to leave the daily routine behind.

Right, here we come, Dorset.

These are show days...

..when they come together as a community

to showcase the fruits of their labour...

I just love showing my girls off.

..and try to win prizes for their breed champions...

Smashed it.

..and award-winning produce.

That's really nice cheese, that.

It was very good, darling.

There will be highs...

That's what we want to see - red. Red is the best.

-..and lows...

-She's not happy enough to go.

..for the dedicated farmers who give everything to walk away a champion.

Fingers crossed.

In the agricultural social calendar,

there is one night of the year that celebrates farmers' ingenuity -

the Farmers Weekly Awards.

This year's category for Diversification Farmer of the Year

has three outstanding shortlisted finalists,

who have all given their farms a new lease of life.

They've been hand-picked by the judges for successfully finding

alternative ways to bring money into their farm

outside of traditional methods.

The Mays are from North Devon,

the Richards are from Cornwall,

and the Nicholson family are from South Yorkshire.

This award is to acknowledge their hard work, adaptability,

planning, and determination.

And in a few days' time,

one of them will be taking it home from a glittering black-tie event

in the heart of London.

In the lush, green valleys of South Yorkshire,

the 180 acres that is Cannon Hall Farm

are home to our first finalists

for this year's diversification award - the Nicholson family.

Father Roger's farming story began when he was a teenager.

When I got to 15 years old,

the land we had was taken away by compulsory purchase, so we had to

move to another farm and my father bought this at an auction.

My father only lived a year after buying the farm,

so I had to leave school, although I was quite glad to do so,

and take over the running of the farm.

Happily, his early farming years brought rewards as well, in the

shape of his wife, Cynthia, who was also from a farming background.

I was in the Halifax Young Farmers Club,

and that's how I met Rog.

He came to a party on the 2nd of January 1962.

For the next three decades,

the couple would try their hand at farming everything and anything to

turn a profit, including pigs, sheep, cattle, and even vegetables.

The one thing I can remember doing that I don't think I'll ever

do again was chopping turnips

on a very wet November day and I thought, "No way,

"I'm not doing that any more."

After years of struggling to make ends meet and with three young boys

to support, the Nicholsons decided to sell some of the buildings

on the land to raise some much-needed capital.

The farm buildings and the farmhouse were listed,

so we sold three houses and developed three more for ourselves.

This hard-won cash meant that they could start to have some big dreams

for the future.

The first one I had was a golf course, really, because I'm quite

a sporty person, but it would have taken quite a lot of land.

Instead of a golf course,

the couple decided to open their first small catering venture.

We had actually opened a tearoom.

-1981.

-1981.

The tearoom turned a tidy profit, and even the couple's young sons

managed to make a penny or two.

We used to get some chickens and just walk up to strangers

-and say, "Do you want..."

-He used to tell me to walk up to strangers.

"Do you want to stroke a chicken for 1p?"

And that was our first foray into farm tourism.

He set me up and sent me to... And then he kept the money! So...

From the Nicholsons' early endeavours,

the idea of farm tourism for families began to take shape.

In 1989, eight years after the tearoom started,

Cannon Hall Farm officially opened to the public.

We had a few goats and a few of this and a few of that,

nothing very special, but people seemed to like it.

From 24 customers in the tearoom,

Cannon Hall Farm now sees over half a million visitors every year,

enjoying a range of animal attractions from reindeer

and alpacas to meerkats and sheep racing.

-COMMENTATOR:

-..as Sherbaa takes the win.

But it's been a long road to get here.

I remember thinking one bank holiday when Roger and I were cleaning the

toilets, we thought "Oh, we've really arrived now, you know,

"we've got the best job in the place!"

With the farm on the up and up and plenty of paid work to do,

Cynthia and Roger employed their own sons to do it.

I will say, though, I only wanted the three jobs,

not the other 197 that we've got now.

But that's only me!

But Cannon Hall is still very much a working farm,

and youngest son David is in charge of its day-to-day running.

Just do a lot of hours, really.

A lot of stock work with the animals, a lot of tractor work,

JCB work.

You know, get up very early and go in very late,

I think I'm taking after me dad with that.

