This week on The AG Show, we're catching up with a first-generation dairy farmer to hear how a programme built to support ambitious entrepreneurs helped them secure a farm tenancy in Dorset and take the next step in their farming journey.

We'll also get the inside track on a brand-new tool set to help cereal growers tackle Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus, plus the latest on the bluetongue situation (which is a good opportunity to plug AHDB's bluetongue virus hotline: 024 7771 0386).

And that's not all. We catch up with AHDB's new Beef and Lamb Director, Prys Morgan, and round things off by digging into the world of lamb grading and why it matters.

SOME USEFUL BITS (FROM AHDB & BEYOND)

Dairy Entrepreneurs | RABDF Training Programme

Cereal growers asked to help develop a new BYDV management tool | AHDB

Bluetongue Virus Hub - Ruminant Health & Welfare

Support for farmers | AHDB

Prys Morgan appointed as new Beef & Lamb Sector Director | AHDB

Understanding lambs and carcases | AHDB

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I ordered a pair of chaps off vinted.

Did you?

Yeah. Full working blue suede leather chaps.

Now, is this for cowboy era or for Christina Aguilera? Dirty era?

Oh, God, yeah. They were like 12 quid and I couldn't leave them for that money. I'm just looking forward to wearing my chaps when I'm TB testing in the autumn.

That's the only time I can really think to wear them in the winter, maybe when it's mucky. So. Yeah, well, they're actually in the. In post locker right now in the village at home, and I'm not there.

And I just keep thinking about them sat there waiting for me. So I'm gonna go and unbox those when I get home.

Can you get a little unboxing video for us?

Yeah. Here we are. Look at these dirty old chaps that I've bought off some random person.

But if you're anything like my wife, if she did an unboxing video, it would then be swiftly followed by a re. Boxing. Yeah, sending them back. And the amount of clothes that she. The amount of clothes that she.

She orders, I'm sure she's not alone, but she'll get two sizes and they'll both be wrong.

But that's her fault, not yours, Martin. And that's the only thing you can say is, at least that wasn't your fault. Hel.

Hi, I'm Hannah Clarke.

I'm Charlotte Forkes-Rees, and welcome to The AG Show.

In this episode, we'll be hearing about a program that aims to help budding dairy entrepreneurs.

We'd like to think we know how to farm cows, we know how to get milk out of them, but actually, at the end of the day, you know, it's not just about the cows. It's about making money as well, hopefully being here next year and 10 years to come.

There's a new tool about to be launched to help cereal growers fight back against barley yellow dwarf virus.

The new tool accounts for weather as well, but it also accounts for the numbers of aphids that are flying, the proportion of aphids that are actually carrying the virus, and also the economics in the crop.

And we've also got an update on blue tongue. If that's not enough, we'll report back from the recent NSA National Sheep association sheep event and discover more about lamb grading.

A reminder, new episodes of the Ag show drop every Wednesday at midday. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

And we've got audio and video versions for every show. Just subscribe to make sure you don't miss an episode and do get in touch.

We love hearing from you. Comment on any of our social posts or email agshowdb.org.uk Are you thinking about.

Getting into dairy farming or taking the next step in the industry? Well, the Entrepreneurs in Dairying program returns later this year.

Delivered by rabdf, hdb, some more acronyms, the Anderson Centre and the nfu, the programme dives into the real world, stuff that matters to give aspiring dairy leaders the skills, confidence and contacts to grow their careers.

James Bailey has been through the program while Michael Masters works for Barber's Farmhouse Cheese Makers and hosted one of the final sessions. We recently caught up with both and I began by asking James how he found out about the initiative.

The direction I wanted to go was to look for a tenancy.

Went to one of the big dairy days, having a look around and explore and I met, I met someone on the stand, you know, I had no idea about it and said, oh, what's this? And when she explained, I thought, right, well, this is exactly what we need to sort of start the journey off.

When I started looking, I didn't have a clue where the first step would be, really. As soon as I had that leaflet and read it, I thought, well, this is, this is a great start for what we're trying to do.

So a nice happy coincidence that you found it, but obviously it's worked out really well for you. So what was involved? What was the process like and what were the kind of things that you were learning about?

People management, financial skills. We covered business management as well, taxation and business structures.

