Farming – Toovey’s Blog

Chet’s Modi and NFU Mutual Celebrating Our Farming Community

Harry O’Neill ploughing with his 1963 Massey Fergusson

I caught up with Chets Modi, the Managing Partner of the Horsham, Henfield and Chichester offices of NFU Mutual at the 2023 West Grinstead Plough Match and Agricultural Society ploughing match.

Chets explained “For more than a century NFU Mutual has provided insurance to farmers, their businesses and families, and today that quality of service is available for people from all walks of life. We are a mutual owned by our customers with no shareholders which allows us to provide a very personal service with a long term view in all that we do. Our customers are members.

“The value of community was instilled in me as I grew up and I love that, through my job, I live amongst our brilliant farming community. Through our offices we bring this community together with social events and gatherings – farmers often work on their own so meeting with friends and neighbours is important and we see that as an integral part of our role. Farming sits at the heart of our business.

“I help on the committee of the West Grinstead Plough Match. It provides a great opportunity for the public to see what farming is really about.

Chets Modi of NFU at the 2023 West Grinstead Plough Match

“I’m an ambassador not just of the NFU but also of the farming community. We help to bring farmers into schools, sometimes they bring tractors, sometimes the children visit the farms. It is important that our young people know where their food comes from. As a parent I want my children to value where their food comes from and good stewardship. There’s a lot to celebrate in the diversity of approaches to farming in this part of the world.”

I commented on the significant changes in the values of art, antiques and collectors’ items in recent years and how at Toovey’s we always impress on our clients the importance of making sure that their valuations are up to date to ensure they pay the correct premiums and to be able to plan for the future. Chets replied “I agree, especially for the type of high value homes and collections we insure under our Bespoke Home Insurance policies.”

I walked out into the fields and discovered Harry O’Neill of Whitebridge Farm, Wineham, ploughing with his 1963 Massey Ferguson, proudly watched by his Dad and Grandpa. I learnt that this was only Harry’s second season competing in the West Grinstead Plough Match. He was doing a fine job. It’s exciting to see a passion for farming seeded in a younger generation.

Ploughing Match & Agricultural Show

This week I am with Rowan Allan who together with Felicity Elliott is the Honorary Secretary of The West Grinstead & District Ploughing & Agricultural Society. The society is returning to its roots in the Parish of West Grinstead for the 2023 Annual Ploughing Match and Agricultural Show which is returning to Priors Byne Farm on Saturday 16th September.

I am always excited to attend the ploughing match.

Rowan Allan says “It’s great to be returning to Priors Byne Farm. John and Alison Ford and their team will give everyone a warm welcome – it’s one of our most popular venues and the agricultural community is looking forward to being able to come together once again.”

I comment on the extraordinary stewardship amongst our district’s farming community. Rowan comments “Balancing our heritage with the needs of the natural environment and food production is perfectly possible.”

The West Grinstead and District Ploughing Match and Agricultural Society has been holding shows for over 150 years. It seeks to re-connect town and country and educate the public.

Ploughing at the West Grinstead and District Plough Match and Agricultural Show

Rowan says “The ploughing match provides a shop window for people to engage with what farming and the countryside are really about.”

It’s a great family day out with the ploughing competition, cattle and sheep shows, licenced bar, fun fair, trade stands and local produce, terrier racing, open clay shooting competitions, tug-of-war, gun dog scurry, tractor and threshing machinery and even a ferret race, there is so much to enjoy.

Since 1871 The West Grinstead and District Plough Match and Agricultural Society has been promoting best practice in the local agricultural community through its prizes and awards. Today that also includes a bursary programme which provides financial support to enable and encourage young people to take up careers in the agricultural industry.

Our landscape is part of our nation’s heritage and identity and it is wholly dependent on the life given to it by our farmers who richly deserve our thanks.

I will be supporting Rowan and the team at the 2023 West Grinstead and District Plough Match and Agricultural Show at Priors Byne Farm, Bines Road, Partridge Green, RH13 8EQ on Saturday 16th September 2023. Entrance is just £8 per person online in advance or £10 on the day with children under 14 free. It’s going to be a fantastic family day, I hope to see you there!

For more information contact Rowan Allan at H. J. Burt Steyning through www.hjburt.co.uk or go to www.westgrinsteadploughing.co.uk to buy your tickets.

Ploughing Match and Agricultural Show

This week I am with Rowan Allan who for twenty-five years has been the Honorary Secretary of The West Grinstead & District Ploughing & Agricultural Society. Rowan shares the role with Felicity Elliott. This year the society’s plough match is being hosted by David and Lucinda Exwood, and the Christ’s Hospital Foundation, at Field Farm, Dial Post. David, assisted by his son Tom, is a tenant farmer with some 1000 hectares under his stewardship.

Rowan Allan says “David is a first generation beef, sheep and arable farmer and believes that the future of farming isn’t about managed decline and dependence on environmental payments. As Vice President of the NFU he provides an important voice and model for profitable food production to feed the nation whilst valuing nature and working towards net zero farming. The agricultural community is looking forward to being able to come together at Field Farm.”

Rowan Allan celebrating twenty-five years as Honorary Secretary of the West Grinstead & District Ploughing and Agricultural Society

The West Grinstead and District Ploughing Match and Agricultural Society seeks to re-connect town and country and educate the public.
Rowan says “The ploughing match provides a shop window for people to engage with what farming and the countryside are really about.”

