Blogs

Dan Hawes grew up on an arable farm in Suffolk and now produces strawberry and raspberry plants for the UK fruit market with Blaise Plants, sister company to Hugh Lowe Farms, Kent. The business grows outside, under tunnels and in glasshouses and produces more than four million plants a year. The arable side includes environmental schemes, with a mix of wheat, oilseed rape, beans and barley crops.

Alan Carter farms in partnership with his parents, Paul and Christine, on a 162 hectare (400-acre), 400-cow dairy unit at Constantine, Cornwall, with 130 milking cows, supplying Saputo. Alan, also a Parish Councillor, and his wife Sarah, have two children, Ross and Dana

Calving got under way without incident this year at Houghton Lodge and by the end of February we had successfully delivered over 60 per cent of our calvings

Dan Jones farms 650 ewes at the National Trust-owned Parc Farm, which sits on the Great Orme, a limestone headland which rises up 208 metres (682 feet) on the North Wales coast near Llandudno. His Farm Business Tenancy covers the 58 hectares (143 acres) at Parc Farm, plus 364ha (900 acres) of grazing rights on the hill

James and Isobel, with their two young children, recently bought their first farm, and plan to run beef and sheep over 13.8 hectares (34 acres), renting a further 44.5ha (110 acres). James works for tech firm Breedr as a product manager. You can follow them on Twitter @jpbwfarm.

Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer writes exclusively for Farmers Guardian outlining what his party will do for farming

This week from Farmers Guardian's editor Olivia Midgley

The Green party co-leader and candidate for Waveney Valley Adrian Ramsay explains what his party can deliver for British farming and the environment

Helen is a fifth-generation farmer who farms with her parents, David and Anne Shaw, husband, Craig, and their children, Alfred and Hattie, at Grey Leys Farm in the Vale of York. The farm comprises 162 hectares (400 acres) of grass, maize and wholecrop for the herd of 240 pedigree Jersey cows and more than 200 followers.

James farms Dairy Shorthorns east of Kendal, Cumbria, with his parents Kathleen and Henry, wife Michelle and sons Robert and Chris. The fifth generation to farm at Strickley, he is also vice-chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network