Every single section of that, I think really helped push me in the direction that I needed to go to actually achieve the goal, which for us was the tenancy. That was really good. The sort of financial skills, learning to do bottom up. Budgeting was a really exciting new thing for us.

Deciding what we wanted to earn from our business and then building back up to the top and saying, right, well, this is the milk chalk price we need to achieve. That was brilliant to learn. It's, yeah.

The business skills that it brought to us have hopefully left us in a place we can manage our business properly, really.

And I think that's the bit that always surprises me, you know, when it comes to farming is you think, oh, what is farming? It's, yeah, milking cows or looking after livestock. That is almost the smallest part because there's all the other skills that go into it.

So it sounds like this program was a great way to give you a really broad experience.

Yeah, definitely sort of covering the side of things that maybe we hadn't covered before. So we know.

Well, we'd like to think we know how to farm cows, we know how to get milk out of them, but actually at the end of the day, you know, it's not just about the cows, it's about making money as well.

Hopefully being here next year and 10 years to come, to do that, we're gonna have to overcome all sorts of struggles and yeah, this I feel like the course sort of gave us the skills to be able to cover whatever issue comes at us.

Was there anything that was particularly surprising or you, you know, were a bit taken aback with that you were learning about on this course.

The biggest thing that sits with me straight away was people management and we all sat down and naturally managing people isn't about managing people, it's about managing yourself if you can manage yourself. The managing people bit comes quite easily after that.

Top tip from James, learn to learn about yourself. Excellent. So you've now got your council tenancy.

What was it that really made you go for that and did you find that this course helped you with that application process?

Most definitely. I think we'd been looking for farms for 18 months and it had been relatively quiet.

This was the second farm that came up that we had chosen to apply for. It's the most amazing holding here.

Like as soon as we saw it we thought, well, we'd be, it would be a privilege to be here and every day we still feel so lucky to wake up and farm here.

So whereabouts are you farming then? Now give us a little bit of an overview of your tenancy.

Yeah, so we're on a Dorset County Council holding. We've got a 20 year farm business tenancy in the north side of Dorset. Proper dairy ground.

I think there's eight or 10 dairy farms touching each other. Yeah, lovely, lovely dairy farming country.

And how have you been finding it with this hot weather we've been having? We've seen, you know, we've put out a few articles around the hot weather and its impact on milk production. Have you found that for you?

It's definitely very warm here. We're in, we're lucky with the ground we've got which holds the moisture. So the grass is still growing. Animals not liking it at all.

You know, nice animal for a dairy cow. Eight degrees.

Well, we're definitely, you know, we're nearly 30 degrees above that one day a few weeks ago and the cows were telling us about it, you know, you could just see they were suffering. We'd definitely be trying to sort of manage our way through it. So we followed the trend and built ourselves a cow misting system.

It was a bit of a game changer for us, really. I think instead of losing three or four liters of cow, it took us back to sort of a liter, two liters of cow, which is a big difference.

I think I'd like one of those systems for me, working, I'm not gonna lie, is for us, it's worth going into the office for the air con. Did you find that the entrepreneurs in daring has that.

Did that help you with being able to think about different situations as they come up, whether there's challenges to do with weather or any of those aspects?

Yeah, most definitely. I think it sort of pushes you about being adaptable, really, that that's the biggest thing to. To survive, you need to be able to adapt your business.

And I suppose the entrepreneur side has shown you how to do that so that financially you can save yourself before you've run into too much trouble. You say, the hot weather's come, we need to look at how we're going to adapt this. But then looking at the cost of doing that. So setting up our Mr.

I then went back to measure how much water is it using a minute, how many liters is that an hour? So that actually we're not just driving ourselves to a financial issue whilst trying to make it a bit nicer for the girls.

And I suppose as well, in your cohort, I'm sure you had people from all over the country, didn't you? So it's really expanded your community.

Have you found that there's also that, you know, you can lean on them or that you can put a message in a chat and you can get some input from their perspective on things?

Yeah, 100%. The course is absolutely great for making contacts.

The people that I was on the course, we've almost had as much input for our tenancy application as sort of Tony and Emily and everyone that was.

Was there, you know, any given day that we went because we were doing it right at the same time, I'd ask multiple people every time, you know, what, what do you think about this? What would you do with that? And they were instrumental as well of giving us some advice of how we should be doing things or how we could do things.

