Skip to main content

Calendar launched to support farmers in hardship

By 20th June 2017July 27th, 2023No Comments
News

Guild Members who are photographers have donated images to farming charity RABI to help raise funds for farming people in financial hardship.

The images have been combined into a ‘Farming in Focus’ calendar for 2018, which was launched at the Royal Cornwall Show on June 9.

The calendar – which will be sold at shows and fundraising events throughout the summer – has been supported by the NFU Mutual Charitable Trust.

The cover image features a Swaledale ewe amongst the heather on a Derbyshire hill farm.

It was taken (and donated) by Ashbourne-based photographer and Guild Member Ruth Downing, who works extensively for the farming media.

Ruth says she spent three years waiting for the right moment to take the moorland image.

Other photographers to feature in the calendar are: John Eveson, Jonathan Page, Kath Birkinshaw, Marcello Garbagnoli, Kevin Milner, Tim Scrivener, Theresa Eveson, Adrian Legge, Anthony Mosley, Gary Naylor and Peter Dean.

The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (R.A.B.I) distributed £2.1 million to people in financial need from the farming sector last year.

In 2017, RABI has given out more than £862k to around 980 individuals and families.

RABI chairman Malcolm Thomas added: “There is a lot of hardship and many difficulties in our rural areas.

Calls to the charity are running at the same level as 2016, despite the fact that we’ve not had the flooding problems we had last year in the north.

That, to me, shows the work of RABI is growing.”

NFU Mutual chief executive Lindsay Sinclair said: “Financial pressures on farmers can be intense today, particularly for small farms and those in less favoured areas.

“For this reason it’s crucial that agriculture continues to support RABI to enable it to continue helping farming families who get into difficulties.

“I’m delighted that NFU Mutual’s Charitable Trust is once again sponsoring the calendar. 

“It’s superb, a real tribute to the skills of the agricultural photographers who have donated their work.”

The calendar can be ordered from the Calendar Order and Enquiry Hotline 01268 888217. Prices are £7.50 wall and £4 desktop (plus £3.95 p&p if purchased via the telephone or order form).