Me dad, he was quite shrewd, he put me on a YTS scheme for himself,

so as a 16-year-old I came to work for the farm,

and the government paid half my wage, if you like,

and then he paid the other half, begrudgingly.

Came home to very little money.

I'd rather be working for me family than working for anybody else.

We've got over 400 ewes now.

We've got over 100 cattle.

And everything we produce goes through the farm shop.

The responsibility for all this lies with eldest son Robert.

I've always had a lifelong interest in butchery, even before we had

the farm shop, you know.

So it just seemed like a natural progression, really,

and something I felt was needed.

Whilst third brother Richard's skills are more artistic

than those of his brothers.

Well, when everybody else was going to agricultural college,

I decided to take a different route and go to art college,

so I did a graphic design degree,

specialising in photography, really.

I'm just trying to tell the story of what we do and how we do it, really,

through social media.

LAMBS BLEAT

Videos, more and more, seem to be

the thing that people want to see, actually.

And you certainly get more views of a video,

so we get the farm hands out in the farmyard to...

If they see something interesting, if, say,

the animals have been turned out in the fields and they go for a mad

run-around like our Shetlands did this time this spring,

that video got seen by half a million people.

Even though his sons have taken much of the day-to-day graft away,

Roger can't help but carry on.

This is the male alpaca.

And we've got three ladies.

Come here, little girl.

Full of beans and full of life, lovely coat.

That's the other mum. She actually started her life in Peru, that one.

She's quite an elderly alpaca.

Right, well, Darryl's just going to clean her feet out now.

She has it done every day.

Come on, girl, lift.

ROGER CHUCKLES

Good girl.

Good girl. That's better.

This stops a big build-up of soil and muck inside the horse's hoof.

Keeps it nice and healthy.

Whoa, you.

-That'll do.

-Good girl.

Where should we start? Have you got...? You're on H, right.

Let's move down to J.

Mum, Cynthia, also keeps her hand in doing payroll

alongside her daughter-in-law, Julie.

I got married to Robert, we got married on the Saturday,

and we opened the farm on the next Friday.

We've got some new starters as well this week.

But it's not all number crunching for these two farm hands.

Julie and I even built some rabbit hutches at one time.

We're not your normal women with, you know,

painted nails and things like that, we just get stuck in, don't we?

Yeah, we'll hide our nails.

Although the farm has grown so much alongside the family,

their passion shows no signs of fading.

We don't have an exit strategy, you know,

we've got a continuation strategy, so that's where we are.

For the couple who started with nothing,

what they've built is a validation of what you can do with a dream.

The money side of it's never been top of the list at all.

It's doing the job properly,

making sure that everybody that comes enjoys themselves.

But to have a Maserati or whatever in the back,

that's not the aim at all, no.

Branching out into farm tourism has secured their farm

and made them one of this year's nominees for

the Diversification Farmer of the Year Award.

Just over 250 miles away, resting in the hills of North Devon,

Springfield Farm is home to our next nominees, Richard and Anna May.

They farm sheep and cows on their 180-acre plot,

but it hasn't been an easy road for this hard-working couple.

Myself and Anna got married in '93, and we moved in here.

-'92, actually.

-'92, sorry!

We're farming a mixture of sheep and cereal crops, and we had a few beef

down here as well, so it's a mixed farm.

By 2001, Richard and Anna were living on their farm

with their three young children and high hopes for the future.

We were all working really hard,

and wanting to expand our farming enterprise. We had lots of ideas,

but it was cut very short when foot-and-mouth came along.

Just eight weeks after the family moved in,

the epidemic struck, and thousands of their animals were culled.

Yeah, the whole valley was wiped out with foot-and-mouth.

It was very demoralising driving out, seeing all the sheep in mud.

In the end, they made a pyre, and they were burnt on the farm.

Nearly 3,000 animals on the farm at the time.

-We were lambing, weren't we?

-We had just finished lambing.

With their animals destroyed and their livelihood in tatters,

they had to start from scratch.

But just to introduce new sheep would not be enough this time.

And we just realised then that it was time to

maybe think about this differently.

So Anna had an ingenious idea for how they could save the farm -

they decided to start a children's nursery.

Can you see any eggs?

They believed that exposing young minds to farming life

could be a winner.