And Michael, working for Barbers, obviously you were involved in the, in the program. You hosted one of the final sessions. What's your experience of the. Of the entrepreneurs and dairy Programme.

Well, I was a bit like James really. I didn't know that the entrepreneurs and dairies system actually existed.

So when I was invited to participate, we weren't really quite sure what we were letting ourselves in for. So all of a sudden last November, we had about 30 different attendees from all over the countries just suddenly appeared of which James was one.

So we explained about the barbers business, what our proposition to our farmers is, the level of support we give our farmers. And I said that was the first time I'd met James, so. But it was a really good day, lots of inspiring people.

So quite a new thing for barbers as well.

Yes.

I mean, how else do you sort of support new entrants with this being quite a new thing?

Well, James is. He's a very modest gentleman. Him and Anna have done an amazing, amazing job in their four months.

If you think about how established Derek dairy farmers have really struggled in the recent downturn in milk price alone. James was embarking on his dairying career. His milk prices were as low as they'd been for probably 10 years.

So you've done an amazing job James, you should be really proud of what you've achieved has been incredible. Actually. We do a lot to try and support dairy farmers.

So we have 155 farmers that supply us in total, all within 30 miles of our two cheese making sites here in Somerset and Dorset. And it may surprise you or may not surprise you that 10% of our farmers are like James, brand new to the industry.

So we've got 15 farmers that have started cut their teeth in dairy farming in the last five years and we've been really keen to support them.

It's not about just having the biggest volumes as long as a farmer is engaged, has got this right attitude, as we've already heard from James, and they're within our collection field.

We're really happy to support new blood coming to the industry because we think it's absolutely critical and it's amazing what fresh idea is and how dynamic some of these farmers can be. Now we've just heard from James, you know, he's now started dairy farming.

We have the second heat wave of this year and already he's thinking now, how am I going to improve the welfare of my cows and devises own misting scheme to support those cows under his care?

That's the sort of ingenuity, the resourcefulness and resilience we're looking for to work with new young couples across Somerset and Dorset and help them thrive and support. We're also Quite unusual in the fact that we offer a tailored support to all of our farmers.

So every farmer before the dreaded Red Tractor man comes about a month before, we've got somebody who works within Barbers that will go out and support those farmers, go through all of those intricacies of regulation, for example. So Matt can provide the templates, make sure everything's in the right place, can be the critical friend when he goes up the farm drive.

Not that you need to do that with James of course. So we can do all of that.

And we have another gentleman who works within Barbers on a part time basis to help with all those areas of sustainability, to make all of that come to life. As a processor we're in a great position.

We don't just leave our farmers to get on with it and just let Red Tractor be the only form of engagement they have. We like to be involved. So not only are we doing things like this, but we're also supporting Brymore Academy at Cannington.

If any of you have heard of Brymore School, Brymore School is the most amazing school run by the county council, has 300 boys that go there. They have their own dairy farm. It's very much countryside focused with our own dairy farm. We now buy their milk.

We now support two boys on two bursaries to go to the school. 300 Boys there that are keen to be engaged in the countryside.

It's an amazing resource and um, we just had some students here so we do as much as we can to try and help new people get into farming and agriculture. And James is just a shining example of what could be achieved.

That's really encouraging to hear Michael. Thank you James. I'm interested in, in what's next for, for you and your journey. Farming and working with barbers.

Just looking to sort of get our feet nice and firmly planted on the ground. As Michael said, this is probably the most difficult year to have got into it.

So just get a nice solid business structure built that we know will we can withhold during the low periods that we can talk build from there then. Yeah, we'd love to milk a few more cows going forward that the farm's got the infrastructure to do it into the future. We've spoken a few times.

The thing that I found I really liked on the course was meeting people that had sort of run multiple units. Something that I'd love to explore in the future. If we could find a second opportunity maybe to apply barbers from two places would be really great.

We'll have to ask Michael another time. But, yeah, that would be it. Sort of continuous growth would be what I strive for. Now I'm here, I don't just want to sit and stay still.

I want to sort of get better at what we're doing and do as much of it as we can, really.

Do you have any advice for anyone that might be listening and thinking, oh, is dairy and entrepreneurs for me? And it'd be great to hear that both from your perspective, James, but also yours, Michael, as well.

Well, I just say, go for it. What have you got to lose?

