Previous years

Jacalyn Dunlop and Eifion Roberts

Under 40s winners

Winners 2022

The winners of Britain’s Fittest Farmer were crowned after battling it out at the finals in Essex.

This year we had four winners, two in the under 40s category and two joint winners in the over 40s category.

Erica Robison

2021

The competition was intense, but two winners have now been crowned in Farmers Weekly’s iconic initiative, designed to spark a discussion about mental and physical health in the countryside.

Erica Robison from Cumbria and James Arney from Somerset faced stiffed competition from the other finalists to win the titles – James has now both the 2020 and 2021 titles to his name.

Emma Ashley

A young farmer from Somerset and a Hertfordshire woman have been named Britain’s Fittest Farmers (BFF) 2020, at the thrilling climax of the competition’s grand finale.

James Arney, 25, from near Frome in Somerset, and Emma Ashley, 31, from Hertford in Hertfordshire, took home the trophies for top male and female competitors, along with the cash prize of £1,000 each.

The BFF final was held on Saturday (17 October) at Farm Fitness, an outdoor gym run by farmer’s son Tom Kemp on his family’s arable unit in Essex.

The nine male and nine final finalists tackled a variety of punishing physical tasks designed to push their speed, strength and stamina to the limit.

The challenges included cross-country sprinting, lugging straw bales around, blasts on assault bikes, throwing heavy sandbags over walls, lifting up to 100kg above their heads and deadlifting as much as 120kg as many times as they could manage.

Co-judge Tom Kemp said: “It’s great to see so many farmers and people from the agricultural industry homing in on their fitness and looking after themselves.

“Their resilience and work rate is top-drawer, and they’re willing to take on any challenge and just get it done.”