Beyond the Echo Chamber with Silas Hedley-Lawrence

Beyond the Echo Chamber with Silas Hedley-Lawrence

From Think Outside The Fence by Amy Hughes & Arron Nerbas

September 14, 2025 · 1h 22m

About this episode

Silas Hedley-Lawrence discusses his experiences in regenerative agriculture and the contrasts between UK and New Zealand farming practices.

Silas is a farmer, coach, and consultant with hands-on experience in regenerative agriculture. He divides his time between the Cotswold Cattle Company , his co-owned food and farming venture, and Grass Fed Farmer , his agroecological coaching business. With a background rooted in both the UK and New Zealand, he champions lean, profitable farming systems that deliver on increasing biodiversity and soil health gains. Silas is also an Integrity Soils trained agroecological coach from the Yellowstone cohort. In this episode, we hear about... A Tale of Two Systems: The stark contrast between subsidised UK farming and New Zealand's unsubsidised, business-focused approach. The First Profit in 25 Years: How Silas's "New Zealand way" of mob grazing and cutting inputs transformed the economics of a UK farm. Direct-to-Consumer Deep Dive: The tough lessons learned from selling retail cuts and the strategic pivot to a burger-focused food brand. From Gut Feeling to Hard Data: The journey from observing changes on the farm to participating in a four-year scientific research project on adaptive grazing. Inside the Integrity Soils 'Create' Program: What it's like to train with Nicole Masters in…

People in this episode

Hosts: Amy Hughes, Arron Nerbas

Guest: Silas Hedley-Lawrence

Topics covered

  • regenerative agriculture
  • farming systems
  • biodiversity
  • soil health
  • direct-to-consumer sales
  • agroecological coaching
  • collaboration in farming

Keywords

  • mob grazing
  • subsidised farming
  • adaptive grazing
  • food brand
  • soil science
  • collaboration
  • biodiversity

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cotswold Cattle Company, Grass Fed Farmer, Integrity Soils, Yellowstone

Places: UK, New Zealand

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