Kite Consulting

Becki Reay

Kite Consulting provide business services to the entire food supply chain, from farmer to retailer and are widely recognised as one of the UK’s leading dairy consultancy companies.

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305 episodes
Updated Friday

Episodes305

Newest first

Oct 6, 2022 · 38 min
A review of retailer sustainability targets and progress
This week Will and Ben are joined by Hayley Campbell-Gibbons, Director at Campbell-Gibbons Consulting and Ainsley Baker, Kite Partner, to discuss a report which has been put together by Hayley entitled ‘How company priorities align to the UK dairy roadmap’. Hayley summarises the roadmap progress over the last 10 years as well as the carbon and climate objectives set by retailers and how they are working towards them. Ainsley describes what has already been delivered from the farmer perspective a
Sep 30, 2022 · 42 min
Oxbury New Gen, Currency, Inflation and Interest Rates
On this weeks podcast Will Evans is joined by the Managing Director of Oxbury Bank, Nick Evans and Kites Jess Buss. They discuss the impact of this weeks turbulent financial events including currency, rising interest rates and what this means for inflation, along with Oxburys New Gen finance offer. Plus there is a discussion on what this means practically at farm level, what opportunities it presents and how to manage their business in a changing financial environment. As always we have the usua
Sep 23, 2022 · 35 min
Cream Awards Young Dairy Farmer of the Year 2022
This week Will and Ben welcome and congratulate Heydon Dark, Cornish dairy farmer and winner of the Cream Awards Young Dairy Farmer of the Year Award. This year, it was sponsored by Kite and with producer and Senior Consultant Becki, one of the judges, Becki outlines why Heydon stood out to her. Heydon describes the core values of his farming business and his journey so far, including navigating through the challenges of the early years. He also discusses how he came to decide on his current sys
Sep 16, 2022 · 40 min
The Dairymen supplement in The Grocer 'Could dairy become a luxury'
Today Will and Ben are joined by Kevin White, Fresh Foods Editor of The Grocer and John Allen, a Managing Partner at Kite to discuss The Dairymen Report which features results from a recent consumer survey, The State of a Nation, completed in July this year. They discuss key features of interest including consumer trends in dairy buying and several reasons for a recent reduction in consumption in the UK. They also discuss the need to better communicate the message of nutrient density to these co
Sep 9, 2022 · 40 min
Cream Awards John Beckett Memorial Trophy winner Willsbro Holsteins & Resilience Conference Summary
After scooping the John Beckett memorial cup plus two other Cream Awards last night, Cornish farmer Anthony Wills of Willsbro Holstein joins host Ben Eagle to tell us a bit about his business, the cows, the family and what makes his business resilient. John and Becki comment on the calibre of entries for the Kite sponsored Young Farmer category and discuss the qualities required to thrive in the sector and how the finalists demonstrated these. Plus a small mention for another important award w
Sep 2, 2022 · 31 min
Will sustained low milk volumes continue?
Back after a week off, Will and Ben are joined by Paul Macer, Partner at Kite Consulting and Chris Walkland, not just for his usual report, but for in-dept look at the milk markets. With these currently being guided by the sustained lower than average milk volumes, they discuss the pressure being felt by the processing sector on demand and availability. Paul also shares the results of the forage survey recently sent out by Kite, which gives some context for the outlook on milk volumes for this
Aug 19, 2022 · 36 min
Future Proofing your Farm Business
After the usual milk market report from Chris Walkland, Ben is joined John Chamberlain, Derbyshire based farmer and Chris Flint, Managing Consultant and Partner at Kite, to talk about the challenges this year has brought and future proofing your farm business. John explains what they have already put in place on the farm to manage winter feed stocks and cash flow, as well as the key capital investments they have made including the use of grants available. Chris talks through a number different
Aug 12, 2022 · 37 min
Ukrainian-Russian export agreement & drought impact on feed stocks
Will and Ben are joined by James Bolesworth, Managing Director at CRM Agricommodities and John Allen, Managing partner at Kite, to discuss the new UN backed trade agreement between Russia and Ukraine to restart grain and other exports across the Black Sea. With decent volumes of feed material now moving out of Ukraine, James and John discuss current and future buying opportunities presented by this. They also outline the impact of the UK and European drought conditions on both forage stocks and
Aug 4, 2022 · 46 min
Irish Emission Reduction Targets
After our usual milk market report from Chris Walkland, Will and Ben are joined by Conor Mulvihill, Director at Dairy Industry Ireland and John Allen, Kite’s Managing partner to discuss the latest emissions targets announced for the Republic of Ireland, which means the Agri sector must reduce it’s emissions by 25% over the next 8 years. Conor outlines what this means in practice for Irish farmers and what they are doing behind the scenes to reach the target, including whether reducing cow number
Jul 29, 2022 · 56 min
Farm Safety Week Summary with Jim Chapman MBE
On this week’s podcast, hosts Will Evans and Ben Eagle are joined by Jim Chapman MBE, Trustee of the Farm Safety Foundation, along with Kite Partner, Ainsley Baker, to discuss the very important topic of Farm Safety. Jim shares the details of his own on-farm accident, how it affected him physically and mentally and how he has since made it his mission to raise awareness of the topic. He and Ainsley discuss the most recent farm safety figures and their thoughts on if, and how, farmer attitudes