How many is that?

To start with, we just thought it would work that the children could

see the sheep. We've got chickens, goats,

and so it was very small scale.

What noise does he make, Josh?

Over 14 years, the nursery has grown from 24 children

to more than 90 a day.

Quite a big jump from those small beginnings, really.

The children love watching the tractors.

-I like yours.

-Yeah, what colour's yours?

I love yours.

-I suppose there's not room in your house for a big one, is there?

-No.

Farmer Richard, a celebrity here,

brings down his tractor and just parks it in the front entrance.

Now, do you want to see the engine?

Look, that's the engine in there.

-Wow!

-There it is, Harry.

Yes, I love it.

It's made his day.

HORN BEEPS

-Thank you very much.

-All right, and you can wave bye to the tractor.

This is our everyday life,

and this is what we'd like the children to watch.

It's so important nowadays for the children, I think,

to be educated where food does come from,

because so many think it just comes off the supermarket shelf.

In reality, it's not.

Even them growing their own vegetables and fruit

in the polytunnel and then collecting it and then bringing it

back for snack time is just an education in itself.

We thought, yeah, outside's really important and that we should be

outside no matter what the weather and sort of built on that, really.

As well as the rebirth of their business,

what's given the family a real sense of pride

is the return of the livestock to Springfield Farm.

We have about 1,200 breeding ewes here at the moment,

and we've started rearing cows this year as well,

so we've got about 100 cattle on the farm at the moment as well.

Eldest daughter Amy devotes all her time to the cattle.

Amy has come home on the farm full-time now.

She's brought Jim, her partner, down with her,

so we've got a couple of extra hands on the farm nowadays.

Being young growing up on a farm

is probably the best childhood you could ask for.

There was never a day where I couldn't go outside

and do something that I loved.

The cows were my idea,

so they are my responsibility at the moment.

So, feeding them on a daily basis is currently mine and Jim's role.

We have nearly 100 cows now.

The nursery's definitely grown, that's changed a lot over the years.

I remember it as the single room when it first started.

It's nice to see so many children experiencing the countryside.

Over the years, the nursery's growth has allowed the farm to flourish

and has kept their livelihood secure.

That was a good lamb, Jim. That one's doing well.

When foot-and-mouth hit us, and it affected us hugely,

you could easily wallow in doom and gloom,

but we were lucky that we've got a very supportive family, and that

from the ashes rose, you know, an amazing nursery.

I'm very proud of them. They've done a very good job.

Well done. Can you have a look on this plant and see if you can find

any caterpillars on there?

We're very proud.

I have never thought we could be where we are today,

but it's a lot of hard work, a lot of stress,

but it's well worth it.

We love it every day, and we've got such a lovely setting here.

You've just got to look at our view, you know why we're doing it here.

Thinking outside the box and building a new kind of

farming business has pushed them onto this year's shortlist for

Diversification Farmer of the Year at the Farmers Weekly Awards.

Head south across the rolling hills, and the next county you come to is

Cornwall, home to our final nominees, the Richards family.

John and his wife, Felicity, run one side of the family farm.

This is the top end of our land.

We actually run from here right down as far as you can see to the A30,

which is down the bottom end of the valley.

Come on, Star, come on.

Ten years old. He's in good nick, isn't he?

We've been married nearly 30 years,

and the farm's changed a huge amount in that time.

It was originally an arable, grass farm, really.

My father had sheep,

so we had sheep and beef here originally to start with,

then we converted it to a dairy herd.

With 700 acres spread over two sites, the workload has always

been shared equally, with brother, Paul, and his wife, Carol.

Born and raised on the farm,

I've always been interested in farming, I love farming.

Went through the normal marriage procedure

at the Young Farmers clubs, found a wife from Leicestershire,

married her, and brought her back to Cornwall.

I was born into it, and Carol's married into it.

At first, this harmonious set-up was fine for all,

and the brothers even expanded to two herds.

But the farm ran into serious money problems when national milk prices

were affected by mad cow disease in the late 1990s.

There was a lot of uncertainty at the time,

when we had two young families.

We knew then that farming wasn't as strong as it should be, or could be.

We actually put the two dairy herds back into one unit, so then

we actually had the farm buildings and the silage bits empty.

