Regenerating Ben

Available for over a year

When Ben Taylor-Davies's toddler son Jobe was kicked in the head by a horse in 2012, it changed the whole family's life forever. After weeks in intensive care with only a slim chance of survival, Jobe was left permanently brain-damaged. For Ben, it led to a breakdown and the feeling that he couldn't carry on in farming. Discovering a different way to manage the land through regenerative farming eventually rekindled his love of agriculture, and brought both him and the farm business back from the brink. Now, together with his wife Helen and two teenaged daughters Tegan and Erin, Ben runs a whole host of different enterprises on the land. Once entirely arable, it's now a mixed farm, with sheep, horses, a vineyard, a wedding venue, a shoot, a glamping site, and an assortment of livestock, including rare breeds, alpacas and even rheas. In this programme Charlotte Smith visits the farm near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire to meet Ben and the rest of the family. She discovers that the events of the last twelve years have regenerated not only the soil, but also Ben himself. Producer: Emma Campbell