Diversification includes the conversion of a 17th century tithe barn into a wedding and corporate events venue, and horse liveries. Minette co-founded the campaigning initiatives 'Ladies in Beef' and the 'Great British Beef Week'.

Campaigning on behalf of NFU members about the importance of British food and farming has been a key driver for Minette throughout her time at the NFU. In 2020 she led one of the most successful petitions ever, bringing together a coalition of chefs, including Jamie Oliver, farmers, environmentalists, consumer groups and animal welfare experts – resulting in over one million people signing the NFU food standards petition. She has also regularly engaged with different media genres including appearances on Desert Island Discs, Question Time, and Any Questions.

She has been an NFU member from grassroots through to County Chair; she served as Wiltshire’s Council delegate and also as Regional Board Chair for the South West. Minette has also been a member of NFU Governance Board and served as NFU Deputy President for four years from 2014 to 2018, before being elected as president in February 2018. Minette is also an ambassador of Farm Africa and was made a Deputy Lieutenant to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 2021.

Officeholder responsibilities 

• Trade and standards
• EU and international relations
• Taxation and fiscal policy
• Science and research and development
• Food supply chain (fair dealing, Markets and Authorities, competition, regulation)
• Food service
• AHDB
• Levelling up
• Education

The home farm is based around arable production but has also diversified into equestrian and renewables.

Tom has represented the NFU from Local Branch Chairman through to Chair of the National Combinable Crops Board.

Tom was elected to the position of NFU President in February 2024.

Responsibilities

• Animal health and welfare incl. bTB
• Trade and standards
• Climate, energy and net zero
• Food supply chain (fair dealing, mergers and acquisitions, competition, regulation)
• Animal ID and movements
• Assurance review
• Taxation and fiscal policy
• Immigration

David farms south of Horsham in West Sussex with his wife and two sons over 1200 tenanted hectares in the heart of the Sussex Weald.

Starting in 1989 with 70ha the business now has arable, dairy beef, Sussex suckler herd and sheep enterprises. In 2003 the Farm Shop opened and sells a wide range of food from the Victorian stable yard at Westons.

He has served previously within the NFU as Branch Chair, West Sussex Council Delegate, South East Regional Chair as well as four years on Governance Board.

David was elected to the position of NFU Deputy President in February 2024.

Responsibilities

• EU and international relations
• Banking
• Biodiversity
• Food labelling
• Food safety
• Food service and hospitality
• Agricultural transition (productivity, ELMs, stability)
• Plant health
• Assurance schemes
• British Agriculture Bureau
• Health, safety and wellbeing
• Agricultural transport
• Uplands
• Tenants

Leaving FDF at the end of 2014, he took up the post of DG at the Provision Trade Federation (PTF) looking after the interests of businesses involved in the UK bacon and dairy trade.

Before working at FDF and PTF Terry worked for the NFU from 2002-2011 in a variety of roles including Head of Government Affairs, Head of Food Chain and Director of Communications.

Terry lives in Cheshire with his wife Emma and their two daughters.

Catherine leads a dedicated team of HR professionals that partner with the NFU and its subsidiaries to attract, develop and engage great people to deliver positive outcomes for the NFU and its members.

Her career started on the graduate scheme at Tesco, and after working as a store manager and learning that people are the heartbeat of any organisation, she decided to pursue a career in HR. She worked for a wide variety of organisations, from the NHS to SMEs to privately owned businesses before joining the NFU in 2015. She became Director of People in April 2023.

Outside of work Catherine enjoys spending time with her family and friends in Warwickshire. Her real love is open water swimming, and although she’s based in the very centre of England she will find any excuse to head to the coast for a swim.

He joined the NFU headquarters in January 1993 from Hertfordshire County Council and has filled a variety of roles including Chief Environment Adviser and, prior to his current role, Head of Policy Services.

Andrew lives with his family in Worcestershire where he grew up on a hop and fruit farm. He has a PhD in Environment Science from the University of East Anglia and is a Chartered Landscape Architect.

