BUSINESS ON THE FARM


90


ON THE FARM WITH RICH AT RISBURY


Each month Richard Thomas will join us to talk about life on his family farm in North Herefordshire, where they farm beef, sheep, arable and apples. Their ethos is to try to farm in a more regenerative style for the benefit of future generations.


A couple of months ago a friend of mine passed away. Writing about personal things isn’t really my thing, but in this instance, it feels like the right thing to do. He was someone I met several years ago, shortly before my son was born, who is about to turn seven. The thing that might surprise you, is that we never met again.


We spoke on the phone at least every month, often every couple of weeks and exchanged messages and photos. Photos of sheep and cattle, of our grass growth and of trips around our farms with our children. Messages about rugby and our social network and about land he was applying for tenancies on. Messages about hard days and messages about good days.


He lived on the other side of the country, but he was one of those fantastic people you meet in life and really get along with. I suspect if we had lived closer to each other we would have regularly gone for a pint.


I was sad and gutted when I heard that he had passed away, but the following day I found out that he had taken his own life.


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That was a shock. A real shock. Running into a wall, coming to a dead stop type of shock. I was in tears feeding the cattle that morning and I still can’t believe it now. I keep wondering how his stock are doing, how his children are and about his young sheep dog. It’s all been a mistake and he’ll probably ring me later. Or reply to the last message I sent a few days before he died.


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