Why do we need to re-invent content? 

News is cyclical – much like the farming calendar. 

In the same way, news journalists across the land will report on the King’s Honours List, exam results, and the Government’s Budget at roughly the same time every year – farmers are bringing new life into the world, sowing seeds, and harvesting their crops like clockwork as the farming calendar progresses. 

Despite happening every year, these events are still relevant and worthy of news coverage. And the opportunity to add a subtle commercial angle to a PR generated story needn’t undermine the readability or value of a piece.

Specific weather or soil conditions, along with policy changes or ongoing health issues, provide the opportunity to recast the story and gain attention.

The key to successful coverage is taking steps to prevent that Groundhog Day feeling – from both journalists and their readers – by looking for a new timely, topical angle to explain what’s different about that typical event this year. 

There’s no such thing as a typical year 

If the past couple of years have shown us anything, it’s that typical events have been anything but typical.

The farming industry is rich in offering of story angles for press releases and features to add a new dimension, for example: 

The Government’s Autumn Budget in 2024 caused widespread worry and anger with news of changes to agricultural property relief and inheritance tax rules.

The drought conditions experienced in many parts of the country in 2025 have left livestock farmers short of winter forage and many growers struggling to find a home for spring barley which failed to meet market specifications for malting 
Beef prices have been riding at a record-high creating a change in dynamics for a sector where low profitability had become the norm.

The UK-US trade agreement has given access to more US ethanol entering the UK – having a knock-on impact on arable farmers supplying UK ethanol plants
These are just a few examples of how reporting of typical events – such as the Budget, harvest, and weekly livestock sales – hasn’t been a case of reporting the same thing each time. 

How can we re-invent agricultural PR content? 

Government policies, the weather and financial factors are all fantastic examples of things we can incorporate into a communications strategy to help re-invent content – transforming your typical story about silage-making, sowing, or worming into something relevant and new. 

As with all content, we need to answer the why? 

Why are we telling you this? Why should you care? Why is it relevant? 

These are the questions you need to answer when trying to get your story into the agricultural media in publications such as Farmers Guardian or Farmers Weekly.

Here are some other ways to make content fresh and relevant, while answering the why: 

• If it’s particularly wet or hot and that’s been reported countless times, look for recent Met Office data to showcase why you are giving advice on managing these weather conditions – for example, if you’re giving worming advice, explain the impact of the weather on the worm season and how it may differ from normal 
• If a certain sector is experiencing a rise or drop in output prices, find data to back this up, and explain why your advice is relevant in this context – for example, if milk prices are dropping, taking steps to reduce mastitis is more important than ever to prevent lost milk production 
• Keep abreast of industry publications, trial results and survey data; draw on this to explain why your advice or news is topical – for example, when talking about nutrient applications, referring to survey data that shows nationwide soil deficiencies is a great way to explain why farmers should be applying certain products at certain times 
• Be aware of the current news agenda and respond to this where you can – for example, if a farming organisation has launched a campaign and this aligns with your product or services, show your support and explain how you can help with this  
  
  
  

These are just a few examples of easy ways to make something you talk about year after year timely and relevant. 

Farming practices and seasons will never change – lambs will always be born in spring and crops will always be harvested in the summer – but the way we communicate advice and news related to these topics can change. 

The key is to find an answer to the why and tie in some relevant data, news, or information that’s specific to the year we’re in.

In all my years as an agricultural journalist, I wrote about the same events, sales, or company accounts year after year. Now as the technical content manager at a leading agriculture PR agency, there’s a similar challenge, albeit selling in stories with an underlying message that aligns to our client.

But, I can guarantee any piece, however cyclical, is different every time.

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