Biography

I’m a farm boy. I grew up on a small fen farm and my love of growing crops comes from there. I was always asking questions and fortunately my Dad was a great teacher and I draw on this wisdom every day at work as an agronomist.

I love growing all the crops but was always drawn to potatoes – right from when I drove the Fordson harvesting our crops with the ‘hoover’. But this was only the start.

I graduated with a degree in Biological Sciences from Leicester University in 1981 and after a year on the farm at home, I started work at the Norfolk Agricultural Station at Morley in 1982 working in trials. I then worked for NIAB (as a trials officer) and then Elsoms Seeds (as a representative). None of these jobs were really ‘spuddy’ enough so in 1991 I joined Anglian Produce followed by nearly 10 years at ADAS as a potato agronomist. In 2001 I joined Greenvale AP and worked in a commercial environment growing and storing potatoes on a large scale. I then joined Prime in 2013 covering potatoes and arable crops.

I am now in to my fifth decade in the industry, so what makes me tick?

So much has changed but to me we all have the most important job in the world – growing food – I never lose sight of this. With my parents being of the war generation, scarcity of food then was never forgotten by them. It would be a hard lesson to have to learn again.

I feel a great connection with my crops, I feel that is where I belong. I suppose it is second nature after my upbringing. Sounds old fashioned in this age of Apps and software but that’s my way – and I hope I have learned a few useful things over the last 40 odd years. I would like to believe that I have!

So, I have a come a long way – or have I? Let me see – I still love growing stuff, I’m still in spud fields and I also still have that Fordson. Like I said though, I am a farm boy!