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Meet The speakers
Farmer and founding partner of Grass Fed Insights, LLC, Understanding Ag, LLC and the Soil Health Academy
Allen Williams is a 6th generation family farmer and founding partner of Grass Fed Insights, LLC, Understanding Ag, LLC and the Soil Health Academy.
He has consulted with more than 4000 farmers and ranchers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South America, and other countries, on operations ranging from a few acres to over 1 million acres.
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Allen pioneered many of the early regenerative grazing protocols and forage finishing techniques and now teaches those practices and principles to farmers globally.
Farmer
Tom runs Mindrum Farm, a mixed farm in the Cheviot Foothills of North Northumberland running 1000 Suffolk Mule Ewes, around 100 Shorthorn / Angus Suckler cows and some rather thin arable ground.
Whilst Mindrum always had a strong agro-envionmental thread, they shifted to a biology led agroecological operating model in 2019, completing organic conversion in 2022.
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Tom uses a range of regenerative tools and frameworks, including “on farm microscopy” to monitor soil and animal health and inform management decisions, with most inputs made on the farm.
Head of Research, Pasture for Life
Nikki is Head of Research at Pasture for Life, and a first-generation farmer based in NE Scotland, where she co-runs Grampian Graziers – working with local landowners to graze cattle for ecological and biodiversity benefit, whilst selling 100% pasture and tree-fed beef to the local community.
Nikki is currently undertaking a PhD in Agroecological Transitions and has interests in Holistic Management, agroforestry, and connecting folk with their food.
Consultant
Now working as a consultant, Silas Hedley – Lawrence has previously worked as FAI’s Farm Manager, overseeing the commercial farming enterprise and coordinating the farm with its research obligations. Silas has over nine years of experience managing farms regeneratively, with an emphasis on organic year-round grazing systems. With ties to New Zealand through his family dairy farm and kiwi fruit orchards, he maintains an emphasis on lean, profitable farming systems that also deliver on increasing biodiversity and soil health gains.
Partnerships Manager, Woodland Trust
Pete trained as a chartered surveyor and after university went to work in Norfolk for a well established land agent. After several moves and time spent London, the South East and Manchester he decided that land management for nature conservation was his thing and, after going back to University to gain a Masters Degree, he moved to Cumbria in 1993 to take up a post for the Woodland Trust. Pete’s role is now all about planting trees but working with the landscape and the farmers within it. He has become passionate about regenerative farming and now has a podcast called Tree Amble where he talks with many people doing positive things with land for both food production, wellbeing and nature.
Farm Vet
Claire Whittle is a farm vet who advocates for healthy livestock as part of healthy farm ecosystems.
She has a passion for farming alongside nature and sits on the Welsh steering group of the Nature Friendly Farming Network.
She is the Veterinary lead for the “Dung beetles for Farmers” team - a group of farmers, entomologists and vets who work to improve the conservation status of dung beetles by providing pragmatic, evidence-based information to land and livestock managers.
More information is available at www.dungbeetlesforfarmers.co.uk
With a healthy interest in dung and it’s role in biodiversity and soil health, she spends much of the summer fiddling in poop piles and in the winter months - aiming to become a hedgelaying pro!
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Environmental Communicator
Rob Yorke has lived in the wilder, wetter parts of the UK including now the Black Mountains and over 30 years of rural activity travels under various guises. As an unaffiliated communicator with 135 letters published in The Times, inconveniently inquisitive interviewer of Gove, Monbiot, Goldsmith, Batters, Juniper; a rural chartered surveyor managing projects involving land and people; a curator/moderator of diverse environmental events and broadcaster of 90 sec ‘provoke to think’ vlogs. Rob's experiences over this time have led him to found his Environmental Dialogue Broker (diplomatic) services.
Advisor, researcher, educator, designer & tree nurseryman
Niels Corfield is an independent farming advisor and trainer. He works with producers and landowners to implement regenerative systems, across all farming types.
His passion is helping farmers to understand the root causes of the issues they work with day-to-day, enabling them to create low-input, profitable operations that are nature-friendly and productive.
He has monitored soil- and pasture health on over 200 farms across the UK.
Has presented to 60 farming groups in the last year
And has advised farmers/landowners on adopting soil health practices in all UK regions
Key Habitats Officer at People's Trust for Endangered Species
Megan is the Key Habitats Officer at People’s Trust for Endangered Species (previously Kew, Natural History Museum) where for 9 years she’s been focusing on ‘woodland edge’ type farm habitats and specialising in hedgerows. She created and runs the Healthy Hedgerows rapid assessment app, designed to help farmers make good hedge management decisions.
In her ideal world, she’d love to see hedgerows reaching their potential as valuable farm assets as well as the ecological dynamite that we know they can be. And she’ll chat hedge to anyone interested about how we can do it.
A Devon Gal and confirmed hedgerow geek, she’ll often be found talking about hedges, taking photos of hedges, or on twitter talking about photos of hedges.