In 1991, Andy Fussell of Frome in Somerset, was a 25-year-old third generation farmer taking on 275 acres of arable land and a few redundant cow sheds. 32 years on, Fussell has built a diversified farm business empire.

Andy Fussell has seen Fussell Farms grow and diversify into a multi-faceted enterprise, navigating a myriad of challenges to create an interconnected business model that can be handed down to future generations.

Andy’s story is a pretty unique one. He harnessed his own bravery, creativity and determination to build up an impressive portfolio of agricultural and commercial businesses, facing a magnitude of highs and lows along the way.

Listing out the several plates he’s spinning at any one time, Andy is a clear believer in the concept of diversification and even considers it vital to profitable and sustainable modern-day farming.

Andy gives us a timeline on his diversification expansion that all goes hand-in-hand.

“First and foremost, I am a farmer. I took the farm on in 1991, starting with a relatively poor yard with some old livestock buildings, an old milking parlour and no infrastructure to really speak about.”

“We expanded the farmland through renting, share farming and contract farming agreements to create more land area. We are agricultural contractors as well, so we do a lot of contract baling, combining and grain storage. The farm has got many different parcels of land, so rotation is quite easy. A day in a tractor is a bit of a luxury nowadays, but I still head up the harvest team and do all the harvesting.”  

“I had a store, a yard and a farm. I’ve just used my common sense to build up enterprises that all fit together and utilise these resources,” says Andy.

1994 – Transportation

“My first diversification project was Fussell Farms Bulk Haulage. This ‘morphed’ into Rode Haulage Ltd in 1996, following a meeting with co-director Richard Cousins. We began running dry bulk tipper lorries, which we started out on the original farmyard. We started hauling sand from the south coast and today operate anywhere between 20-25 lorries carrying stone, grain, animal feed, plus all the raw materials that comes into our blending plants situated here in my main yard. We then make the animal feeds and transport it back out to the end-user or farmer,” says Andy.

1996 – Building Supplies

“Once the transport was established and functioning well, I got into building supplies with my co-director, Richard Cousins. This business expanded massively when I built my new facility where we are now. To facilitate this happening, I persuaded Peter Caddywould, whom I got to know through coaching his children cricket, to come over from the builders merchant giant Travis +6 Perkins! We now have three building merchant branches in the Frome area, hence the name Frome Area Building Supplies (FABS). We’ve leveraged this enterprise for our development,” adds Andy.

2006 – Food Production

Fussell Fine Foods Ltd. produces an array of culinary goods for farmers’ markets, delicatessens, health food shops, supermarkets, restaurants and hotels. The enterprise started with crushing and processing oilseed rape seed, grown on our farm and vital to our crop rotation, to produce cold pressed extra virgin rape seed oil. This opportunity came about as a direct result in rapeseed crop prices. We do demonstrations and tours for groups, showing them the fields it’s grown in and talking through how we grow and crush it. People don’t always understand farming, but I feel there is actually a great love of it,” proclaims Andy.

2015 – Animal Feed Milling and Blending

“Leading up to this point, we outgrew the old yard and began to build a new one. The planning took 7 years - let’s just say I can definitely identify with Clarkson's Farm on this matter! However in short, we now have a lovely 9-acre site where all the businesses are located.”

“Alongside our rolling and grinding of cereals, we now produce dry blends and soda wheat for AB Agri which is something we had been striving to achieve for some time. With the capacity to store 15-17,000 tonnes of cereals, we now produce animal feed for local livestock producers and farmers all the way to Aylesford, Buckingham, Oxford, Hampshire, Wales and Gloucester. We grow the wheat on our fields and transport the end product with our own lorries,” says Andy.

2021 – Fishing & Woodland

"As if I wasn’t busy enough, I decided to create Rode Hill Fishery on some predominantly heavy clay land that was either a dust bowl when dry, or if we had a wet time, it got too wet to plant in. Every time we had lots of rain, despite draining the land, water just wouldn’t go away so I had the idea to make a pond out of it. The lake has been fished for carp for around 7 years, and we are in the process of building another lake along with 3-4 fishing lodges. We also have some willow trees planted for cricket bats and are looking at solar panels. Everything complements each other,” says Andy.  

KEENAN’s part in production

As of September 2023, Fussell Farms took delivery of a static KEENAN ProMix+ which has now already processed 16,000 tonnes of dry feeds for AB Agri.

“KW Feeds commissioned the KEENAN under my guidance. We’ve been blending for 25 years, so I have a fair understanding of the practicalities. KEENAN has a great name for building mixer wagons for the agricultural industry, but also has great experience building static machinery for the commercial sector. Also vital, is the way the KEENAN works – the horizontal paddle mixing mechanism is a must for effectively mixing dry ingredients. We trialled a couple of mixers but saw the KEENAN at another mill and knew it was the only option.”

“The reliability of the machine is also a huge factor. The back-up is unbelievably good. Michael and Nigel from KEENAN have been involved personally, in fact, they’ve been pretty insistent they know what is going on! The attention to detail is marvellous. We’ve had no issues so far and have no complaints.”

“The technical stuff that you get with the KEENAN allows us to operate it from the cab of the loading shovel on an iPad. The blend formulation can be downloaded directly from the box onto the mixer and then downloaded onto the iPad in the cab of the loading shovel, to ensure right percentages,” says Andy.

Andy wraps up with some key ‘take homes and insights’ into his business mind.

“Because of everything I’ve done, I get called an entrepreneur, but actually I think of it as just common sense and having a great trustworthy team around me. I have approx. 43 full-time members of staff plus 5 seasonal staff, some of which I take on as apprentices. I have a fantastic management team who manage the day to day operations so I can focus on expansion.”

“I really have no idea what keeps me going, I just can’t stop! Currently, I am playing with an idea for a farming board game! I just can’t sit still and I definitely try not to miss an opportunity. I see something and immediately I think, I could do that! It’s there to be done! Fundamentally though, I have a deep-down passion for agriculture. I love the smell of soil being worked and the hot back axle oil of a tractor, there’s just something about it. It comes from childhood. I was on the farm when I was 8 and shooting pigeons when I was 6, but I could see that I was never going to be content to remain with the same business model of me, my tractor and I," concludes Andy.