Our landscape is one of the most important building blocks of our nation’s heritage and identity and it is wholly dependent on the life given to it by our farmers who richly deserve our thanks.

The 2022 West Grinstead and District Plough Match and Agricultural Show will be at Field Farm, Sands Lane, Dial Post, RH13 8NY on Saturday 17th September 2022. Adult tickets are just £10 on the day or £8 if you book online in advance with children under 14 free. It’s going to be a fantastic family day!

For more information contact Rowan Allan at H. J. Burt Steyning through www.hjburt.co.uk or to book your tickets go to www.westgrinsteadploughing.co.uk.

Bringing in the Harvest

Looking towards Arundel Castle and the sea

I looked down from the ridge of the Sussex Downs towards the sea and Arundel Castle as the harvest was being brought in on the Angmering Park Estate. The great combine harvester processed around the field accompanied by tractors and trailers to capture the precious, golden grain.

And as we walked a Red Kite circled over a field of happy, grazing sheep. The wild flowers bordering the chalk path were abundant and alive with insects, birds and butterflies.

It is impressive how the Angering Park Estate has been proactive over many years in balancing the need to produce food for the nation with the needs of nature and conservation. They work at scale investing in technology whilst articulating long term stewardship of the land.

They work hard to achieve a balance between maintaining the fertility of the land and producing food, with close attention to the preservation of nature. They have become increasingly sophisticated in analysing the environment in their fields and in the nature corridors of woodland and hedgerows which they are continuing to create.

Seeing the harvest brought in brought back a precious memory from my youth. The summer I finished school I worked for my God Father, Pete Marshall, bringing in the harvest on the Angmering Park Estate.

Bringing in the Harvest on the Angmering Park Estate to feed the nation

Together with his team we forked hay bales by hand onto the old flatbed trailer where they were stacked high and true. The trailer was pulled by a small, ancient Massey Ferguson tractor. It was difficult to discern where the red paint ended and the rust began. Apart from the tractor I suspect that it was a scene unchanged since Victorian times. And at the end of the evening I lay on top of the bales which swayed rhythmically behind the tractor as Uncle Pete drove us gently home, the headlights dim beneath the light of the harvest moon.

Since the Second World War farmers were encouraged by the government to increase yields which have almost doubled since the 1970s and this has led to a perception that food will always be plentiful with little discussion of the carbon footprint of importing food to this country and our responsibilities around that. Perhaps global events will cause our government to promote good husbandry and stewardship in concert with feeding the nation.

It has never been more important to value our farmers and celebrate good stewardship of the land and as consumers to play our part by buying local and British produce whenever we can.

Stewarding the Sussex Landscape

Frank Wootton’s oil on canvas ‘A Passing Storm, Windover Hill, Sussex’ © Toovey’s 2021

The South Downs have for centuries been shaped by farming. The ancient, managed chalk grasslands are still maintained on some of the steep downland slopes. The rich biodiversity of birds, fauna and insects predate on those that eat the crops. In the valleys and open fields mixed farming ensures that the fertility of the soil is improved and maintained by the under planting of cereal crops with rich clovers and grass grazed by sheep and cattle in seven year crop rotations to limit disease. Some of the most balanced and sustainable farming practice in the country is to be found in the leas of the South Downs.

The oil painting titled ‘A Passing Storm, Windover Hill, Sussex’ by the Sussex artist Frank Wootton. OBE (1911-1998) depicts a rural idyll with grazing cattle beneath the majesty of the Sussex Downs. It sold at Toovey’s for £2600. You sense the heat in the tone and palette of the scene. The storm casts its shadow, moving quickly across the landscape as the rain falls. It is this quality of landscape which speaks into the very identity of our nation. What the Shipley poet Hilaire Belloc described as ‘The great hills of the South Country, They stand along the sea’.
Frank Wootton studied at The Eastbourne College of Art under Eric Ravilious and Arthur Reeves-Fowkes. Whilst his landscapes and equestrian scenes are celebrated Wootton is perhaps most famous for his aeronautical paintings.
In the late 19th and 20th centuries many of Britain’s leading artists were inspired to leave London, our towns and cities for the country. For some it was to escape the effects of the industrial revolution and for others the wars

And here’s the thing, that sense of the rural idyll remains alive in popular culture and the public’s imagination. In contrast we have become more and more removed from the reality of country life even though the debate around farming in this country is entering into our national conversation.

The overwhelming majority of the farmers here in Sussex work constantly to achieve a balance between maintaining the fertility of the land, producing food in a sustainable way for the nation with close attention to the preservation of nature.

In a mixed agricultural response to the challenges of climate change it is vital that we seek to restore our soils and feed the nation through mixed agriculture. Local food supply chains, balanced mixed farming, and working with nature must surely have a dramatically reduced carbon footprint over the alternative of importing our food on hugely polluting ships and planes.

Our farmer’s continue to steward the landscapes which have inspired artists and musicians over the centuries and never more so than in Sussex in the 20th century. In our hearts and minds the countryside with its generous communities connected with the seasons and the abundance of the land have provided hope against the back drop and grind of urbanisation.

Walking with nature and in conversation with those we love is a great blessing. Our countryside, maintained by our farmers, is the perfect place for a day’s holiday-after all Sussex has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. And we must do our best to support our Sussex farmers as we shop.