Sussex Farm Walk

away in 2016, she very generously left the U35s with a Legacy for the education and development of our U35s members. In the past, this has gone towards the biannual scholarship to the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth Conference. For 2023, this will go towards two training days hosted at The Club which will be open to all U35 members and will be covering topics such as business planning and financial management. This enables more U35’s to benefit from the legacy.

In order to ensure that the legacy lasts long into the future, we will be hosting a Jill Willows Black Tie Legacy Dinner for all members of the club on Friday 13th October 2023. If you have any items or experiences that you are able to kindly donate to be auctioned on the evening, then please do let me know. Details of the event will be launched nearer the time and more information will follow.

Whether you have been a long term member of the U35s, are newly joined, or are interested in joining, I look forward to welcoming you at the next few events.

Pile BSc (Hons) MSc MRICS

35s Chair 2023

c/o The Farmers Club • 020 7930 3557 generaloffice@thefarmersclub.com

Whilst more events are planned, The Farmers Club has already featured in an event this year at the annual ‘Club Crawl’, which saw members of the Inter-Club travel between five different clubs across London sampling the best wine and food available anywhere! It’s fair to say a great night was had by all, and it was a pleasure to show off our Club to other members.

So, what is the Inter-Club you might be asking yourself? Well, the Inter-Club Group ensures younger members of London’s ‘Clubland’ can make the most of being the latest generation to join this rich and diverse tradition. The Inter-Club founded in 2005 has 15 clubs in it and is run and co-ordinated by younger members from participating clubs. The ability to attend events organised by the Inter-Club is a great benefit and is provided for no additional subscription. Put simply, if you are a member of the Under 35’s, you are a member of the Inter-Club!

There are still lots of exiting events in the Inter-Club calendar for the remainder of 2023, so please keep an eye out on the Under 35’s Facebook and WhatsApp groups to make sure you don’t miss any announcements! And if you have any questions, please get in touch with the Under 35’s Committee and we’ll steer you in the right direction.

Cllr. Aled Thomas BSc (Hons), CMIAgrM, MBPR, MRI, AMRSB

In true Farmers Club tradition, the U35s May Farm Walk took us to the home county of our chairman; the rural idyll of Sussex. Andrew Court & Fiona Friend report

On the Saturday, we assembled at Church Farm in the picturesque village of Litlington. Here we were greeted by Duncan Ellis. His family moved to Church Farm in the not long after the second world war. Since then, the business has evolved to farm over 3,000 acres and diversified in to many different enterprises including The Long Man Brewery. In true Sussex style, this idea was conceived over a pint in the local pub. Today they produce the beer, using 500 acres of Duncan’s own spring malting barley. After the brewing has taken place, 150 tonnes of ‘spent’ grain is fed to livestock on the farm. We enjoyed sampling the various ales as he showed us around the farm. It was clear he is particularly passionate about the environment and connecting the general public to the local countryside. At a particularly beautiful viewpoint, Duncan told us about his new venture, aiming to use Exmoor ponies for landscape recovery. This allows local farmers to naturally regenerate and preserve local habitats whilst protecting endangered ponies.

On Saturday evening, the Pile family kindly hosted us at their beautiful home and Phillip Pile happily showed us around his Arla Tesco dairy farm whilst answering many of our questions.

Not to be outdone, Dan Hawes brought along a selection of freshly picked Kentish strawberries. We enjoyed conducting a taste test, ranking our favourites and finding out each variety’s traits and which market niche they fit in to. Affirming our status as true Brits, the

Wimbledon strawberries came out on top!

On the Sunday morning, after a wander around Lewes, we assembled at the farm of W&A Appleton. A dairy enterprise extending to 614 acres.

We were conducted around the farm by Chris Appleton and his partner Monique. They explained that, like the Ellis family, Chris’s grandad and great grandad moved to the area, from Nottingham in 1947. Bringing their 12 in-calf heifers down with them on the train. can’t imagine Cross Country Trains would allow us to do that now!

Today the Appleton’s have 450 Holstein Friesian cows and 345 followers, producing on average 10,343 litres each for Tesco’s through Arla.

As we were guided around farm, Chris described how they had developed their business focusing on 3 key elements: Healthy animals, happy staff and a sustainable business; socially, economically, environmentally. They stressed the need to listen to the wisdom of their elders, whilst also striving to run a business that can flourish in the modern day.

The Appleton’s also walked us through their ongoing expansions plans. They hope to have a huge rotary parlour operational in the near future.

Our whistle stop tour concluded as all weekends should, with a Sunday roast and a pint at the local pub!

By Andrew Court & Fiona Friend

Under 35s events:

Fri 4th Aug

Polo & Party with DJ, Ham Polo Club, Richmond

Sat 12th Aug

England v Wales Rugby, Twickenham

Sat 2nd Sept

Farm Walk and Tour of Knepp Park, Sussex

Fri 29th Sept

Murder Mystery Dinner, The Farmers Club

Sat 7th Oct

RABI Farming Focused

‘Understanding Mental Health’ Programme