We were looking to really, to process something in that yard.

At the time, local councils were sending green waste to landfill,

which gave this close-knit family an idea -

they would recycle that waste as a business.

That's when the green waste came in.

We thought about composting, looking into green waste composting.

Green waste includes flower cuttings, grass,

hedge trimmings, and food waste.

But starting off any new venture is fraught with teething troubles,

especially if you have no previous experience.

As we were coming from farming, we weren't into the recycling or

waste industry, so no-one really took us very seriously.

It was just two of us for a long time as well because we were running

the farm, the arable side of the business, but we were also running

the recycling, which was another real stretch for us.

But their farming background stood them in good stead.

Some of their existing machinery could be used for farming

and recycling, and their appetite for hard work was insatiable.

People were coming to us and saying "We want this service,"

so I was going to the meetings and saying "Yes, we can do it,"

and then John had to actually deliver.

It's an eight-week process to turn raw green waste

into high-quality compost.

Well, we're actually picking out the probe to take the temperature down

in the middle of the compost. If it gets too hot,

it'll kill the bugs, and if it gets too cold,

it won't compost quick enough,

so we're looking to keep the temperature around 65 all the time.

While John and Felicity built up the recycling business,

his brother, Paul, took on the mantle

of keeping the family farming legacy going.

They drink about 80 litres of milk.

They're on about five litres a day at the moment.

As you can see, they're all shiny coats, bright, you know,

we don't get any pneumonia at all, we never get pneumonia.

If we ever get one that's ill, something a bit off-colour,

we've got a jacket we put on them.

Actually, we've had it for two years, haven't used it yet.

I'm happy, and they're very happy, as you can see.

And that's their lot. The rest of the milk will go to the next group.

And the farm makes good use of the family compost.

The costs are kept down on the dairy herd

because of using compost instead of fertiliser.

It's using natural products again, really.

It also goes on the cattle ground to a certain extent,

and under the leys to produce better grass.

Over 17 years, both the recycling and farming arms of the business

have gone from strength to strength.

They now sell their compost across the region.

Compost, because of its bulk density, doesn't travel a long way,

but the National Trust have been interested

because they have a lot of very prestigious gardens in Cornwall

that are open to the public.

The Eden Project is another customer.

When they began, they were treating 25 tonnes of green waste a week.

They now process over 600 tonnes.

They've saved over 400,000 tonnes of waste going to landfill.

We've dealt with this business with integrity and sustainability.

We get it in and we make it into a product and we send it out,

and if you fall down on any of those hurdles, you're gone tomorrow.

It's given us a more secure future, it's given us a bigger business.

We've actually got two businesses, if you like, so we split our risk.

And they both work together.

Family unity is at the heart of everything

John and his brother, Paul, do.

Here, Daddy!

And their mother, Jean, has a clue as to why it's all worked.

I think that's stemmed from the fact

that we've always been a family socially.

As well as business-wise, and it's just grown and grown.

To work together, you've got to give and take.

We do get our moments, I won't be a liar,

but every business does and every family does, so we're only normal.

There's two things going on here -

there's a family, and there's a business.

And we're having to run them together, and that's where

communication is really important between us all.

Many hands make light work, and alongside Paul and Carol

their son, Charles, now runs the arable side of the business,

While John and Felicity are helped with the recycling arm

by their children, Caroline and James.

The next generation of Richards

have big plans to build on their parents' legacy.

We get together and sort of look at different avenues and

potential ideas, so all the time we're kind of looking at

what we might be able to do next.

From my point of view, agriculture is what I...

I'm committed long-term.

I think if you're going to do something, whatever you do,

you've got to be 100% dedicated, committed.

It's like Charles said - you want to focus on one thing,

and make sure you get that right, that is the day job,

you make sure that's nailed before starting the next thing.

Everybody's involved and we can all work together

and it's a fantastic feeling.

This family's resourcefulness and inspiration has made them

one of this year's finalists

for the Diversification Farmer of the Year award.

How to explain it other than say I'm so proud and happy

that it's successful.

All you want for your children, whether they're 2, or 20, or 40,

is success, isn't it?

And they worked hard and they've been rewarded.

These three families have shown

their ability to think beyond their field.