He took the words out my mouth. I think that's exactly what I was going to say. Just go for it, isn't it?

That's where the course is great as well, because think to yourself, let's go for it. And then you've got a whole team of people there that can say to you, yes, no, you're ready to do it, go for it.

But also balanced enough that they won't tell everyone to do that.

And I was, you know, waiting to see when we got there, they said, maybe this isn't time yet, but they'll help you look at the direction that will take you to where you want to go. So you will be ready when the time comes.

Places are limited for each cohort, so if you are interested, make sure you apply early. Applicants must be aged 20 or over and we'll make sure all the details are linked. Our show notes.

Well, dear listener, it is that point in the show where we take a look at what's going on in the news. But I think we've got something a little bit different this week, haven't we, Charlotte?

Yeah.

So off the back of nsa, last week over at Malvern, I decided it was probably a little bit better to rather than just read you a news story that I've got out of the press to actually bring on someone that I was having really good discussion with at the show, and that's our very own Zoe Lloyd, who's an animal health and welfare scientist. And something that was really a buzz at the show was talk about blue tongue and the different developments are happening.

Zoe, do you want to give us a quick overview about the current situation? Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you very much, Charlotte.

So we know that blue tongue is most commonly spread by bite and midges, and so is weather dependent and we have been seeing blue tongue cases with really severe clinical signs and high mortality, particularly in sheep, and numbers are rapidly increasing in both cattle and sheep. So we know that blue tongue is a virus that affects ruminants and so can also affect goats, deer, llamas and alpacas.

So far, the cases reported this season have been B2, B3. However, there is also a very real risk of BTB8.

So I'd say if you have vaccinated for blue tongue and notice clinical signs in your stock, it is important to get this investigated because it could also be another serotype as well.

And it's a bit of a tricky time of year, isn't it?

Because obviously lambing or thinking about tapping and then lambing coming later in the season, what sort of impact is it going to be having potentially on our flocks?

It could have a huge, huge impact.

I mean, we know that the blue tongue virus can cause quite high mortality within sheep and it can also cause a lot of infertility as well, so within our breeding males. And it can also cause abortions. So also something again, to think about come scanning time as well.

So, Zoe, what should a farmer do if they suspect that they have got a case of blue tongue on their farm?

Yes, so it's very important that farmers and livestock keepers stay vigilant and if they suspect blue tongue, it is notifiable, so they do need to report it immediately to the apha. We know that DEFRA funds the cost of diagnostic testing for up to three affected animals, so we would strongly encourage everyone to report.

It is a legal requirement, but it also helps us better understand the disease spread and how best to support farmers as we move through the season.

So I'd definitely encourage those farmers to be familiar with the clinical signs, which, for example, can include ulcers in the mouth, fever, lameness, discharge from the eyes in sheep and then in cattle. Can also include fever, crusting around the muzzle, redness of the teats or an increase in abortions, fetal deformities and stillbirths.

But you can find the full range of clinical signs on the. Gov UK website and, yeah, would definitely recommend familiarising yourself with these.

And have we got a range of resources that are available for any of our sheep farmers if they want to find out more information or any sort of support that they might be needing at.

Yes, definitely. So I would say it's certainly not too late to vaccinate.

We are still very early on in the season, but we would encourage livestock keepers to speak to their vet sooner rather than later to protect their animals. And we know there's a very good supply of vaccines.

So strongly encourage farmers to speak to their vet and like you said, use the tools and resources available on the Rument Health and Welfare website, including our calculators, to weigh up the cost benefit to vaccinating as well as our other vaccine decision making tools.

And I also wanted to highlight as well that there is lots of support available to farmers struggling for which more details and contacts can be found on the AHDB website. And we also have the Blue Tongue hotline number as well, which I'm sure we could possibly add into the description box.

So if you do have any questions or would like to speak to somebody, that is also an option.

And then if you would like to find out more information, you can also search for the AHDB Blue tongue webinars on YouTube to catch up on information about the virus from industry experts.

So the Battle Blue Tongue campaign is very much an industry initiative and we've been working closely with other organisations as well as government and the vaccine manufacturers to help understand the disease situation as well as vaccine supply. So we definitely encourage anyone to go check out these webinars as well for more information.

Thanks so much for joining us, Zoe.

