One Hundred and Forty-Four Pounds.
The first year’s profit, where the number came from, and why nobody who understood the arithmetic was remotely surprised by it.
What it is about.
A thousand acres of Cotswold brash returned a hundred and forty-four pounds in its first year under new management. That figure has been repeated so often it has become a joke, which has slightly obscured the fact that it is a completely ordinary result for that ground in that year.
The episode walks the number backwards: input costs, the wheat price that season, the yield the brash actually gives, and the two decisions that made the difference between a hundred and forty-four pounds and a loss.
It also establishes the thing the whole series keeps coming back to — that the farming has never been the business, and that pretending otherwise makes every subsequent decision impossible to explain.
Where things are in it.
Timestamps are in the feed as chapter marks, so an app that supports them will let you skip straight to the bit you came for.
Where the number comes from
Inputs, yield and the wheat price that year.
What brash actually is
And why nobody sensible pays a lot for it.
The two decisions
Which turned a loss into a hundred and forty-four pounds.
What it would take to double it
Not much, and still not a business.
The details.
Episode 01
- Title
- One Hundred and Forty-Four Pounds
- Published
- 12 May 2026Fortnightly, on a Tuesday.
- Length
- 54 min
- Guest
- Charlie IrelandLand agent
- Listens
- 41,208To 30 August 2026.
Access
- Transcript
- Published with the episodeSearchable.
- Download
- YesIt is an audio file.
- Cost
- NothingNo tier, no early access.
- Chapter marks
- YesThe four above, in the feed.
Every broadcast and every episode described here is illustrative. This is an unofficial demonstration build: no recording exists, nothing streams, and no guest named on this site has agreed to anything.
Where this goes next.
Almost every episode has a written counterpart, because an argument that only exists in audio is an argument nobody can quote.
The rest of the series.
The Sixteen-Mile Radius
The planning condition that decides what the farm shop is allowed to sell, read out loud and then argued with…
Lagering Takes Six Weeks
Why the beer costs what it costs, told by somebody who has thrown a batch away and would like to…
We Completely Cocked Up
The cider recall, the statement that said exactly that, and why the shortest crisis statement in the file was also…
There Is No Telephone
Why a business with three million followers has no telephone number, and what happens to the people who wanted one.
The Lemon Problem
A pub where every ingredient is British, and the hour-long argument about a gin and tonic that has no lemon…
What the Drought Cost
A dry year, priced. What it took off the yield, what it added to the input bill, and what it…
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