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

Dec 8, 2023 · 51 min
Past, present & future of Dairy & data
After Chris’ milk market report this week, Will and Ben welcome Andy Warne who has been Managing Director at National Milk Records since 2002 as he announces his retirement. Andy discusses the past, present and future of his career, the NMR business and wider dairy industry and along with John, he shares his thoughts on the challenges and opportunities for the business and sector going forward. Discussing new products, innovations and technologies, along with the opportunity to collaborate more
Dec 1, 2023 · 29 min
Impact of January tax payments & managing cash flow
After a glimmer of hope in Chris’ market report this week and some steps in a positive direction, Will is joined by Lucie Hammond Partner at Hazlewoods Accountancy and David Keiley, Senior Consultant with Kite to focus on how to manage tax payments due this January to manage some of the cash flow implications. David outlines some of the challenges facing farmers in terms of cash flow following the downturn this year, focusing on the importance of budgeting and how accountants and consultants ca
Nov 24, 2023 · 48 min
A nitrate update from Ireland and implications for the UK
After Chris’ milk market report and a comment on this week's announcement on AHDB's new CEO, Will and Ben are joined by Steve Arthur, Chair of the Irish Farmers Association Dairy Committee and a dairy farmer in County Wicklow and Emma McAvoy a Consultant with Kite, to discuss dairy farming in Ireland and the situation regarding nitrate level restrictions. Steve gives an overview of the milk year in Ireland and how it’s been for farmers there including fixed milk price schemes and lessons learned
Nov 17, 2023 · 56 min
Oxford Farming Conference: The Power of Diversity
After Chris’ usual report, we are turning the tables on Will Evans this week as he joins as our guest as Chair of The Oxford Farming Conference who along with Abi Kay, Oxford Farming Conference Director and Deputy Editor of Farmers Weekly discusses the conference taking place in January . Abi and Will introduce the history of conference, the aims and theme of the upcoming event which will focus on diversity, including people, income, business and biodiversity. They also outline the speakers to l
Nov 10, 2023 · 48 min
Dairy Down Under - liquid gold, family strength & full of opportunities
After Chris’ report this week, Ben is joined by Rachael McGrath, Aussie dairy farmer, Steve Spencer, of Freshagenda and John Allen, Director at Kite for an update on Dairy Down Under. Steve gives us an overview of the highs and lows there over the last few months including the impact of the high milk price, volatility of the climate and what the relationship looks like between retailers and dairy farmers. Rachael gives us an insight onto her family farm and what the previous and current year has
Nov 3, 2023 · 39 min
Agritechnica and German Dairy - Getting Better Not Bigger
After Chris’ milk market report this week, Will and Becki are joined by Cord Lilie, German dairy farmer and board member for DLG dairy farmers (Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft – German Agricultural Society) and Nicola Bock who is a Dairy and Beef Project Manager for the DLG to discuss dairy farming in Germany and the upcoming Agritechnica trade fair. Cord outlines what dairy production looks like in Germany and with similar issues to here in the UK, he discusses some of those affecting the
Oct 27, 2023 · 46 min
Sustainability and Dairy priorities around the world
After Chris’ usual milk market report, flying solo this week, Ben is joined by Brian Lindsay, the Sustainability Lead at Global Dairy Platform and Director of Dairy Sustainability Framework & John Allen, Director with Kite to discuss sustainability and Dairy priorities around the world. Returning from a recent trip to the US at the IDF World Dairy Summit, John and Brian discuss their key take homes, summarising the differences between US and EU sustainability plans, government priorities and sup
Oct 19, 2023 · 48 min
Mona Dairy - the new cheese on the block
Firstly, more positive news from Chris Walkland on the milk market report this week, then Will & Ben are joined by Ronald Akkerman, co-founder and CEO of Mona Dairy, as well as Hayley Campbell-Gibbons, Kite’s Head of Sustainability, to discuss cheese production and sustainability. Ronald introduces the business, how it came to be as well as their ambition for the future. He talks through the challenging landscape for a cheese producer including the need to have intelligent conversations with ret
Oct 13, 2023 · 47 min
Can AHDB deliver more value to dairy farmers with a levy increase?
