By Jack Bosworth, Director, FJ Bosworth & Sons. Published 8 May 2023.
I hope everyone is well.
As usual, things have been busy on the farm. Since my last article I have experienced three different events that are a first for me.
A Coronation
We have obviously had the Coronation over this bank holiday weekend, which left me feeling incredibly proud to be British. We certainly put on an event like no other nation.
A Championship-bound football club
The weekend before that saw my football team, Ipswich Town, secure automatic promotion back to the Championship.
What a season it has been. The way the club has been pretty much rebuilt just goes to show what can be achieved when everyone is pulling in the same direction and singing from the same hymn sheet. I know that all sounds very cliché, but it really is not easy to achieve. It takes hard work, knowledge, experience, investment and a fair bit of luck.
Why Ipswich Town, on a farming page
You are probably wondering why on earth I am writing about football in Farmers Weekly, and you may well think I am mad to measure our family farming business against Ipswich Town Football Club.
We all need to take inspiration from somewhere.
I do not tend to be overly inspired by looking over the hedge or visiting another farm. That is not meant disrespectfully, it is just how I am wired. What tends to inspire me more is people, infrastructure and how projects develop.
The club has been pretty much rebuilt over the last few years, through:
- New ownership.
- An overhaul of the senior management team.
- A genuine rebuild of the playing staff.
What that has shown is that when you get it right, amazing things can happen. Records have been broken on attendances, shirt sales and performance indicators. All of that has come as a result of the right people coming into the club.
Parallels with our own business
When I look at it that way, the parallels with our own business are very clear. We have been through massive changes ourselves, including:
- Buying out partners.
- New people coming into the business.
- New revenue streams.
- Investment made at much higher levels than ever before.
- All of this while pushing to improve KPIs.
I feel like we have got many things right as we have worked through those changes. Of course there are still areas to improve, particularly communication between us all and closer monitoring of exactly how the business is performing in every area.
If we can get those bits right, I think we can push on further. The big determining factors are still market prices and the weather. That is where the luck comes in.
A wet spring has not stopped us getting slurry on and getting feed cereals established successfully. And after a genuinely awful few years on pig prices, a bit of good luck has finally joined us on that front too.
Frederick
Last but by no means least, the biggest of the three first-time events for Amy and me has been the birth of our son, Frederick Jack Bosworth.
He was born on 21 March 2023 at 14:09, weighing 6 lb 4 oz. After a few stays back in hospital due to weight loss and an infection, he is now romping on.
The baby scales are currently in the lounge, so I am keeping a close eye on growth rates. Some habits, it turns out, are hard to switch off.
About the author
Jack Bosworth is a fourth-generation farmer and Director of FJ Bosworth & Sons, an arable and pig farming business at Spains Hall, Willingale, Essex. The farm has been in the family since 1919, and Jack farms alongside his father Stuart Bosworth, who was named Farmers Weekly Pig Farmer of the Year in 2011. The business is Red Tractor assured and runs an integrated farm-to-fork model, with home-grown cereals milled on site using solar-generated electricity.
You can follow Jack’s articles on fjbosworth.com, or get in touch via the WhatsApp link on the site.
Fourth-generation farmer at Spains Hall, Willingale. Runs the contracting team and writes most of what appears here.