Future Farmers of Yorkshire Spring Debate 2025
Mission POSSIBLE: Adapting your vision for success
Free registration is now open for the Future Farmers of Yorkshire’s Spring Debate on the evening of Thursday 20th March 2025 at a new venue this year, at Hornington Manor near York.
Featuring insights from an industry panel, the event is titled, ‘Mission POSSIBLE: Adapting your vision for success’.
Our panellists will offer plenty of food for thought for your own business journey, as we task them with debating the routes to success.
They will explain how they have reaped the rewards of their own decision making, how they have seen opportunity in challenge, and how they adapted their vision to navigate obstacles – whether real or imagined – to show us that your mission to be a success is indeed POSSIBLE.
How to register your free place
Everyone with a stake in British agriculture is welcome along. As well as a fascinating discussion, it will be a great chance connect with others in the industry and catch up with friends.
Places are free but please must register in advance no later than 9pm on Wednesday 19th March to inform catering.
Please click on the button below to register, and scroll down the page for speaker profiles, the full running order and a deeper dive into our chosen topic for this event.
Our Spring and Autumn Debates in 2025 are kindly sponsored by McClarrons insurance brokers – for more information about their services, click here
Grant Hartley, Head of Rural at McClarrons, said:
It is very exciting to be on board as sponsors of the Future Farmers of Yorkshire Spring and Autumn Debates for 2025. These events deliver a fantastic opportunity for us to support innovative and pro-active approaches to developing success stories in agriculture.
The work that the Future Farmers of Yorkshire network do in supporting and protecting the future of Yorkshire’s farming community is something that forms part of our own mission at McClarrons and is something we are incredibly passionate about.
Join us from 6.30pm at our Spring Debate as we hear from:
Chris Jones
Chris, is a director of the premium produce brand Annabel’s Deliciously British near Micklefield, Leeds, and runs the growing business that sits behind it, producing 2,000 tonnes of strawberries in Yorkshire.
Agriculture has played a huge part in Chris’ life, having spent lots of time on his family farm in North Wales amongst sheep and cattle, and on various arable and veg farms across the UK during the summer months. He is a graduate of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, where he achieved a BSc (Hons) in Agriculture.
Chris spent 13 years working in the food retail industry, with three years at ASDA/IPL in Produce, and 10 years at Fullers Foods, sourcing frozen foods on behalf of all UK retailers, and the food service industry.
Anna Longthorp
Future Farmer Anna is a pig farmer near Howden, East Yorkshire and she will speak about the move on their farm from purely arable farming to raising pigs and in time, opting to produce fully free-range pigs.
Anna will also talk about the decision to sell direct via Anna’s Happy Trotters and why she took the next step to complete the “field to fork” story and open Anna’s Happy Kitchen, a café and butchery counter on the farm.
Kat Thorne
Burnout, anxiety, and stress are at an all-time high. People are the most important asset. The better people look after themselves, the better they perform in all areas of life.
Kat is a positive habits international keynote speaker, teacher and consultant. Her life story of workaholism, breakdown and burnout inspires global audiences to make one small habit change. After losing everything in 2016, she had no choice but to start again.
With ONE SMALL HABIT CHANGE.
Former Global Commercial Director & CEO, Kat now works with organisations, leaders and individuals around the world to create one small positive habit change that actually results in increased wellbeing & resilience.
The result? A healthier, happier and high performing work and home life.
Ian Carlisle
Third-generation dairy farmer Ian, of TL Carlisle near Leyburn, North Yorkshire, is a member of the Arla Cooperative.
The farm business operates two block calving dairy farming units, with an autumn calving herd and a spring calving herd. Both systems are based around growing high quality forage for cows to graze.
At the Spring Debate, Ian will explain how he has built resilience into his business to cope with fluctuations in the milk price.
He will also discuss how he is adapting to changes as his son has joined the business, as well as how he manages family relationships as the farm moves from one generation to the next.
Chair – Amy Hughes
Amy is Head of Engagement (Beef & Lamb) at AHDB, having grown up on a suckler and sheep farm in North Yorkshire. A vet nurse by trade, Amy has also worked as a cattle embryo transfer technician.
She manages the AHDB’s flagship knowledge exchange programme, Roots to Resilience, and has a strong interest in behavioural change.
Running order
6.30pm – Registration desk and bar open, tea/coffee available
7pm – Supper served: Sharing boards on tables
7.30pm – Chair’s welcome and panellist presentations
8.30pm – Q&A with the panel, taking questions from the floor
9.30pm – Chair’s closing remarks
10pm – Bar closes and event ends
Not sure what to expect? Here, we set the scene further…
Agriculture never stands still. Ours is in an industry that is constantly at the mercy of external dynamics and threatened with change.
With so many factors outside of our direct control – the impacts of global conflicts, extreme weather events and political decisions – how do we adopt and maintain a resilient mindset whilst seeing opportunities when the challenges readily appear before us like a rolled-out bale?
Are we too submissive to accepted roots to market? What opportunity do we have to see beyond the status quo; to interrogate our own path to success?
Click on the button below for a full preview of our Spring Debate with Alicia Martin, member of the Future Farmers of Yorkshire Management Board.
