
We sit next to Wayne Rose, lead sprayer operator at Guiting Manor Farms. Situated in the Cotswolds, the business grows milling wheat, winter and spring barley for malting along with break crops of oilseed rape and hemp for fibre. Stubble turnips are also grown to feed sheep over the winter.
Wayne tells us how as a child he would join his grandfather every weekend, on the farm he managed in the Cotswold village of Mickleton. Fast forward to the time when career decisions needed to be made, without question it was farming for Wayne.
If you ask Wayne what the best advice is he’s ever been given, he’ll tell you he didn’t believe it at the time. Experience has proved Wayne’s grandfather to be right, that you work to live and not live to work.
We hear about Guiting Manor’s award-winning conservation work. Wayne describes the numbers of species that have since thrived as a result of the habitat management introduced by the estate.
Sport has always played a key role in Wayne’s life. A lifelong Wolverhampton Wanders fan, Wayne’s passion for team sports led him to play for local football and cricket teams. He now plays golf.
When it comes to bizarre sights and experiences from within the cab, amongst other things, Wayne recounts the time a glider crash landed in the field right next to him. An event that’s happened not once, but twice!