Episodes

The 2023 season of Inside Agri-Turf kicks off shortly with a fascinating episode about the psychology of selling to farmers with St John Craner, founder of Agrarian NZ and host of the Rural Sales Show podcast in New Zealand B...

REVIEWING the past 12 months are David Withers , President of AEA ( Agricultural Engineers Association ) representing manufacturers and suppliers and Peter Arrand , President of BAGMA ( British Agricultural and Garden Machine...

The launch of a new show, Groundsfest, to be held at Stonleigh Park in September 2023 has once again opened up the debate about amount of turf management shows in the UK. As things stand there will be four shows (at least) in...

We talk about agriculture, we talk about horticulture – and now we should increasingly talk about viticulture as vineyards spring up across the British landscape, and the quality of home-produced wines not only improves year-...

In this episode Chris talks to John Ryan , the co-founder and driving force behind two highly active Facebook groups, Lawn Care Legends and its spin-off the Dealer Network. Whilst independent turf contractors and the dealers ...

A mixed content episode this week during which I share a few stats on the performance of Inside Agri-Turf podcast just after its second birthday. I also preview forthcoming episodes including a conversation with John Rya n, t...

In Part One of my conversation with Harry Handkammer we learned about the circumstances that led up to the creation of the Countax brand, (now owned by Ariens ) and a successful launch to dealers in 1990. In Part Two, Harry t...

This is the 80th episode of Inside Agri-Turf published on 27 October 2022, the 80th birthday of podcast host and producer Chris Biddle . Birth of a Brand features Harry Handkammer , whose company manufactured attachments excl...

Recorded on World Mental Health Day , , Geoff Webb , CEO of the Grounds Management Association (GMA) opens up about the mental health challenges he faced during the past two years. Like many businesses and organisations, the ...

In the second part of this look at the evolution of agri-turf machinery and equipment during the 70 years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II (1952 to 2022), I consider the technological advancements in lawnmowers and grass cu...

IN the first part of this two-part episode, I look at the advances in farm machinery during the late Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 year reign – from 1952 to 2022. From an age when horses were still at work on many UK farms but trac...

On the 7 September 2022, around 80 guests gathered at Springhill Barn near Pershore in Worcestershire to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Trust set up in the memory of Douglas Bomford, the driving force behind the invent...

AFTER spending much of his early life in Canada, Ben Matthews moved to Scotland where he initially worked in Health and Social Care. But approaching his 40th birthday, he decided he needed a change of career. One day, passing...

After a summer break, Season Three recommences on 15 September, so I thought I'd compile a compendium of snippets from earlier episodes for the 6 months from February to July 2022. There are 20 voices shoe-horned into this ep...

A year after the eye-catching acquisition of the British Agricultural and Garden Machinery Association (BAGMA), the dealer trade association by the Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA), representing manufacturers, distrib...

Earlier this year, it was reported that tractors and combines worth more than $5m stolen by Russian troops from a John Deere dealership in Ukraine had been remotely disabled - and could not be used. It was a feel-good story i...

Jason Booth made the move from aspiring professional cricketer to grounds management. He is now Chief Operating Officer of the Grounds Management Association (GMA) and has responsibility for the Pitch Advisory Service (PAS), ...

The large scale growing and harvesting of natural turf only really began in the 1980/90s, but with the advent of high capacity machinery is now a year-round operation by specialist growers to meet an ever-growing demand from ...

Jimmy Broadhouse runs a contract grass cutting business. In 2019, he posted a photograph on social media of a council owned grass open space he had just cut with a comment "To the kids around here playing football, they think...

Keith Kent has scaled the heights of his profession. He has presided over the preparation of pitches for the English Premier League, England football internationals, England Rugby internationals and the 2015 Rugby World Cup F...

Returning from a mid-season break, Chris reflects on some of the stories that have made news in recent weeks. 01:01 SHOWS: Reflections on the ever-changing show scene, and delightful memories about the origins of LAMMA by fo...

Earlier this year, the Farmers Weekly published a list of the UK's biggest farm machinery dealers ranked by turnover. Compiled for the FW by freelance journalist Peter Hill, the report makes for fascinating reading and confir...

After a long career with Honda, Martin Sanders is now assisting small businesses by providing business coaching and mentoring. In this podcast he explains the difference. For many years, Martin headed Honda's Power Products D...

How do you go about finding new staff for key roles in your company? Finding the best people with the right qualifications and experience can be extremely time-consuming. You can either ‘do-it-yourself’ through advertising in...