A Corking Visit to Our Portuguese Farms!

Partnership and cooperation are key values at Rankin, and critical to the future of our industry, so we were delighted to welcome a distinguished group of guests from the UK to our Portuguese cork farms on September 19th this year.

This particular group of farmers and agricultural experts first met on The Worshipful Company of Farmers’ Challenge of Rural Leadership course 10 years ago and reunite annually for a farm study tour. Portugal was the destination of choice this year, with the group exploring sustainable and regenerative farming methods at our properties, to investigating pivot irrigation cropping, bull breeding and intensive almond and olive production at other businesses located in the Alentejo and Ribetejo regions.

Jim Rankin, our owner at Rankin Brothers & Sons, says: “We were delighted to host the group and we greatly enjoyed the exchange of ideas and learnings. Our discussions ranged from the challenges of climate change and mitigation, to ideas on the opportunities presented by sustainable and regenerative farming and silviculture practices. Collaboration and cooperation is essential for the future of agriculture across the world and a problem shared is a problem halved.”

The group included James Thornalley – crop nutrition expert and farmer from Lincolnshire; Kathryn Green – specialist in agricultural research, agricultural education and farm assurance, from the Cotswolds; Mark Riches – chartered surveyor, land manager and rural business consultant from Gloucestershire; Angela Kirkwood – pig farmer and meat retailer from East Yorkshire; Emily Norton – agricultural policy expert and farmer from Norfolk; Alex Winchester – agricultural construction specialist and farmer from Norfolk; Amy Jackson – communications consultant with expertise in agricultural issues and crises; and Darren Sobey – beef and sheep farmer, and artisan meat retailer, from Cornwall.