Farmers Guide

The Farmers Guide, produced by a family-owned and -managed company, provides the agricultural industry with a means of low-cost, effective advertising both for its readers and their suppliers. Founded by Doug Potts and now run by Jane Potts and Julie Goulding, the magazine's readers have bought and sold through its columns while enjoying the interests, information, and contentious political comment through its editorial columns for more than a quarter of a century. The magazine's yellow-paged used equipment section offers what may be the largest and most comprehensive selection in Europe.

At the time Farmers Guide was launched in September 1979, there were 1.8 million hectares of land devoted to arable cultivation, representing one-third of the total agricultural land in England and Wales. Half of the wheat crop was grown in East Anglia, together with more than 40% of potatoes, 63% of vining peas, and 72% of sugar beets, field beans, and dried peas.

Most newspapers in rural areas produced weekly supplements for their farmer readers. The Eastern Daily Press had produced a special publication in 1959 designed to cover seven counties, but this ceased in 1970. The Farmers Guardian, produced in the west, was also a byproduct of a newspaper group and was produced in newspaper format, but it included coverage of the livestock industry reflecting the area it served. The NFU produced a number of county publications comprising union news, mostly in the small A5 format.

The East Anglian Farmers Guide, covering Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire, took a major step by being the first to offer the A4 magazine format on a local basis and to offer farmers free advertising for equipment sold off the farm. Agricultural suppliers found the magazine cost-effective.

The East Anglian Farmers Guide was well-received, resulting in its growth from serving four counties to today’s 28 counties and from a circulation of 4,000 to 33,000 copies with a readership independently surveyed at five readers/copy. Today’s Farmers Guide offers an opportunity for suppliers to reach growers across Britain’s prime food-producing counties and their suppliers.

Since the magazine began, Farmers Guide had always been closely involved in the annual Power in Action event, organised by the Suffolk Farm Machinery Club. Otley was the home of Power in Action until a change in farming policy by its hosts meant that the 2005 event was the last to be held on that site. It was feared that the loss of the Otley venue would also spell the end of the event, but Farmers Guide became joint organiser with the Suffolk Farm Machinery Club and a new site was identified. With the 2007 Power in Action, which took place at Melford Park Farm, Alpheton, Suffolk, on Wednesday, September 5, 2007, the event thus entered a new phase its history.