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In the first of a new blog series with Emma Gray, the renowned sheepdog trialler talks organic lambs, relentless rain and preparing to face Blackface sheep

This week from Farmers Guardian editor Olivia Midgley

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

In the coming weeks we look forwards to two important dairy industry events – UK Dairy Day, taking place on September 11; followed by the Dairy Show on October 2

In April this year, farmers across England were receiving £74.2 million for establishing and maintaining herbal leys – the action known as SAM3

Zoe Legg, 24, is from Exeter in Devon, and she is currently studying agri-food marketing and business at Harper Adams University.

In my last column, I wrote about how we were embracing a zero-grazing system, which initially increased our milk yield but significantly added to our workload. Forget that! A few weeks later, yields dipped, grass quality was poor and we were fed up with the extra tractor work and scraping copious amounts of muck. Also, it eventually stopped raining

This week from Farmers Guardian editor Olivia Midgley

Archie Benson, 22, is studying Agriculture at Harper Adams University and he is from Sherborne in the Cotswolds