Jul 22, 2022 · 33 min
Heat stress on farms
Chris returns from holiday this week for his usual milk market report and Will and Ben are joined by two members of the Kite Team to discuss the impacts of heat stress on farm, Kate Matthews, Vet consultant and Vicky Hicks, Technical consultant. Kate and Vicky discuss both short and long-term effects on cow health and production as well as mitigation measures that can be put in place such as adjusted diets/feeding, to limit the impact of extreme temperatures. They also discuss with Chris how it
Jul 15, 2022 · 35 min
Exploring the Feed Markets
Chris is on holiday this week so no milk market report but we still get a markets fix as Will and Ben are joined by podcast veteran James Bolesworth MD at CRM Agri-Commodities and Neil Blackburn, Kite Managing Partner at Kite to discuss the feed markets. They discuss current grass and forage situation on-farm including options for those who are short and buying options for those not yet booked, along with discussing the prospects for both the UK and European harvest and the on-going impact of U
Jul 8, 2022 · 49 min
UK & EU milk market review - volumes, pricing, currency impact & Dutch farmer protests
With farmers protesting against green reforms in the Netherlands and Western Europe, and milk volumes down in the UK, Europe and across the globe, hosts Ben Eagle and Will Evans welcome back Erik Elgersma; Founder and Director of Strategic Analysis Services BV alongside John Allen and Chris Walkland for an in-depth discussion on the milk market and pricing mechanisms. They also discuss the detail of the Dutch farmer protests, the outlook for both UK & EU farmers and the impact of currency. We
Jul 1, 2022 · 50 min
UK Dairy Roadmap and consumer sustainability campaign
On this week’s podcast, following our usual update from Chris Walkland, Will and Ben are joined by Ash Amirahmadi, in his role as Chair of Dairy UK and John Allen, Kite’s Managing Partner to discuss the new ‘It’s what we’re made of’ campaign that Dairy UK have launched to highlight the sustainability improvements achieved through the UK Dairy Roadmap. Ash outlines the background to the campaign, who they are trying to reach and why the target consumer audience was chosen. Ash and John discuss wh
Jun 24, 2022 · 48 min
The Government's Food Strategy
Following our usual milk market update from Chris, we are joined this week by Stuart Roberts who farms in Hertfordshire and is now the Lib Dem’s Food and Farming Advisor and Lucy Williamson, Nutritionist, a Love British Food Ambassador and a former vet, to discuss the government’s food strategy which was published on 13th June. Stuart and Lucy give a summary of their views on the food strategy and what key message were missing, particularly from a health and food security perspective. They discu
Jun 17, 2022 · 50 min
The Great Plant Based Con with Jayne Buxton
One of our most positive and thought provoking podcast’s ever! Author Jayne Buxton joins us a week after the release of her book ‘The Great Plant Based Con’ to discuss with the podcast team why she wanted to write the book, some of her research and conclusions about plant based diets along with a discussion on some of the big businesses and individuals who are bankrolling the plant based agenda. Jayne is on a mission to inform and win over the hearts and minds of the ‘confused middle’ consumer
Jun 10, 2022 · 24 min
Regenerative Agriculture – what are its applications for the commercial dairy farmer?
This week, Ben Eagle is joined by Organic dairy farmer and ‘Down to Earth’ event host Tim Downes alongside Kite Partner Ainsley Baker. Tim describes how he has adopted Regenerative agriculture principles on his farm and the results he has seen and shares the reasons he thinks farmers who want to know more about Regen should visit the Down to Earth event. Ainsley and Tim discuss the viability of incorporating Regen principles into their farming businesses, the challenges they are likely to enco
May 27, 2022 · 48 min
The Public Perception of Dairy
After our usual milk market report from Chris Walkland, our hosts Will and Ben are joined by Amy Jackson, Director of Oxtale Ltd and Neil Baker, Farm Manager at Bakers of Haselbury Plucknett to look at the perception and preference of the Great British public towards dairy cow management in the UK. Amy outlines her research into this topic and discusses with Neil how we might use this to change public perception to help people feel good about their choice to buy dairy. From a farm perspective, N
May 20, 2022 · 30 min
Muller’s Investment Announcement & Focus on Farmer Groups
After the usual milk market report from Chris Walkland, Ben is joined this week by Carmarthenshire dairy farmer and recently elected Chair of the Muller Milk Group Board; Grant Hartman and Kite Consultant Chloe Cross. They discuss the MMG board, it’s role, purpose and how it interacts with the senior team at Muller along with discussing both the Muller Advantage and Next Gen groups and what the recent announcement regarding investment and expansion means for Muller suppliers.
May 13, 2022 · 48 min
Lord Deben and the dangers of restricting dairy output in world short of food
This week our hosts are joined by Lord Deben (or John Gummer as he may be better known) Chair of the Climate Change Committee, John Allen, Kite’s Managing Partner, Rachael Madeley-Davies, Kite’s Head of Sustainability and of course for our usual milk market report, Chris Walkland. Some of the Kite team met with Lord Deben earlier this week and as previous Secretary of State for Agriculture and also for the Environment, he was perfectly placed to discuss the objectives of the Climate Change Comm