R2Kast - People in Food and Farming/All In

Falling 20 metres into a coma world records and climbing the Burj Khalifa without ropes! From one world record chaser in the last episode to someone who holds many! Today’s guest, Alain Robert from France who now lives in Bali has spent FIFTY years free solo climbing…for those that don’t know what that is it’s climbing rocks and buildings with nothing but yourself, no support and no ropes! His legacy as he says is on rocks but he has some phenomenal building climbs as well including the tallest building on the planet.  He once fell 20m bust everything he has, displacing his wrist to this day and lost 45% of his blood, was in a coma and more. He’s even been declared 65% disabled.  This is a man who breaks boundaries and does it in style…oh and he’s been arrested about 125 times!Bloody great guy!Enjoy! 

Shearing, shearing and a world record attempt in shearing! Sometimes you meet people that do a lot of things and sometimes you meet people that have dedicated their whole life to one thing.Today’s guests has broken barriers her whole way through life! To this day she is the only woman to have made the coveted Top 30 at the Golden Shears in New Zealand, she spent 8 years on trailers at the start of her career before ever shearing with a woman and is now going for a big one!!Una Cameron, under the tutelage of Matt Smith is aiming to break the female 9 hour strong wool world record of 458 held by Sacha Bond however Una is after 1000!She speaks about nutrition, training and all else that has to go into this! Oh…and did I mention she’s doing this at 51! Great chat with an amazing woman!Enjoy! 

Veterinary, Nuffield and…Farming in Qatar?!Todays guest, Miranda Timmerman is someone I’ve followed for a while as miranda_vet however never actually realised she was a Nuffield scholar until I sat and listened to to her topic on gastrointestinal parasite management at last years conference! Not only was the topic very interesting but also a stand out from a presentation perspective (my favourite part)! Miranda has travelled a lot both with work and recreationally! Nothing quite like where she finds herself now, working alongside her husband at Baladna Farm which produces all of the dairy product in Qatar after a dispute with Saudi Arabia in 2017 that saw dairy products no longer sold to Qatar!A very interesting chat with someone who just always says yes!Enjoy! 

4-H, dancing, Tanzania and…Banana bread?Ever meet someone and just get on straight away? That was myself and today’s guest and I’m quite certain she’ll have that impact on most! Maddy Bretey-Smith from Iowa in the states was one of the American team in Tanzania that we spent a week with last year! She has been in 4H her entire life and now as a staff member leads a team that she once saw as the peak to be involved in, she joined as a member and now is overseeing global integration and much more!A great person advocating a phenomenal youth development group! She also loves cats so what more could you ask for?Enjoy!

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!