Series three of Tales of a Nuffield Scholar is here 🎙️
Thank you for watching series two, where we looked ahead to the scholars and Next Gen Scholars presenting at the 2026 Nuffield Farming Scholarships Conference in Leeds. This time we’re changing things up and looking at some of the biggest challenges, innovations and conversations shaping agriculture today 🌾
To start the series I was joined by Natalie Hepburn, a fellow scholar from my own Nuffield cohort and someone I travelled to Brazil with on our CSC. Natalie farms around Cardiff, keeping sheep and goats while producing goats milk skincare and sheep milk cheese.
Natalie’s scholarship explored farm diversification and how farmers actually manage everything that comes with turning what they produce into a product. Her travels took her to Brazil, Rwanda, the Netherlands, Ireland, Northern Ireland and around the UK, with one of her biggest takeaways being the importance of networks and businesses supporting each other 🌍
The main focus of this episode though was the relationship between a Nuffield Scholar and their sponsor. Natalie’s scholarship was sponsored by the NFU Mutual Charitable Trust and we spoke about how that relationship went far beyond simply providing the funding. From visiting NFU Mutual headquarters and being connected with people who could help her research, to keeping in touch throughout her travels and sharing her findings afterwards, it showed the role sponsors can play throughout the whole Nuffield journey.
We also chatted about turning months of travel into a 5,000 word report and 12 minute presentation, the Nuffield moments that can completely change your thinking and why sometimes the best thing you can do while travelling is leave gaps in the diary for the opportunities you never planned for 🌱
A great way to kick off series three and a chance to highlight a part of Nuffield that we probably do not speak about enough.
Thank you to the NFU Mutual Charitable Trust for their support of this project.
Enjoy! 🙂
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