Fred Baring is the first Graduate Member of the Institute.  He is currently working on a restoration project to bring a nineteenth century model farm back into agricultural use. Fred has established an organic market garden that sells to local consumers and hopes to turn the farm into a testbed for ecological and sustainable land management once more with demonstrations and workshops for visitors, with accommodation on-site.

Fred has recently gained a merit in his MBA studies of Advanced Farm Management at the Royal Agricultural University, holds a Bachelor’s in Zoology and has particular interest in organic and regenerative farming, soil science and sustainable practices.

How does membership help you in your current role?

The Institute helps me keep a finger on the pulse of agricultural trends. I’m fairly new on the agricultural scene with a bit of catching up to do, so the insightful talks organised by the Institute help me get to grips with our industry’s most pressing issues and formulate a path for myself and my farm.

Where do you see yourself in 10-15 year’s time?

By then we will have completed the building works for our restoration project and we should be roaring along, undertaking new experiments that challenge the status quo and introducing people to the joys of farming in our beautiful countryside.

My father will also have likely retired by then, so I’ll also be managing our family estate, transferring what I’ve learned in my current role to a much larger scale. In honesty though it seems we have a lot to achieve as an industry, so part of me would like to say that in 10-15 years’ time I’ll be farming using a plethora of methods I’m not using now!

How will membership help you reach this goal?

Membership so far has been very enjoyable but probably quite restricted by you-know-what. I have a lengthy reading list of backlogged journals to peruse and have attended some very enlightening talks from respected industry leaders. Going forward I hope to meet some of our like-minded members to discuss opportunities, views and perhaps even a few beers.

What is the biggest benefit of membership to you?

For the moment I’ve been restricted to membership via laptop, but having seen my contemporaries on zoom talks I’ll certainly be donning my networking hat at future events as it would appear the institute has a fair few members I’d like to talk to.

How regularly do you attend regional and national events?

Sadly, not a lot these days for obvious reasons, but in time I hope to attend as often and regularly as I can.