Kevin moved to the NFU's Headquarters in London in June 1998 as NFU Beef and Sheep Adviser and then Beef, Sheep and LFA's Adviser. In the changes that followed the NFU s review in 2004 he was appointed Chief Livestock Adviser.

In May 2005 he took on a new position of Head of Food Chain and Farm Policy and in October 2006 he was appointed Head of Food and Farming.

Kevin was appointed Director of Regions in February 2011.

She brings to the NFU a strong background in commercial finance and business change management in growing businesses, an inspiring leadership style, experience of integrating acquisitions and strategic financial planning expertise.

Prior to joining the NFU, she was Finance Director at Mattioli Woods plc, a leading UK listed financial services business, where she led the finance team through significant change as the business expanded rapidly. Having joined in 2013, her role developed quickly after playing a key leading role in the IPO of Custodian REIT plc. During her almost seven-year tenure she steered many strategic developments across finance, HR, IT, operations, risk and compliance, including a £14m investment in building a new office.

She qualified as a chartered accountant in 2009 in practice, where she developed a diverse range of experience across finance specialisms and industry sectors, including agriculture and investment property. She joined the practice in 2006, following a short period as a business analyst at Caterpillar Logistics Services (now Neovia Logistics) after graduating from De Montfort University with a degree in Accounting and Finance in 2005. 

Outside of work Farah enjoys playing tennis, travelling and family walks in the countryside with her husband and two sons. 

Since then he has held senior financial posts in several commercial sectors, including leasing and television.

He joined the NFU on New Year's Day 2002 and is responsible for finance, corporate taxation, HR, property and investments, compliance, NFU CallFirst, the Legal Assistance Scheme and other business services.

Ken is also Secretary of the NFU as well as a director of NFU Energy and the NFU Staff Pension Scheme Trust Company.

He previously served as Chief Executive of the Crop Protection Association (CPA) from January 2013 to December 2016, representing the UK plant science industry and promoting the development and manufacture of a wide range of plant science technologies including synthetic and bio pesticides, seed and plant breeding and agricultural biotechnology.

Nick has enjoyed a varied career both within and outside agriculture. Prior to the CPA, Nick was Head of Government Affairs at the NFU, responsible for managing the organisation’s political relations and heading up its London office.

He worked for a London-based public affairs agency for many years, advising companies and organisations across a wide range of sectors on media and political relations. He also trained as a lawyer, being called to the Bar in 2007. He lives with his wife and two children on the family’s arable farm in East Hertfordshire, which is managed in partnership with two neighbouring farm businesses.

Wheat is grown for the feed market, with a small area grown for seed. Winter barley is feed and spring barley is for malting. The farming partnership also runs a grain storage business with drying facilities and a soft fruit enterprise.

Matt served as NFU Combinable Crops Board chair from 2020-2024.

He works closely with the national boards for Horticulture & Potatoes and Combinable Crops to develop and deliver their key strategic aims.

He invests in his own professional development and is a Fellow of Institute of Agricultural Management, a qualified agronomist and a CEnv (Chartered Environmentalist).

Richard is also actively involved with university research and education.

Alongside his arable operations, Richard is involved in a diverse range of environmental work on his farm, which began on a largely voluntary basis.

All watercourses are protected with 7m diverse margins and hedgerows are managed sensitively with roughly 12,000 of mixed hedgerow species types have been planted on Richard’s farm and 2,000 mixed trees.

He has approximately 8ha of grassland, which is mainly riverbanks and field corners, with no nutrient inputs, encouraging a diversity of plant species.

A number of bird and bat boxes have been put in place around the farm, and in the past he has installed vole pontoons, kingfisher fishing stakes and a grass snake nest.

Since 2007, Richard has used 'cover cropping' on the farm, which is temporary crop and is used to preserve nutrients and protect soils at key times in the farming calendar, now covering over 50ha on one 200ha farm.

He has also worked in close conjunction with Yorkshire Water to protect water quality and improve the environment.

In addition, Richard grows between 7 and 8 different crop types which adds to the diversity on his farm. Twenty years of bird surveys have provided an important picture of the improvements this work has delivered.

