Vision and inspiration were the order of the afternoon session at the Oxford Farming Conference today (7 January 2014).

The speakers all made changes to their businesses as they looked for the opportunity to develop their business.

Sally Wilson, a Scottish farmer, returned home after university and made significant changes to the dairy unit. She moved her 300 cow dairy unit indoor and introduced robotic milkers.

"Installing robots in 2009 completely changed the way I manage our cows and it's the best thing I've done for them," said Sally.

But there were precious few places for her to go for advice when making the changes to her farm. And when an opportunity arose she started up robot advisory service in 2012. She fully embraced the opportunities that have arisen and she urged others to go home and look for the opportunity on their own farm.


"Diversifying doesn't always mean taking your eye off the farming ball."

Caroline Miller introduced the idea of diversification to delegates. Specifically she discussed agritourism which formed the basis of her Nuffield scholarship.

"Many forward thinking open minded people I met on my travels cashed in on an unused asset," said Caroline.

Her own agritourism venture, The Hideaway Experience, hasn't detracted from the farming business. Very little land was required to build the hideaway and it now turns over similar sums of money to the farming business.

Caroline's research demonstrated the opportunity and potential returns from agritourism and this has proven most fruitful as she put her research into practice at The Hideaway Experience.

distributed by