Interviews with George Badger and Kaleb Cooper
At Cereals 2026, Lizzie Blower from Hectare Trading caught up with two familiar faces from the industry: George Badger from Ceres Rural and farming contractor and TV personality Kaleb Cooper.
While reflecting on a busy week at Diddly Squat Farm, one message came through loud and clear: there are still plenty of opportunities for farming businesses that are prepared to think differently.
George Badger
George is a farming consultant and agronomist, and a partner at Ceres Rural, where he has worked closely with Hectare Trading to introduce online grain marketing to a broad range of farming businesses.
George discusses:
How Ceres Rural uses Hectare Trading’s live marketplace during farm meetings to secure competitive bids and provide farmers with accurate, region-specific market insights
The need for farmers to question every decision rather than accept the status quo
How cyclical market lows can create ideal conditions for ambitious farmers to grow their businesses
Kaleb Cooper
Known to millions through Clarkson’s Farm, Kaleb provides farm contracting services through Kaleb Cooper Contracting.
Kaleb and Lizzie looked back on a hectic but encouraging two days at Cereals 2026:
Despite low grain prices and incredibly wet and muddy fields, the general morale was remarkably high
“One thing I hate doing is selling” – how Hectare Trading takes the strain out of selling grain
The value of trusted partnerships and keeping a positive outlook
Watch on YouTube: Kaleb Cooper talks to Hectare Trading at Cereals 2026
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Transcript: George and Lizzie
Lizzie
A big event for Ceres.
George
Yes, it’s been a busy day.
Lizzie
Busy few days, busy few months?
George
Busy year, actually. I think it’s probably just over a year ago that we started conversations about hosting the show here, and here we are, and the sun’s shining. So a year’s work has come together.
Lizzie
And what George won’t tell you is he is very much the brains behind the Diddly Squat partnership.
George
We’re a team. There’s a lot that goes on here. There’s more than one person needed.
Lizzie
Always, always. How have you found today?
George
It’s good. We’ve been busy throughout the day, really.
Lizzie
New customers?
George
A few new leads, definitely, chatting to, you know, existing people. I’ve been doing a couple of talks, been on the Farmers Weekly podcast.
Lizzie
Your talks are very good as well. The Ceres event in December is probably one of my favourite talks.
George
Thank you.
Lizzie
It was very good.
George
I mean, there’s been quite a lot of negativity about arable farming at the moment, and actually, there’s quite a lot of opportunity and positives as well. And that’s what I was talking about in one of the talks earlier, and particularly the next generation coming through, fertiliser prices will be coming back down. There’s quite a lot of land opportunities coming up as well, and I think there are people out there that are keen, enthusiastic to take on more land and and grow their businesses, and actually, it’s quite a good time to do that when markets are at a bit of a cyclical low. And grain prices came up a little bit just recently as well.
Lizzie
Well, grain prices came up, and we did a panel earlier today where we were very much talking about the importance of investing in technology – within reducing cost of production and increasing farming profitability – but also how important it is to market your grain and use the technology that’s available to you. And also, don’t be a price taker. And I think that’s something that Ceres has very much promotes. And we’ve been partnering for a little bit.
George
Definitely. And what I quite enjoy about Hectare is you’ve got a really broad range of buyers – you know, some of them are actually here today – and some of those more niche homes that you otherwise wouldn’t necessarily be able to access because you just don’t know who to ring. And that’s been quite refreshing.
Lizzie
And I think for you guys, it’s yes, part of the business is marketing the grain, but part of the business is actually just having the correct insights, right, to talk to your farm owners about, and to be able to accurately give them some information around what is a good grain price in that region. And that’s where the data part comes in for you.
George
And I quite like the sort of time-slotted things. I sometimes, when I know I’m having a meeting with a farmer, sometimes I just set up a trade, and then during that time they say “what are prices today?” and you’re like, “well here they are, do you want to accept them?” I definitely did one trade where we’re like, “OK, let’s do it!”
Lizzie
That’s good, that’s what we want. And I think that’s the thing about working not just directly with farmers but partnering with businesses like you and, to be honest, the fact that you guys as well as a consultancy, you know, you’re not your average consultancy. You’ve got your own data analyst. You’ve got this huge wealth of knowledge within your own business and then, partnering with us, I think the two work really, really well together.
George
We’re an independent consultancy business. We like just offering our advice, and being independent gives us that. We can kind of, you know, we’re not selling anything else. We just want to sell good advice to people. And at the moment, that does feel like what farming businesses need. You know, which way can I turn? Can I get some insights from all of the other farms that we’re involved with? And getting grain marketing right is definitely one of those.
