Monthly Update - May 2026

We were standing looking over the buildings filled with wintered cattle at Rushall Farm.  With me was Steve, the farmer, and Michelle Lyon from Queensland Australia, a Nuffield Scholar.  She was here to learn more about how to welcome children onto farms so that they could understand more about where their food comes from.  Steve explained the grazing system and the three herds he is running; Stabilisers, a mixed breed to produce beef that is very much in demand, and white-faced, brown Herefords as well as South Devons, both foundation stock for breeds throughout the world. Michelle and her husband farm an area the size of West Berkshire (174,000 acres) with just family labour. They have 7,000 head of cattle; the best bulls being sold for breeding and the rest exported for finishing in Vietnam and Indonesia. All the heifers are retained for breeding.  Her nearest town is 50 miles away but that does not stop her hosting residential camps for children to experience what it is like to stay on a cattle ranch. In the UK 25 Nuffield Scholarships are awarded to farmers and growers each year to broaden their understanding by studying different practices in other parts of the world.  The same happens in Australia.   Michelle went away with more understanding that coming to the countryside is an experience so different for most children these days, and that having a memorable, positive time in the natural world can change their lives.

We hope this was the experience of the thousands of people who came and enjoyed wandering through the bluebell woods on two weekends of remarkable weather.  The bluebells started flowering quite early, but the very cold nights meant the woodlands were at their best, with wood anemones, violets, stitchwort, primroses, even orchids, and the freshness of Hazel and Oak leaves emerging, with ewes lambing close to the path. At the same time the local MS Society was able to raise the much needed £12,000 for those they support.  My own sister was cared for in an amazing way in a Cheshire Home near Norwich.  It was a place where acceptance, love and care filled otherwise broken lives. Rushall Farm has raised well over half a million pounds for the MS Society with open events since 1986.  Some of that money goes to research, which has meant that the much shorter life my sister experienced suffering from the disease is not the case for many diagnosed today.