A helping hand for farmers

The multiple problems that farmers face are all too familiar to fifth generation farmer Charmain Dascombe, who is the Regional Support Officer for the Farming Community Network (FCN) in the South West, covering Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire.

The mother-of-three works part-time and flexible hours for FCN, while also working with her husband David and her eldest son, 27-year-old Oliver, on their holding near Minehead, in Somerset. They have a beef and sheep enterprise and are owner occupiers at Wootton Courtney, also renting land nearby.

A challenging landscape

Charmain explains: “The land is quite challenging because our top fields go right up the side of Dunkery Beacon, the highest point of Exmoor. We are one of three neighbouring farms that have fields going up to Dunkery.

“Our lower fields are near the road below our farmyard. It’s actually a really wet farm, we just seem to hold water. 

“Normally, in the summer, we’d probably dry up later than most other people, but in 2026, we were so dry we had to feed our animals.”

The picture was the same across the region, with farmers forced to use supplies of winter fodder to feed livestock on parched fields with no grazing.

“We have about a hundred crossbred suckler beef cows, mainly Hereford X Friesians. Like most people here, we’ve had to change our farming business because of TB. We used to be all cattle, but we’ve now got sheep, 550 breeding ewes, Exmoor Horns and Exmoor mules. Then Oliver has his own small flock of 40 Aberfield ewes that he lambs outside.”

“Bluetongue here has been really awful – it hit Exmoor and North Devon really badly this summer. Then the vaccine became unavailable as the uptake was so rapid, that was the real issue,” says Charmain, a former veterinary nurse, whose livestock were vaccinated at the earliest opportunity.

Supporting fellow farmers

Fortunately, through her FCN role, Charmain, has been able to support her fellow farmers throughout 2026, the year that brought a maelstrom of problems, with disease, drought and rising input costs, on top of the usual TB tests and farm inspections.

“FCN attend a lot of shows, events and markets, that’s part of my job, and before the vaccine became available, all we could do was to talk to farmers about BTV vaccine.

For example, this autumn, I’ve attended the Dairy Show and we’ve had a suicide prevention meeting. I never quite know what I’m going to be doing next, it’s good, it’s so varied. I’m always amazed what people to do to fundraise for us – I’ve even gone up in a hot air balloon.”