INTERVIEW: We chat with Adam Henson.

 I’m talking to you in some winter sun, but I know it’s been a challenging, wet summer?

Yeah, it’s been very challenging for, well, tourist enterprises, outdoor tourist enterprises and farms right across the UK, just because it’s been horrible. We’ve certainly got some fields with quite a lot of crops in them that we haven’t actually harvested and we never will.

I didn’t realise until I did some research, just how much you’ve got going on at the farm. You’re a very busy chap, aren’t you?

Yeah, we’re a busy team, and we’ve got a big team, thankfully, to keep everything heading in the right direction. My father diversified and opened the Cotswolds Farm Park in 1971, and he was a bit of a trailblazer for diversification, because now I think it’s over 60% of farmers have a second job. Duncan, my business partner, over the last 30 years, continued developing the farm park, and then to grow and expand on the types of diversification we’ve got. Because we would struggle as a tenanted farmer to make a living out of just straight agriculture. So we’re still proper farmers and growing crops and lamb for the table. Crop wise, we’re growing wheat and barley and oats and so that all goes into food production or the barley goes into beer. We’ve got a beer licensed with Butcombe Brewery – it’s called Rare Breed. 

Then in terms of livestock, we’ve got a collection of rare breeds, alongside commercial sheep that produce lamb for the table. And then we have the wool from all the sheep – all our rare and native breed wool goes to Harrison Spinks in Yorkshire – a luxury bed making factory. I’ve got one and it’s spectacular – makes those early mornings a bit harder as you want to stay in bed!

When you started to farm all those years ago, did you imagine how your life would change?

No, not in the slightest. I mean, I saw my dad’s career grow because he did some work in the television and I saw the popularity of the Farm Park and so I grew up with that diverse range of income streams going on at the farm. And in my teens I realised that actually, that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to come home and run the business. I love the Farm Park – the camping and glamping element too as well as the farming. We have a beautiful spot here and I love to share that. To be a farmer, I think you have to be incredibly committed. I grew up in Wiltshire and lots of my friends are farmers and they never knew whether they’re going to have a good year. 

We plant crops not quite sure what the yields will be. We don’t know the price we will get. And so it is a bit of a gamble. You try to do your very, very best to grow good crops and breed good animals and look after them to our best your ability. But yes, it can be tricky at times.

 

I was going to ask, do you have a particular animal that is your favourite?

We’ve got 50 different breeds  of seven different species. I like working with them all. I do like our county breeds. The Gloucester Old Spot pig is fantastic. Gloucester cattle which my dad helped save from extinction. There was a severe a possibility of losing them – he and a bunch of mates, bought the cattle and the national herd has been built up ever since. And now they’re still rare, but not endangered. 

You’ve been involved with Countryfile since about 2001, is that right? 

That’s right. My dad used to work on the telly with Johnny Morris on Animal Magic and in a program called in the country with Angela Rippon. So the telly wasn’t alien for me. And my uncle was a famous actor, Nicky Henson. So we used to have celebrities coming to the farm.

My wife worked in television and did presenter search. So she and my dad persuaded me to apply and we agreed that it wouldn’t matter if I had a go at trying to get a job presenting, but never thinking I’d get the job. And amazingly I managed to land it and been doing it ever since. 

Farmers are obviously very in touch with the seasons – do you have a favourite time of year? 

Spring probably. I love watching the spring flowers come into bloom. The green buds coming out on the trees, all the birds going crazy. And then of course for us, the Cotswold Farm Park becomes very busy over the Easter holidays with a lot of people coming to see lambing. 

We carefully plan our tupping dates so that the ewes are giving birth during February half term and Easter holidays so that our visitors can watch ewes giving birth. I love that. That’s a great time of year. 

And so what do you do with your cows? 

The Gloucester cattle have a gestation period of nine months. So we’ll put the bulls in in June/July time. And then they’ll be giving birth, late spring. Cows will give birth all year round, but we have ours giving birth in spring/early summer when there’s plenty of grass. That way people can see baby calves on display at the farm park. So all the babies, piglets, calves, lambs and the chicks. Getting up close, feeding, and holding a baby animal is such a lovely experience.

What do you think the general public should be taking hold of regarding conservation? Because I know you feel passionately about it, don’t you? 

Yeah, I do. We’re in various conservation schemes on the farm. So we’ve got lots of areas where we plant wildflowers. And for the pollinators, we’ve got seed crops that feed the birds in the winter. We’re managing our hedges in a careful way to make sure there’s plenty of berries on them in the winter for the birds. And so we farm the whole, although we’re producing lots of food as well, we’re farming very much in connection and in line with conservation and particularly now over the last few years, looking really carefully at soil health and capturing carbon, holding water in the ground.

But as far as the question on what the public should do, I would always advise them to try and buy British food wherever they can and support the British farmer. But as far as conservation goes, if you’re lucky enough to have a garden, you know, have a bird table to feed the birds, have an interest in planting to benefit pollinators. 

The one thing I know that you like to write, don’t you? When do you get the chance to do that? I mean, how can you fit it in? You must have to do it in the middle of the night!

Oh no – I have help! I use a ghostwriter. I did not sit down and type it all myself. I’ve used a friend, who I know is a very good writer, and they’ll interview you and you’ll tell them the stories and work out the shape of the book and where the chapters are going to fit and the stories you want to put. They’ll record me talking. They go away and type it up. We work together on it over a number of months. 

Are you most proud of the books?

No, I think we’re really proud of the business. We entertain about 185,000 guests now at the farm each year – my team are wonderful and they pour so much of themselves into it. Farming really is a vocation, a calling. We deal with uncertainty and it’s all-consuming, but it’s certainly my passion. 

For further information visit:  cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk