Devon County Show - Cheese queen Mary's mission to enthuse at Devon County Show

Mary Quicke MBE, one of the most inspirational farmers in Britain, with a world-wide reputation for the quality of the traditional cheeses made on the family farm near Exeter, has taken over at the top of the Devon County Agricultural Association (DCAA), which organises the Devon County Show.

Speaking at the DCAA’s Annual Meeting today (January 20), where she was elected President for 2012, Mary said that she saw her role as being to enthuse and excite people about the show and the industry which it represents.

“I want it to be a great big party, but a party with a purpose, and that is to celebrate farming and food –an extraordinary industry that has extraordinary value, not only in providing us with food but in making sure that we have a planet that works”, she said.

“I never cease to be amazed at the dedication of the hundreds of people, most of them volunteers, who make the Devon County Show such a superb shop window for farming and the whole rural economy in Devon.  It is such an honour that this remarkable group of people want me to be their President.

“We are facing a huge, but really exciting challenge. How do we feed what will soon be 9 billion people around the world, or, even more to the point, maybe 70 million people in Britain, and continue to look after the countryside and the environment at the same time? 

“The show is a chance to demonstrate that we’re up for it, as food producers and as custodians of the countryside, and to help point towards some of the ways forward.”

When it comes to balancing highly efficient food production with looking after the countryside, Mary is already doing her bit, on the 1,500 acres she farms in a family partnership at Newton St. Cyres, between Exeter and Crediton. Hedges, arable margins, beetle banks and ponds are managed for wildlife under a variety of environmental schemes, and the estate – which has been in Mary’s family for 17 generations – also includes some 1,200 acres of forestry and the renowned Sherwood garden with its National Collections of Magnolias, Knaphill Azaleas and Berberis.

Besides her farmhouse Cheddar – now exported worldwide – Mary is best-known in farming circles as one of Britain’s leading exponents of pasture-based farming.  The 500 strong dairy herd is out grazing in the fields for 10 and sometimes 11 months of the year, so keeping costs to a minimum and producing the top quality milk needed for the cheese and ice cream produced on the farm.

She is therefore particularly excited by the grassland demonstration plots being established on the County Show showground by Mole Valley Farmers Ltd.

“One of the biggest challenges we face is putting in place the research and technology transfer to enable farmers to run sustainable and profitable businesses”, she explains, “and it is good that we are playing our part in that with the show.

“I also hope that the show will help farmers to understand just how much they have got to celebrate about what they do and the industry that they’re a part of. Suddenly people have woken up to the fact that we actually need farmers; that they are valuable and important, and I want that to be reflected not only in how people see farmers, but in how farmers see themselves.”

Encouraging young people to get involved in farming is another of Mary’s many enthusiasms which she hopes will be reflected in the show:

“Farming is an industry for the future. It offers really exciting career prospects for young people, and there are some really exciting young people in farming, not least in the membership of Devon YFC.  It feels like the future of farming is in safe hands”.

Mary Quicke has served as President Elect of the DCAA for the past year.  She is also a founder Vice-Chairman of the Maize Growers Association, the longest serving director of the co-operative Devon Grain and a Committee member of the Devon Slow Food Convivium.  She was awarded the MBE in 2005 for services to farming and the rural economy in the South-West.

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