Hi,

Hope everybody is well and keeping things together in the face of what are clearly turbulent times.

Can I ask if there has been, or will be, an update and on not just bare figures of what was spent and on what but also how activity and any outcomes, summaries, conclusions…?

When the Grown in Totnes project closed they did a really good toolkit to hand over to other community projects, and though I appreciate that may be beyond OurField, can we look to bring something tangible out of this?

Apologies for lack of answers. Grahame Hunter came down recently and we went through the accounts as best we could. We had some issues with the bank, amongst other excitements, but I'll let him detail it all when he finishes totting it all up.

In answer to Andrea's question, there was no vote. We have simply run out of money...there should be a small surplus when we get the last few tonnes back to John Letts and he pays us our share. This will be redistributed between the shareholders. You can vote all you like, but without cash, it's all over. Welcome to the world of farming!

It has been a very good education though. People often bemoan how conservative farmers are and how reluctant to change their habits. I am very grateful for you all in encouraging us to try novel ideas of crop production. They don't always work. I remain convinced that John L has a great idea here that will work...it just didn't work for us in the way I managed it and with a huge brome weed seed burden the competition was too much for the wheat to compete with.

I think Abby's point above about having a dedicated, and paid, organiser makes a lot of sense. There was a lot of extra work and hassle (and worry) for me, trying to keep the field honestly separate from the rest of our farm. I didn't charge for most of this work, I thought the education was payment enough. I also felt a bit sheepish that your investment was dribbling away. From the lack of activity on Loomio I gained the impression that most shareholders had moved on and stopped being interested. I'm sorry if this feeling was wrong, but it did help sap my enthusiasm for the project. There was a disappointing turnout for the tree-planting, we haven't charged the collective for all the work we put in to this either. The trees and guards etc were given by the Woodland Trust, but there was several days labour in planting and guarding. Luckily the guys who are hoping to harvest the fruit did most of the work.

All gripes aside, from our perspective it has been a fun thing to do and I hope we can stay in touch with you all. I'm sorry it has ended with a whimper. There should be some figures to go with this soon.

John Cherry

Good questions, @andrea - can anybody help? Even a state of play and next steps would be good.

Can someone please explain:

• When was the vote taken to terminate Our Field?

• how many people were in favour and how many against?

Thank you.

• When I invested, I was told:

  • "There are 60 shares, all of last year’s co-investors will remain part of the collective so we are looking for 18 new investors. Is that you?

  • It’s £200 to buy a share of the field, which entitles you to one vote in every decision, and 1/60th of the profits from the field. This includes a small membership fee which covers all the administration costs, organising events etc."

• So I have two simple questions:

  • When was the vote taken to terminate Our Field?

  • Can I see the accounts?

I am very surprised to read that the project has been terminated. Would someone have the courtesy of explaining how the decision was reached?

Thinking about the future though, this is a really interesting and diverse group of people, with a great deal of relevant knowledge. I've been experimenting with growing and milling my own YQ wheat populations and I know others on here are involved in all sorts of exciting projects. Is there the appetite for continuing with this network (for those that want to still be involved) ? Whether it's on Loomio, or just a Facebook/ Whatsapp group, I don't know. Has anyone got any ideas? I'd love to keep updated on what people are up to and share ideas with them.

Thanks for the update @John Cherry . I guess this shows firsthand the challenges of implementing these systems. It's been a fascinating experience and I've learned a huge amount. However, I totally agree with Abi's comments about the challenges of coordinating such a big group of people, without sufficient resources. I would say a more formal structure would possibly have helped, although it was also a really interesting experiment in collective decision making. I would happily have paid £200 for the knowledge and experience that this has offered.

Thanks @John Cherry for the updates and for all your great effort in ourfield weston. Like others I have learnt a lot from supporting this community and have great respect for the challenges of farmers in growing UK wheat. Thank you also for your openess and for letting us use ourfield, I hope the results can inform Groundswell. This seems the right time to end the project.

Hi,

Thanks John for the update and Graham for the financial perspective.

I am grateful to John for all the hard work and the effort at keeping us all informed.

I appreciate that we took a risk and I wasn't expecting to make a profit but I am disappointed that we get no financial return whatsoever.

My understanding was that as costs were low, although lower yields would have an impact I don't think I was aware that we would be completely out of pocket.

I had commented some time ago that a long term strategy to OurField would potentially be successful.

That appears not to be where we find ourselves.