Incredibly useful information there and it's certainly a topic that we are trying to keep abreast of on the Ag show, so we'll be keeping you up to date with any updates that may come along. Hannah, what's your news pick this week? Anything exciting going on in your world?

Well, from something that's rather serious, like Blue Tongue, I thought it would be good to have a little bit of a step change, have a bit of light and shade and look at something that's been. It's quite close to my heart actually. Farmers Weekly covered this story in the last week or so about the Hawkeston Farmers Choir.

So you may remember the choir from the Hawkstone Beer adverts, cider adverts that I don't actually think made it to TV because they had some naughty language in them, but they're all over YouTube, so please feel free to go and have a look. Well, a lot of things have happened since that choir was formed. They went on to win Britain's Got Talent, you may have noticed that.

But more things have happened recently, so.

And this is what was covered in Fans Weekly, they've been recording an album, I think I've mentioned it before, that my husband Andy was in the choir, the OG Beer advert choir. Well, he's now back involved. Well, they've been down recording in a place called Box near Bath. Box near Bath, yeah, recording this album.

It's just been so great for him to be involved in it.

And it's the whole point of the choir is to raise awareness of farming and the songs that have been written for the album have been inspired by the conversations that the choir members have had with the songwriter and the composer that's behind all the pieces. So they're all original songs and they sort of go into the trials and tribulations of being a farmer and the highs and the lows.

So yeah, some really good work going on there. Talking about singing.

No, I'm not going to break into a course of the YMCA rather BYDV or Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus now this has been causing headaches for cereal growers for years and with reports suggesting this season's seen some of the worst outbreaks since the loss of neonic seed treatments, it's firmly back on the radar.

The good news is that a new tool from AHDB is in the offing that aims to help farmers make smarter decisions on drilling and spray times using live data, decades of research and a simple web based platform.

Sasha White is AHDB's lead crop protection scientist and has been speaking to Filmmaiden ahead of the tool's release. He began by explaining what BYDV is and why it's such a concern for cereal growers.

BYDV Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus. It's a serious viral infection for cereal crops. It's spread by aphids. Yield impacts can be substantial.

If a lot of your crop is affected in winter crops, the risk is often down to things like weather and in the autumn and we're getting much milder autumns these days so risk can be high and we've seen that earlier this year. Control is tricky as well, so we have some cultural control options so adjusting your sodate can be effective.

There are some wheat and barley varieties that have tolerance or resistance, but for a lot of crops control continues to rely on insecticides. So pyrethroid insecticides and knowing when to apply them and even if you need to apply them is really tricky, especially in the autumn weather.

Weather conditions can sometimes make it more difficult. And I think the other thing to remember with pyrethroids is that insecticide resistance is an issue.

So some of the aphids that spread the virus already have resistance to perrethroids.

What we want to do is ensure that that resistance doesn't spread or stronger forms of resistance appear which might risk the effectiveness of ERYTHROIDS and this season.

Has seen some severe cases of bydv. So what's driving that increased risk?

Last autumn we had very, very mild conditions. It came off a very warm, dry summer. And that may the case this year again.

And essentially what that does is it increased the numbers of aphids generally, but also the aphids that spread the virus. But it also lengthened the period with which they migrate through the autumn and into the winter.

So typically that migration starts to end depending where you are in the country, around November, December time. But it might have pushed it much later for parts of the country.

And we've had a tool for years, the TSOM tool. But why has there been a need to develop something new?

Yeah, I mean, the TSOM tool, as you say, it's been available for several years and it still will be available. I should, you know, hasten to add, and there's nothing specifically wrong with the TSOM tool, but it is pretty simple.

It generates a sort of a guidance for risk. It's based on temperature, basically, and that's important.

We know temperature affects the rate at which aphids are developing and moving in the crop and that sort of thing, but it doesn't account for a lot of other important risk factors.

The new tool accounts for weather as well, but it also accounts for the numbers of aphids that are flying, the proportion of aphids that are actually carrying the virus, and also the economics in the crop. So things like your grain price, your treatment costs, it factors these things in to kind of gauge whether an insecticide is economically worthwhile.

And Sasha, when will this tool be available and what information is it using?

So the tool's going to be available later this month.

It uses information that the user puts in, so farm specific information, what crop they've got, where they are, various other bits of information that's specific to their crop, their economics, that sort of thing.