Their ingenuity has enabled them to survive in the face of adversity.

And tomorrow night, at the Farmers Weekly Awards,

one of them will take away this year's trophy

for Diversification Farmer of the Year.

Everyone says the Farmers Weekly Awards are amazing evenings,

so we're really looking forward to it, yeah.

We do know how to party already!

And a good excuse to dress up smartly,

rather than in our work clothes.

Diversity is the thing that started it all off,

so if we could win that award, it would be great, really,

and a reward for what we did.

It's a huge privilege to be a finalist

when you look at the other finalists

and the calibre of people that are in that group.

Tonight, it's the annual Farmers Weekly Awards,

which are being held in the heart of London's Mayfair.

This esteemed event is in its 12th year,

and will host over 1,200 farmers, all here to celebrate

the outstanding achievements in their industry.

Final preparations for the glittering event are underway.

The scene is being set for a night of celebration.

This really is the big night for the farming industry.

If you're shortlisted for an award, then you're pretty nervous coming

into the room tonight,

and no-one really knows the winner,

we keep it really tightly close to our chest.

It was a very, very tough category, so whoever wins,

they should be really proud of themselves,

they've had tough competition.

I thought I'd be helping you and you're helping me -

that's the trouble.

It's an hour before the event kicks off.

Time for the Nicholson men to change their boots for bow ties.

It's a night to forget the toil of their family attraction farm

and embrace the glamour.

Was it not fastened before?

No, I never had it on.

-I think it's...

-Well, I were about 13.

13 years since...

The four of us went to Whitby, or Scarborough, I think it was.

-No, it's about 35 years since.

-Yeah.

I were 13 at the time.

-That long.

-We went sea fishing.

Win or lose, we'll...

Have a booze!

They do look very lovely today!

Farm nursery owners, Richard and Anna May,

are kicking off the night with a party in their hotel room.

-There's another one.

-Doing well!

We've come up today with our family.

Two of our daughters are up here with us.

We've left the others at home.

So we're quite lucky that we're well supported

with friends and family tonight.

To actually come away,

miss all the preparation beforehand, and then when you get here,

it's like phew!

So we got here!

Cheers!

Recycling innovators John and Felicity Richards are having

a more relaxed start to the big night...

-Very nice.

-Thank you.

As are brother, Paul, and wife, Carol.

-It's OK.

-If we win or not, it will still be a fantastic evening,

so, yeah, we're really looking forward to having a really good

party with family and friends. Yeah.

It's fantastic. Because of this award, we've come up as a family,

and to me, that is the best thing, that there's 20 of us here tonight

and we're going to have a great night.

And when you work together and you go through

the problems and the strains of the business together,

to have a night like tonight is very special.

We're thrilled to be in the top three, and winning it would be

the icing on the cake, so fingers crossed.

See how we get on tonight.

These awards are judged by 45 professionals

from across the farming industry.

Over 30 farms entered the diversification category,

and the judges had to come down to the best three.

The Nicholsons - undoubtedly that business

would have failed

if they hadn't gone down a diversification route.

But, yeah, a big punt 25 years ago

when open farms were almost unheard of.

Richard and Anna at Springfield Nursery,

that was a fascinating business.

They have a real passion for children,

they have a large family themselves.

What really impressed us, or certainly me,

was how they were able to build

their nursery business.

And I think, at that stage, they probably recognised

that the risk to the business of just being sheep farmers

was too great.

The Richards family in Cornwall,

you haven't got many opportunities when you're surrounded by sea,

if you don't get involved in the public,

and what really impressed us about that

is they had seen the opportunity to put in and develop

a very comprehensive green waste recycling enterprise.

Clearly a really well thought-out strategy for that business.

Dinner is served,

and our farmers get their chance to be waited on hand and foot.

It's a rare occasion for them to indulge in a bit of posh cooking...

..share some fine wine...

..and, of course, enjoy the company.

It's not often so many passionately driven farmers

get together like this.

Good evening,

and welcome, all of you, to the 2016 Farmers Weekly Awards.

Now, please welcome one of the BBC's most high profile presenters,

anchor of the BBC News At Ten, ladies and gentlemen,

it's Fiona Bruce.

