Will grew up on Manor Farm and has farmed it for nearly 40 years. He started young, when his father retired, and built up the dairy herd with his wife Pam. Concerns about the health and environmental effects of artificial fertilisers and pesticides led them to seek out alternatives and they made the decision to go organic, with the Soil Association, in 1983.

The farm's first organic wheat was sold in 1986, Manor Farm becoming fully organic in 1988. A small processing dairy followed in 1992 and milk and cream sales were gradually built-up. For ten years, Manor Farm was the only commercial organic farm in Dorset, but now there are several others. Pam and Will now market milk from three local farms, and Manor Farm Organic Dairy supplies shops, cafes, schools, pubs and restaurants in the south of England.

• Can you describe a typical day in your life?
  Not really because they vary so much. Sometimes I am up at 2.00am to drive a van, sometimes at 5.00am to milk, mostly at 7.00am. I have a quick cup of tea and check the weather on the internet. I avoid the office as much as I can (the work in there is mostly done by Pam and by Damian, our milk company manager), but have to spend some time in there every day, and some days I seem to be on the phone for hours.
  
  I plan the day's farming activity with our two farming employees, Phil and Neil, and do what is required of me. This could be anything from scraping slurry to repairing machinery, pitching sheaves, hedgelaying, combine driving, or moving sheep.
  
  We keep a herd of cows and a flock of sheep, and grow a variety of arable crops, including wheat for bread and thatching straw. The cows provide milk and calves, and the sheep, lambs and wool. Between them they produce all the manure the land needs to keep it healthy and fertile.
  
  We aim to keep our livestock well with a healthy diet and good living conditions, and for prevention and cure of illness we use homoeopathy, of which our herdsman Phil Hansford is a leading proponent.
  
  Most evenings I have a van to load for the next day's deliveries. Nearly every day I get a good breakfast at about 9.30am, brief stops for lunch (longer with a nap if I have started early) and tea, and a serious evening meal at about 9.00pm. In between I seem to be always busy. My last and often most enjoyable chore is to check round the cows and see all is well; sometimes I have to deal with a sick cow or help one calve. Then it's cocoa and bed, usually around 11.30pm.

• Who are your customers and where are they?
  Mostly shops and cafes but also wholesalers, schools, pubs, restaurants and offices across the south of England, but mostly in London, Bristol, and Dorset.

• Organic principles – why do they matter?
  Basically because if we do not stick to them our future looks bleak.

• What does the Soil Association mean to you?
  A lot. It is a really positive organisation with many really good people in it, many of them young, energetic and forward looking. I cannot think of the Soil Association without thinking of its director Patrick who has been a great friend to us.

• What is your greatest achievement?
  I am not aware of any.

• How do you plan to progress in the future? What is your vision?
  More of the same. We must make organic farming as widespread as possible.

• If you were starting all over again, what would you do differently?
  If I knew then what I know now, I would have started conversion 13 years earlier.

• What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
  Farming is applied intelligence.

• Who or what is your biggest inspiration?
  Probably the beauty of nature, but lots of people have inspired me.

• What is the key to your success?
  Marrying the right woman.

• What do you love most about what you do?
  Being allowed to work outside all round the year; being able to live and work where I have always lived; being appreciated for what we do, and also meeting so many great people.

• What keeps you awake at night?
  Not much. Too tired!

• What single thing would most improve your life?
  A bit more profitability so that we could catch up and not always be under pressure of work.

• Any unusual hobbies or past careers?
  Not really. I have lots of interests and have always been heavily involved with village and church life, and I do love cricket.

• How can the organic market be improved?
  It's going pretty well.

• What's the main benefit of being organic for you?
  In commercial terms, it enables us to make a living as a small mixed farm. Nobody would have predicted it in 1985, least of all ourselves, but had we kept the farm conventional we would be out of business by now.

• What other organic ventures do you admire and why?
  Lots. Not only many other farmers, but also our customers who work really hard at retailing and wholesaling and spreading the word.

• Supermarkets – good or bad?
  There is one good chain but most of them are worse than pigs at a feed trough. The way they treat their suppliers is diabolical.

• What is the biggest threat to what you do?
  Encroaching old age.

• What's the best thing about organic farms?
  The birdsong.

• What's the best thing about organic food?
  We believe that food should be naturally grown and processed as little as possible – it tastes better that way and is more nutritious. Milk is an important staple food for most people, especially children, and we think that it should be pure and unadulterated. Unfortunately pasteurisation is a legal requirement, and separation is necessary to make semi-skimmed and cream, but we do not homogenise our milk and never will.

• What is your favourite meal?
  I guess I have to say my cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs and coffee, because I eat it every day that I can, and always look forward to it.

• If I was Prime Minister I would...
  Try to find peaceful solutions.

• The world would be a better place if...
  We were all a bit less selfish.

• I'd like to be remembered for...
  Some of my amusing stories.

• What would be your 'Desert Island' luxury?
  A steady supply of organic wines (from Vintage Roots)!

• Is the customer always right?
  Not always but you have to behave as if he/she is.