R2Kast - People in Food and Farming/All In

Getting into farming, calf rearing and millions of views!Our guest today, Josie Eccles studied at SRUC Barony and studied during the online Covid environment!Josie doesn’t come from farming and after studying animal care noticed agriculture was where her heart was! So the door knocking began and phoning people just asking for a chance now here she is choosing the clients she reads calves for all the while sharing the trials and tribulations in the most entertaining way on TikTok as weejosie2.0!Great advocate for the sector that brings in people from outside the sector!Enjoy! 

Cow calf contact, horse racing and…judging in the UAE! Today’s guest has been a target in the pod for a while! Anna Bowen is a Nuffield scholar who looked originally at the practise of killing bull calves.  She was a COVID scholar and there for things got delayed, the practise her topic was based on was (finally) outlawed and she made a shift to cow calf contact.You can see Anna thinking outside of the box as she goes, putting herself in the mind of a calf and her transferable skills from the equine industry is very interesting!I’m always open to hearing everything, hence this podcast but only on 2 or 3 occasions have I so quickly considered my opinion like I did in this episode….you’ll have to listen to why!Thank you for making me and most likely the listeners think differently!Enjoy!

 Vet nursing, vet medicine and working 13 hours a day round uni!I speak to a lot of people, some people shine for their ability to overcome challenges, some a job I’ve never heard of or heard much about and some just inspire you for so many reasons! That last one is the story of today’s guest, Leah Griffiths! Leah, like many other teens wanted to be a vet and didn’t quite get what was required and pursued vet nursing which she enjoyed but realise large animal was her passion, she then got a job calf rearing while vet nursing and started to think “I’m going to go for vet medicine”.  She applied without telling anyone and is now a couple of exams away from finishing first year!You hear so many people who want to be a vet that don’t make it and the dream stays a dream! Leah is one of the few who did the work to make it a soon to be reality!  One of the nicest ‘where do you see yourself in 5 years’ we’ve had!We speak about that challenge of missing potentially good vets due to grades too!Great episode with an inspiring young lady! Enjoy! 

Almost 2 million followers, travelling the world with hoof trimming and the best beard on this call!First off…200 episodes! Well it’s actually 207 because of bonus but that’s not got the same ring to it! The networking tool, source of much hilarity, education, reality and feeling of being part of something this has all offered me is insane so for every person that never misses an episode, those of you who have only listened to one you’re all stars!…especially to the one person from Singapore who has listened since about episode 3!Today’s guest, Ant Thomas is a hoof trimmer who posts what he’s up to as Keeping Cows Moovin has carved (is that a pun) a career not just technically but backed up by content creation.  Genuinely we’ve spoken for more than a year and never managed to make this happen! I’m so glad we did! Enjoy!

Quiz today on general knowledge, music, science, the month of May and a fun last round a wee bit different from the norm!

Fixing a politically engrained issue in Canada and living -40!Night 2 in Brazil I jumped in the pool again on my own when everyone was bored of it…as it felt like nothing short of warm tea I decided to jump out and heard someone shout “hey Wallace” and I instant recognised the person as the 2024 Nuffield Scholar with hands down the coolest title!  Tatum who works in credit is from an indigenous population in north Battleford, Saskatchewan! She is aiming to look at the resurgence of indigenous people in agriculture…let me tell you the barriers people have faced purely based on their origin is insane and not too much of a distant memory yet!You can also tune in for my most embarrassing story yet in the first few minutes!A pretty bloody inspiring episode with my Canadian mother in Brazil!😂Enjoy! 

Born in Malta, raised in Sudan and buying fat cattle in St Boswell!That may have started sounding like a Royal Navy apprenticeships advert but it’s not 😂I’ve always been an avid believer that as good as I can be in a classroom there is only so much experience I can have and to pass on experience and knowledge from a vast vault is so rich in merit.  With this we put on an industry day where we bring in people from the sector to talk about the depth and breadth of it and Louise has always been brilliant!Louise Forsyth, part of the team at Forsyth’s butchers truly has such a cool background and now has dedicated her life to buying prime cattle for the butchery! The most all over story we’ve had in (apart from Gunnar Garfors) and with a true advocate of the sector! Enjoy!

Enjoy the weekly R2Kast Quiz!

A stroke in her 20s, revitalising cider and one of the Mumford and sons? To conclude what has been a remarkably enjoyable series interviewing the full 2024 cohort of UK Nuffield scholars we welcome Polly Hilton onto the podcast.Polly, who’s behind find and foster fine cider noticed orchards had lost the respect and utilisation they once had experienced and wanted to try change that. During the process of building a client base and finding orchards to work with she suffered a stroke and to see what Polly has achieved since then is nothing short of inspiring! She’s now embarking on her Nuffield journey to look into the topic she started her now thriving business on!A great chat with truly one of the world’s sweetest souls! Enjoy!