My first time at the Oxford Farming Conference

After several recommendations about attending the Oxford Farming Conference from various contacts last year, I decided to book some tickets for 2025. So, I took some time off during the busy tax season to see what all the hype was about.

Day one – Thursday

Arriving at the conference early on the Thursday morning presented an opportunity to network. Sometimes networking can be awkward, but this was different.

I spoke with representatives from supermarkets, estate managers, farmers, scientists, lawyers and many others who were full of passion and enthusiasm for the role they play in the farming world. Naturally, introducing myself as an accountant and tax adviser prompted a discussion about the announcements in the Budget on inheritance tax (IHT) and how this would impact various parts of the industry.

The theme of the conference was ‘facing change, finding opportunity’. The speakers captured this brilliantly.

Thursday’s session started with Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. His speech focused on the ‘facing change’ aspect of the theme. However, he repeated a number of times “food security = national security”, which gave some indication of the current thinking.

Other impactful talks included:

• Unlocking the potential of British produce, by Anna Taylor
• Innovation in genetic selection, by Dr Craig Lewis
• How the climate crisis will force us to change where and how we live, by Gaia Vince

Since attending the conference, I purchased Gaia’s latest book. The changing location and intensity of agriculture due to an ever-warming world are fascinating and slightly terrifying. But it is not impossible.

Thursday evening saw the post-debate supper at Christ Church College. The debate in question was ‘UK agriculture needs more grazing livestock, rather than fewer, to be truly sustainable’. And the ayes clinched it by seven votes!

All I can say is, wow! If you ever get the opportunity to dine at Christ Church College, absolutely do it.

Day two – Friday

Friday was much more focused on opportunity, innovation, and inspiration. Before the conference started, I was lucky enough to receive an invite to a breakfast by Andersons. It was a wonderful opportunity to discuss more topics in depth and understand the implications for the sector.

I learnt about:

• The power of the British beef brand, by Anthony Murphy from The Beefy Boys
• Food poverty in the UK, which is especially prevalent in our cities
• How neurodiverse individuals thrive working on farms, by Liz Haines
• How standing back from your farming business and focusing on what you do well can have a positive impact

Two of the speakers explained how they completely turned their lives around after facing terrible circumstances and adversity. I have so much admiration for them. From maintaining the family farm, learning quickly about cattle, and taking the farm in a new direction, to creating a medical bus that travels around rural communities in South Wales to make sure farmers have ready access to medical services. The bus is even set up with a farmhouse kitchen table inside.

The penultimate speaker was a farmer from Canada. After years of successful farming and travelling the world, she and her husband were granted Nuffield Scholarships. Through this, they are now focusing on whiskey production, where the variation in temperature throughout the seasons has helped them produce an award-winning product. The sentiment I took away from this was to work with the weather – which is not always possible, I know.

Olly Hicks was the final speaker. He spoke about his solitary endeavours of rowing across the Atlantic and his attempt at rowing around the bottom of the world. I have to say, I would not have wanted to work with that weather!

Conclusion

HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, is the Oxford Farming Conference Honorary President. Her support for the sector shone through during her speech. Princess Anne was very complimentary about the conference and thanked all the organisers for a fantastic few days.

Princess Anne was correct – it was a fantastic few days, and I will certainly return. There are lots of challenges in the sector right now. It is easy to be disheartened or not be able to see a way back into the black. But the comfort from seeing so many enthusiastic people working towards having a sustainable, profitable and successful agricultural sector is refreshing.