Tom is inspired by the Worcestershire farm open day. Pip is determined to avoid being alone with Rex.

Radio Times: David is in trouble, and is Pip avoiding Rex?

Characters: Adam, David, Pip, Rex, Ruth, Tom

• Ruth and Pip discuss the milk yield which is down. Pip is inclined to blame David for cutting the silage a second time. Should the cows eat into next winter’s silage supply? Or feed concentrate which eat up slim profits? Profound questions fly.
• Tom and Adam are impressed with the ready meals demonstration in Worcestershire but Tom is still happy he got out of that business when he did. The open day farmer has made a spectacular success by creating his own market first before dealing with the supermarkets. Adam asks if this didn’t inspire Tom at all. Not with ready meals but Tom was impressed with the scholarship that Worcestershire farmer Jeremy used to go to Japan and Thailand to study meal production on farms. More innovative than scotch eggs, laughs Tom.
• Pip is stopped by Rex who asks if she is trying to dodge him. Rex offers to help but Pip refuses. Rex tells Pip about a farm walk on how to make a profit from pasture. Rex asks if she wants to go with him; Pip asks the date and then says she thinks she can’t make it. When pressed, Pip is embarrassed and speeds off to avoid more conversation with Rex.
• Ruth confronts David about the grass in the paddocks. David confesses that he didn’t use the plate meter but thought he could do it by eye. He messed up and apologises. Ruth insists that he tell Pip and take his lumps. David is turning into his dad, he laughs ruefully, and becoming a bit of a Luddite about the plate meter.
• Tom tells Adam that right now his job is to work harder to try and keep the farm and the shop from going under. But sometimes it is good to get away and find a new perspective. Helen does have an idea of developing a range of organic baby food. Tom knows nothing about it but he could follow Jeremy’s example and go on a study tour. Adam encourages Tom to apply for the Nuffield scholarship and do it. Tom notes that it was hard enough to wrangle a day away much less a foreign trip to study organic baby food.
• Rex turns up again to ask if Pip has had a chance to check the diary. Rex presses Pip to agree but she refuses. She’ll give Rex a call when things settle a bit. When will that be, asks Rex? He seems to have taken Harrison’s advice to press on to heart. David confesses to Pip that the silage cut was his fault. Rex is speechless at the dressing down Pip gives her father. She can be a bit fierce, can’t she, Rex asks admiringly?