In your field: Dan Hawes - "Recent cold weather has worked massively in our favour, as far as plants are concerned anyhow"

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

clock • 3 min read
In your field: Dan Hawes - "Recent cold weather has worked massively in our favour, as far as plants are concerned anyhow"

January soon rolls round, and so does the cold weather. Learning from past mistakes, I made sure we got the drippers out of the pots we want to move asap, before we got the minus figures. Believe me, you...

To continue reading...

Already a member? Login for full access.

Login

New to Farmers Guardian? Register for 1 free article per week or become a member for unlimited access to essential farming news and insights.

article-img-580x358
Register for free Join Now

 

More on In your field

In your field: Emma Robinson - "In farming, we have the joy of bringing calves into the world, but also have challenges when things go wrong"
In your field

In your field: Emma Robinson - "In farming, we have the joy of bringing calves into the world, but also have challenges when things go wrong"

Emma and her family farm in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, milking 100 pedigree Holsteins and selling raw milk from the farmgate. They also run 300 North Country Mules. Emma volunteers with the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution

Emma Robinson
clock 12 January 2026 • 3 min read
In your field: Kate Rowell - "If one more sales rep tells me there's a lot of potholes in our farm road, I think I'll scream"
In your field

In your field: Kate Rowell - "If one more sales rep tells me there's a lot of potholes in our farm road, I think I'll scream"

Kate is a fifth-generation farmer running the 750-hectare (1,853-acre) Hundleshope Farm on the Haystoun Estate, Peebles, where the family have been tenants for 150 years. She runs the hill unit with her husband Ed and their four children. She is also a vet and chair of Quality Meat Scotland

Kate Rowell
clock 11 January 2026 • 3 min read
In your field: Dan Hawes – "We're farmers, things change, supermarkets buy imported apples in peak season, but we adapt, we have to"
In your field

In your field: Dan Hawes – "We're farmers, things change, supermarkets buy imported apples in peak season, but we adapt, we have to"

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

Dan Hawes
clock 05 January 2026 • 2 min read