But it also draws in close to live information on the weather, the weather forecast, but also the numbers of aphids flying, the proportion of those aphids carrying the virus.

And one of the key messages is helping farmers avoid unnecessary sprays. How can the tool support smarter and more targeted decision making?

Essentially what it does, it has got two elements to it. So there's a spray decision support element which helps you know if you need to spray and when you might need to spray.

And as I say, that's based on the risk in terms of what it's predicting your virus infection is in your field and your crop economics.

You can Also set up a notification so it can tell you, as you're getting closer to that kind of that guided sort of spray date, so you can start to think more clearly about making that decision.

And then also it's got a second element which, which helps you understand what level of reduction risk from BYDV you can get by adjusting your Sodate. We all know that the later you push the sodate the better.

But there's the tool really visualizes what impact that can have even just moving your sodate by week. So it really helps you see what you can do with a culture control like Sodate as well.

So all of these things can sort of lead into reducing the need for insecticides and guiding better where insecticides are needed.

And for growers who are listening, who are planning autumn drilling, what advice do you have to them on managing the risk? And also how should they start using this tool?

We've got a real dry spell now. If that continues into the autumn and it's warm as well, then the risk will be potentially high. I think very carefully about SO dates.

I would consider your varietal choice as well, but definitely give this tool a go.

It's easy to use, it's an online tool, it's going to be available on the AHTB website, so you can use it on your laptop, your desktop, a tablet, but it's also mobile friendly, so Android and Apple phones, it's very simple to use, we think, and quick to use, so you could get result within a few seconds. You can also save your data if you want to, so you can save your inputs and your outputs as well, which will speed up the whole process.

That's all obviously completely optional, but yeah, I would just encourage people to explore the tool and give it a go.

It's the AG Show. Thanks for being here with us. New shows drop every Wednesday at midday.

We love hearing from you, so do reach [email protected] or on any of our social channels. Now.

Last week it was the NSA Sheep event in Malvern which takes place at the Three Counties Showground every other year. It's a great chance for those in the sector to catch up and attend seminars, workshops and the like.

And I was there on the HDB stand taking part in one of these sessions and that was looking at how to drive demand for UK lamb in a changing market. Also about on the day was our brand new beef and lamb sector director, Preece Morgan.

So a really good excuse to get my groundswell fork back out and hand it over to Phil, who Began by asking Preece how he's ended up up at ahdb.

Well, I've come from the processing sector. I worked in the as a procurement director there for many years.

I've also worked in the public sector as well, so understand some of the challenges of working in both of those sectors. And I also got some practical experience of farming as well. So I bring a bit of experience and hopefully can make a change as well.

So you've got that experience from different Levy Payer points of view, which you're merging all together here at ahdb. We're here at the NSA show today. There's a bit of a buzz around, I'm noticing. So we hear lots of kind of doom and gloom in agriculture.

But it doesn't feel like that here, does it?

No, I think it's important that we recognize where we are and celebrate success I suppose as well.

We've got excellent farmers that are producing top quality meat and I think there's people are starting to understand the importance of meat as well in terms of its health benefits, you know, rich in zinc and vitamins and minerals. So, you know, it is important part of a balanced diet.

Not only that, of course, we've got good prices as well for the farmers and at the end of the day, you know, a profitable business will reinvest in the business and look after the environment as well.

Now, obviously it's early days days for you, but you've already kind of mentioned some of the key things that this industry is bringing to the market and to consumers. Have you identified what your focus is for the next kind of year, year and a half?

I think I'm five weeks in and I think I'm still looking and seeing what needs to focus on.

But some of the things that are a bit worrying, I think as an industry perspective is that reduction in livestock numbers we've seen for many years and we need to understand why.

I would suggest that there's a number of things in there and we need to make sure that we work all to work together across the supply chain and government as well to make sure that we've got that critical mass to supply red meat, be that before all lamb really.

And I think we've got a moral responsibility as well as other parts of the world become less possible for them to because of the climate change, you know, we need to produce food and export to them.

And are there things that we need to be doing to get that message across?

I think it's important that we communicate as I'm doing now and Understand, you know, people take communication in different ways, be that in the press, be that on media. And it's important that we cover all those off and people understand what HDB does as well.

Can you just explain a little bit about, about what levy payers can expect next year?