After Chris’ milk market report this week, Will, Ben and Becki are joined by Lyndon Edwards, AHDB’s Dairy Sector Council Chair and a dairy, beef and arable farmer from near Chepstow. Lyndon outlines how farmer feedback has influenced the sector priorities and delivery over the previous months, including increasing their work on dairy marketing, exports and reputation management and a recent trip to Anuga to promote dairy products across the globe. They discuss the proposed levy increase and how
Oct 6, 2023 · 44 min
The Discover Ag Podcast
After Chris’ milk market report this week, Ben is joined by Tara Vander Dussen and Natalie Kovarik, to tell us about the Discover Ag Podcast over in the US. Along with co-hosting the podcast, Tara is a dairy farmer and environmental consultant from New Mexico and Natalie is from the heart of Nebraska and with her husband, runs and owns Kovarik Cattle Co. They share their experience of making a podcast and how this came to be, along with their shared passion to advocate for the industry, making i
Sep 29, 2023 · 31 min
IFCN Conference – valorizing sustainability & the standardisation of carbon foot-printing tools
After Chris’ milk market report this week Will and Ben are joined by John McCurdy, Technical Director at Intellync and Helen Dent, Senior Consultant at Kite, who along with Becki discuss the take homes from the IFCN Supporters Conference which took place in Chester this week. They discuss some of the key themes and take homes from the conference, including a consensus of international guests being that there is a positive outlook for dairy long-term, with a need to promote more positively the he
Sep 22, 2023 · 47 min
Chewing the Cud on the UK Cheddar Market
Some breaking news from Chris this week with haulage company Lloyd Fraser, who collect milk from a number of processors, announcing they are going into liquidation, as well as a much more positive milk market report than we’ve been hearing recently. Will and Ben are then joined by John Allen, Kite Director, Erik Elgersma from Strategic Analysis Services BV and our very own dairy market analyst Chris Walkland to take a look at and discuss the current unsustainable conditions of the cheddar market
Sep 15, 2023 · 25 min
Efficiently Achieving 1000kg
We first discussed this back in episode 157, but now with a published report, Will and Ben are joined by dairy farmer Robin Campbell and Kite’s Head of Genetics; Rose Jackson, to discuss how some farms are consistently achieving 1000kg of fat and protein per cow, per year. Rose starts by giving us some context to the ‘Efficiently Achieving 1000kg report’ including the key focus areas, findings and take homes including the impact the first 50 days of a heifers life can have on lifetime performan
Sep 8, 2023 · 46 min
OMSCO relaunches as Organic Herd
After our usual milk market report from Chris Walkland, Will is joined this week by Martyn Anthony, CEO of the now Organic Herd & David Keiley, Senior Consultant with Kite to discuss the rebrand from OMSCO. Martyn talks through the process and his experience of the rebrand and new product development, driven by achieving value for members & the long-term growth strategy. He discusses the new product lines, designed to engage the next generation of consumers and re-establish organic dairy in the
Sep 1, 2023 · 43 min
EP170 : Farmer Time
This Week, Chris delivers his market update from the Netherlands and Ireland and joining him is ‘Farmer Tom’, Tom Martin: Founder of Farmer Time and Lancashire Dairy Farmer: John Towers. Tom developed his idea of linking a farmer with a teacher, anywhere within the UK, to deliver short fortnightly sessions to school children of all ages, relating the academic curriculum to different aspects of farming and food production. As an active Farmer Time participant, John describes his sessions as the h
Aug 25, 2023 · 36 min
Assessing global dairy production & demand with IFCN
Back from his travels, Chris brings us his milk market report and along with Will, Ben and Becki are joined from Germany by Philipp Goetz, Lead in Product Development at IFCN for some insight on their latest figures on global dairy production and demand; telling the stories behind the data. With production growth slowing, Philipp outlines the trends and sentiment across the world and Chris brings us up to speed on dairy trading after the summer break. Philipp also discusses the short and longer-
Aug 18, 2023 · 42 min
Fertiliser markets, forage stocks & milk flows
This week on the podcast, hosts Will Evans and Ben Eagle are joined by Finley Hawkins; Southern Fertiliser Business Development Manager at Frontier Agriculture and Principal Consultant at Kite; Paul Macer to discuss the current fertiliser markets following the news that CF Fertilisers is permanently closing its ammonia production plant at Billingham. Fin shares his thoughts on the outlook for gas prices and the knock on effect on fertiliser pricing for next season before Paul goes on to describe
Aug 11, 2023 · 39 min
Defining and finding the skills for the future of dairy farming
We couldn't go two weeks without a milk market update so Chris has sent us one all the way from Ireland to keep us going till he’s back. Will and Ben then welcome James Allen from New Zealand based ag consultancy Agfirst Waikato who is currently the UK, alongside his wife Kerry Allen and Becki Leach, Senior consultant at Kite to discuss their respective commitments to the future of dairy. James firstly gives us an update on milk price in NZ and current farmer sentiment, moving on to discuss his
Aug 4, 2023 · 52 min
Leading yourself & others in agriculture
With Chris Walkland away on holiday there’s no milk market report this week so Will and Ben go straight into the discussion on leadership and personal resilience with Chris Manley, Nuffield Scholar and Becki Leach, Senior Consultant at Kite. Chris outlines his Nuffield scholarship focusing on leadership, explaining where his interest first came from and how it developed. Chris and Becki discuss how this relates to leadership on farm and the importance of identifying leaders in your business & en
Jul 28, 2023 · 33 min
Looking to the next generation and a positive future for dairy
With a much more positive podcast this week, even including a little bit of positivity from Chris and his report, Will and Ben are joined Mary Dent, Yorkshire farmer and Eliot Greenfield, Consultant at Kite to talk about the next generation and what they have to offer to the future of dairy. Mary introduces her family farm and what brought her back into dairy farming after exploring a career outside the industry, including what transferable skills she brought back with her and how these are ben