Memories of Oliver Walston, farmer and industry commentator

Farmers Weekly was sad to learn of the passing of one of our most well-known former contributors, Oliver Walston, earlier this month.

We invited his son David to write a short tribute…

“Sitting in the corner of the tiny pub was an old farmer, half a pint of warm beer in front of him. He was a friend of our host, who asked: ‘Have you been watching that farming program on the telly?’ ‘Oh yes!’ he replied. ‘What a disgrace. It’s disgusting.’

“It was the late 1990s, and I was with my Dad, visiting a friend of his in the Highlands. His TV program Against the Grain, with its controversial call to scrap subsidies, had just finished airing, and it would be fair to say that the reaction among farmers was not universally positive.

“Our host continued… ‘And what would you do to that Oliver Walston if he walked into this pub right now?’. ‘Oh, I’d punch his lights out!’ the old man replied. Our host and I found this hilarious. My Dad, very unusually for him, was the absolute definition of squirming embarrassment.

“Back in those days, if someone asked me, ‘Are you Oliver Walston’s son?’, the answer was usually, ‘It depends who’s asking’.

“He had always been a controversial figure in farming, having hosted ITV’s Farming Diary for many years, most of them before I was born. He then switched to radio, recording dozens of breakfast table interviews for BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today, as well as writing for Farmers Weekly.

“This went on for several years, before he was fired from the BBC for (according to him) ‘being too posh’. Given that he sometimes described himself as having been born with a ‘silver spoon in every orifice’, I don’t think he could have argued too hard with the BBC’s reasoning.

“As time went on, and particularly after he stepped out of the public eye in 2010 having suffered a severe stroke, other farmers’ opinions of him mellowed gradually.

“For the past decade, having been outed as being his son, the reaction has been exclusively positive: Ahead of his time. Innovator. Forward-thinking. Correct. These were the sort of words that people have used to describe him, with the benefit of hindsight. It’s a shame that he never really got to hear them in person.

“Since I came back to the farm in 2010 – less than a year before his stroke –  we had some interesting moments working together, just as happens in any family business.

“But I feel so lucky, and incredibly grateful, that soon he graciously stepped aside and let me take the farm in my own direction. I know not everyone has this privilege.

“I’ll be running the grain store again this harvest, as usual, waiting to hear the distinctive sound of his G Wagen pulling up outside, followed 30 seconds later by “What’s the yield?”. This year, I think it will be good. I wish he could be here to see it.”

David Walston

Thriplow Farms, Cambridgeshire