Well, I think the first thing is that levy peers need to, they should expect to have a better understanding, understanding of what AHDB does so that they can make an informed choice as well in terms of the priorities. And it's really important that we keep ourselves grounded and understand what the challenges are on farm.

And you're a farmer as well as a sector director with your farmer hat on, what do you see the value of AHDB being to you as a levy payer?

Well, I've got the inside knowledge on that one and that's one thing that's really impressed me is the depth of knowledge that's within AHDB and also the people and the enthusiasm and it's important that we capture that and make sure that all levy payers see that.

That's our new beef and lamb sector director, Preece Morgan. Let's finish this week now with a little bit more talk about lam and running until September.

AHDB's right start, right carcass, right Market Roadshow aims to improve efficiency, reduce loss and increase profitability across your lamb enterprise. As part of the events, MLC will be doing some lamb grading sessions.

We've been speaking to Steve Peaty, head of operations at mlc, and asked him if a lamb is ready for market, what should farmers be looking for?

For me, the first message I can send out there is to handle your stock regularly. Don't just rely on how it looks. Visibly get your hands on.

The points that I advise you handle are over the loin and that'll assess the muscle and the fat cover around the dock and tail, head over the shoulder and then down along the ribs. So you're trying to judge basically muscle development and fat cover.

Sometimes lambs can look ready but still under finished, while others can become over fat surprisingly quickly. So regular handling produces what's required. Lambs can change condition surprisingly quickly, particularly on good grazing.

So again, it's just essential to handle your lambs fully presented for market.

So how does the UK classifications grid work?

Yeah, so, I mean, every Lamb that's assessed by MLC within plants is assessed for two things. So obviously confirmation, that's its shape and muscling.

And obviously for fat cover confirmation, they've just upgraded the grid down, so brings us in line with Europe. So they've introduced the S grade.

So for confirmation you've got S, E, U, R, O and P. And obviously S being the new superior grade that's been introduced. So fat cover is scored from one to five, one being very lean, five being very fat. The aim of this is to simplify it. So it's.

It's a common language when at point of sale, but also so a producer or a processor can see exactly where they are and what they're getting through.

Most markets look for pretty well muscled lamb around about 2 to 3 fat class and R will do the majority of the jobs that the industry are required at the moment. The information that is given to the to the farmer is passed back via a kill sheet.

So the kill sheet will contain how many was in the lot, a hot weight and a cold weight and a classification. And that's basically what comes back through the system.

Steve also spoke about the dressing specifications that farmers are likely to see on a kill sheet and what it means for the the overall price that they receive.

They've introduced two recognised dressing specifications. Sheep classification now has come in line with beef classification, so it's overseen by the RPA rule payment authorities.

And that's UK standard spec and reference specific. So one, basically it shadows what we do on the beef and these dressing specs will have to be shown on your kill sheets as well.

So reference spec is basically where the kidney knobs, channel fat and diaphragm are left in. And UK standard specification is where the kidney knobs, channel fat and diaphragm are removed.

So you'd be looking between 2 and 4% difference on kilat percentage. So it's essential that you actually. It's not always about pence per kilo, it's how that pence per kilo is achieved.

That's Steve Peaty from mlc. And if you want to book onto any of the remaining.

Right, start right carcass right market events nearest you and spoiler alert, you might see Hannah or a member of her team at one of these shows, head over to the AHDB website.

Charlotte's off to get Dancing in the rain now with a fat pigeon. If that made it into the edit.

By the time we finished.

If it didn't. Listener, I've got a lovely fat pigeon in my garden.

And an 86 year old man waiting in the wings.

If none of this makes sense to anybody still sticking with this particular episode, then wait till later on in the year, around Christmas time, and we'll put together a bit of an outtakes, a bloopers reel and yes, just some very random conversations that never quite made the cut. So hopefully that's a bit of a tease for you.

As always, guys, remember, we love to hear from you. If you've got any ideas for topics you'd like us to cover in the show, just drop us a line if you want to get in touch.

The email is agshowdb.orguk or get in touch via any of our social channels. We really want to hear from you.

And if you want to come on as a guest, let us know as well. You get to see behind the curtain, see all the random chat that we're having.

So if there's anything you want to come on and talk to us about, we would also love to hear about that too.

Right. Should we leave it there?

I think so.

See you next week.

Bye,.