Lizzie
And a very proactive business when it comes to that as well, for the industry, a very forward-thinking consultancy.
George
We like to think so. We’re five years old now, and we just want to be useful to farmers. You know, if a farmer’s got a problem or a challenge, we want to be able to solve it, and those challenges do keep rearing their heads, and we want to be able to come up with those solutions.
Lizzie
I think both businesses are aligned with the fact that you need to have the value for what you’re giving them, right? So, you know, for a farmer, they pay for a lot of things, a lot of advice, a lot of tools, and what we’re both doing here is ensuring that farmers are getting the best value for them, making sure that they have the best opportunity to be profitable as a business.
George
Yes, you’re going to have to look at where can you make a bit more margin, where can you save a bit of cost across everything, right through from, you know, we’re involved from growing crops and doing the agronomy; we’re also involved in helping people sell grain; we’re also involved in looking at the financial accounts at the end of the year. So there’s a whole range in between there where people can either improve what they’re doing, a bit more attention to detail or save a bit of cost somewhere. And one of our trials plots here has been exactly that: looking at different varieties of wheat grown at high input, slightly lower input, and then untreated, and what might 60 pounds a hectare of fungicide spend get us versus 100 pounds a hectare.
Lizzie
Or treating your seeds before first sprays and all the rest of it.
George
Exactly. I think you’re going to have to challenge every decision rather than just sort of accept the status quo.
Lizzie
100%. Also, what you should do, if you haven’t already booked tickets, Ceres run an amazing event in December, which is your conference. Last year, exceptional speakers, really good information about profitability on the farm, and that’s another thing that you guys do, which I think we do really, really well.
George
Thank you.
Transcript: Kaleb and Lizzie
Lizzie
Catch him at the end of the day. Tired and grumpy.
Kaleb
I wouldn’t say tired and grumpy, I’d say tired.
Lizzie
1am.
Kaleb
2am. It's been busy. I mean, everybody else’s stand looks awesome, and I just look like... Look at my tractors.
Lizzie
I know, but that's, do you know what that is? That’s a working tractor.
Kaleb
It is a working tractor. They pulled everybody else in to get here.
Lizzie
Exactly. And it was very muddy yesterday. Hailstones.
Kaleb
Hailstones. But the good thing is, we did sell my oats.
Lizzie
He did sell his oats. Fumigated?
Kaleb
I did sell them fumigated. First load went out, was it Monday? I think it was Monday. And another load going in, I think it's... actually, I need to message – can you message him for me?
Lizzie
I’ll sort that out for you.
Kaleb
Good team here! That’s the good thing, though, that is, to be fair, we’ve got a good relationship, which is nice.
Lizzie
We do, it is good.
Kaleb
And one thing I hate doing is selling. I hate selling stuff.
Lizzie
Yes, I know, but that’s why we do it for you.
Kaleb
Hectare Trading eliminates the whole worrying about what you’re going to sell and where...
Lizzie
Also, what is good is, they’re milling oats, fumigated, listed them as feed, got a fairly good milling price.
Kaleb
I did make a little bit of a mistake when I listed them, I must admit.
Lizzie
No, we’ve rectified it. Also, the good thing is that we do work with the buyers, so we had a good chat with them. I had people ringing me being like, “why has Kaleb listed that as feed?"
Kaleb
Because I can’t use any app possible! That’s why the good relationship – I ring you up and go, "panic!"
Lizzie
He’s done well with it. But what we haven’t done is we haven’t promoted this contracting service, which we absolutely should. Have you done well this week, this year?
Kaleb
Yes, I think so. I mean, I’ve had a lot of selfies! But I mean, I’ve done a few deals on some straw – straw baling, some muck spreading, which is good. And the good thing about this – the whole day today, actually, I find – is the morale is really high. You know, the wheat price is down, you know, the oat price is terrible really, you know what I mean? But actually...
Lizzie
Well, we say that, markets have picked up a little bit. We saw £200 a tonne not that long ago. Just for that short little period. But yes, it’s been good.
Kaleb
It’s good, the morale has been good. And even if it’s so wet, you know, it has trashed the field and it has been wet, but actually, more importantly, everyone’s come with a smile on their face. That’s what’s important.
Lizzie
I know, it’s been a good event. But don’t forget that we have our SellMyLivestock platform. Kaleb does advertise on there. He is doing contracting around here, all sorts of contracting now. You’ve got your new machinery.
Kaleb
Got everything. Baling, big baling this year. That’s the big push this year, so round baling, small square baling, and square baling – big square bales.
Lizzie
So don’t just hit him up for a selfie. Get some baling done!
Kaleb
Thank you very much.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the content at the time of publication, Hectare Trading makes no guarantee regarding the data provided.