Welcome to all of you this evening. It's my huge pleasure to be here.

18 awards will be given out tonight, ranging from Farmer of the Year,

to Farm Worker of the Year.

..ladies and gentlemen, on the farming community in Mull,

and she's working on ambitious expansion plans

for the sheep business she runs with her partner.

Did you notice the firework go off on the table?

That was quite something, wasn't it?

That's going to be happening every time at a winner's table.

Next up, we have Contractor of the Year.

And the winner is, Scott Lawrie.

As huge celebrations take place on the tables next door,

our farmers are nervously waiting for their category.

Finally, their moment arrives.

The next award goes to the Diversification Farmer of the Year.

Four Extra Hands is the sponsor here.

We welcome co-owner, Nigel Merion.

Let's take a look, shall we, at the diversification shortlist.

And from Springfield Nursery, North Devon, Anna and Richard May.

This couple have fought back from complete devastation

to rejuvenate their farm and run a thriving children's nursery.

When foot-and-mouth hit us, and it affected us hugely,

you could easily wallow in doom and gloom,

but we were lucky that we've got a very supportive family

and that, from the ashes, rose an amazing nursery.

I never thought we could be where we are today,

but it's a lot of hard work, a lot of stress, but it's well worth it.

We love it every day, and we've got such a lovely setting here.

You've just got to look at our view, you know why we're doing it here.

APPLAUSE

From Cannon Hall Farm, South Yorkshire, the Nicholson family.

From humble beginnings,

the family has worked over 30 years to build a farm tourism attraction,

and a flourishing farm.

We don't have an exit strategy.

You know, we've got a continuation strategy, so that's where we are.

The money side of it's never been top of the list at all.

It's doing the job properly,

making sure that everybody that comes enjoys themselves.

But to have a Maserati, or whatever in the back,

that's not the aim at all. No.

APPLAUSE

And for The Green Waste Company, Cornwall, the Richards family.

This close-knit family have

successfully married recycling with farming.

On a planet drowning in waste,

they are leading the way against the struggle.

Everybody's involved and we can all work together,

and it's a fantastic feeling.

It's given us a bigger business.

We've actually got two businesses, if you like.

So we split our risk, and they both work together.

All you want for your children, whether they're 2, or 20, or 40,

is success, isn't it?

And they worked hard and they've been rewarded.

The sheer hard work that it's taken to get here is testimony to

the determination of all our farmers,

but now it's the moment of truth.

Which of those is Diversification Farmer of the Year? Fiona?

Could you tell us who has won this year's trophy?

The winners are...

..the Richards family.

We've had a really good night, both of us, haven't we?

It's been a fantastic experience.

We are so lucky to be here and to even be nominated was fantastic,

so we feel like we're winners in our eyes and that's all that matters,

and we wish the winners the best of luck.

Being in the final three is recognition for

what we've achieved so far, coming forward

from foot-and-mouth, to now where we are today,

so I think just to see us on the big screen was great.

I'm incredibly proud of my parents tonight. They've done a great job.

I've enjoyed watching them develop the nursery

and carry on with the farming, and they've done a very good job.

-A little bit disappointed.

-A little flat.

I think we're feeling disappointed, but to be here is a thrill,

we congratulate the winners and the story runs on,

and we go again next year. And that's, really, all we can do.

-The eve is not finished.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-The night is young.

Not like they're feeling...

Ladies and gentlemen, our winners!

I think, when you just think the night can't get any better,

it just does, and it just did for us, and we're thrilled about it,

so, amazing night.

I thought the icing on the cake would be it,

but, to be honest, it's more than that,

and it's more than the icing on the cake,

it's like the candle on top as well.

-Not just us that won it.

-Yeah.

It's our staff, the consultants we use as well.

Yeah, we've got a whole team of people that work for us

that are really valued.

-We're just part of the team.

-Fantastic. Yeah.

We couldn't do it without them.

-My wife is my...my stalwart.

-Aw!

We've been married for 36 years.

-Have we?

-36, yes.

-Oh, 36. I thought he said 46.

A long time, yeah!

And I can't believe how many people have messaged us, saying

"Good luck tonight". And now... this result is just fabulous.

-Yeah.

-Ah!