Solar power generated on the farm provides 100% of electricity for Richard’s farmhouse, office and four luxury converted holiday barns and events room. All heating is provided using low energy biomass district heating.

Public engagement is important to Richard and he hosts visits for fellow farmers and other organisations with an interest in the countryside, as well as public speaking on farming and the environment.

In this traditional upland landscape, over the past 20 years, Robert’s family have repaired some traditional farm buildings and rebuilt over 1000m of dry stone walling. More recently help from a boundary grant scheme has enabled this restoration work.

Hedgerow management over the past few years has seen around 400m of hedge laying and restoration to provide habitats and food sources for wildlife.

Over 90% of the farm is classified as permanent pasture, with considerable areas of low nutrient input and zero input grassland, to encourage a diversity of plant species types, and corners of fields are left un-mowed to help encourage wildlife.

Good and efficient use of resources is also an important part of day-to-day consideration on Robert’s family farm. Significant investments have been made over the years, including in covering the slurry stores and a large open yard, which have helped reduce emissions such as methane and ammonia but also removed the need to build another slurry store.

Through making better use of the manure and slurry generated on the farm, Robert has halved the amount of artificial fertiliser used on the land to produce silage. It has also allowed Robert to increase the area of grazed land which receives no artificial fertiliser at all.

In addition, water in a plate cooler is used to pre-cool milk from parlour, so saving electricity. This same water is then reused for washing down the parlour or for drinking water for the cattle.

The heat recovered from a fridge is used to heat water used for washing and calf feeding, again saving Robert electricity.

The farm also produces 10% of its own electricity generated from solar power.

Robert said: "Farming has shaped our iconic upland landscapes and created one of the most important managed environments in the country. This landscape brings millions of people to the countryside every year, supporting local jobs in tourism and other local businesses.

"I believe I have an important role in helping manage and look after our beautiful landscape and countryside.

"Over the years, we have invested to improve productivity on the farm but also invested to increase efficiency in our use of nutrients, such as nitrogen. In a bid to do this, we have recently purchased equipment such as a trailing shoe spreader with the help of a grant scheme. This has reduced our environmental impact and footprint."

Hedd runs a flock of 1600 ewes which are predominantly Welsh Mountain together with a herd of 40 suckler cows. He has participated in agri-environment schemes for 25 years and during that time has planted over 2000 trees of native species; completed over 7000m of hedgerow restoration; established 1900m of streamside corridors; 250m restoration of dry-stone walls; 15ha stock excluded woodland; with 560ha enclosed mountain under active management for habitat improvement.

He is a keen participant in agri-environment schemes and said: "We farm in a stunning location. The Welsh landscape that we see and enjoy today – and which supports a diverse range of habitats and species – has been created, shaped and is maintained by farming activity over hundreds of years.

"It is very much a managed landscape and we recognise as farmers the wide range of public goods we provide. This not only includes high quality food but also wider benefits for biodiversity, carbon storage, clean water and energy generation."

Arriving from Scotland as dairy farmers in 1983 they have had many changes in farming practice through fat lambs, large scale potato production with carrots, beetroot and cauliflower, returning to combinable crops in 2008; now growing maize and rye for a very local 6 MW biogas plant.

Land is also rented out for potatoes, cauliflowers and turf production.

Joining the ELS scheme in 2006 led to many field corners being taken out of production, extensive buffer strips created and a new perspective on soil management.

Caroline said: "Most significantly we truly assessed run off and soil loss. The land has many dry valleys which channelled water and soil, we introduced soil bunds and slow release mechanisms which quickly eliminated the problem."

In 2009, the farm invested in a minimum-tillage drill. Intending to reduce costs and preserve soil biodiversity, the equipment has led to very positive changes to their farms soil health. Building on this, Caroline is now trialling cover crops, companion cropping and under sowing cover crops to preserve soil and create a healthy habitat for future generations to farm.

"Although we were in the ELS scheme and are strong supporters of CFE we are currently not in a stewardship scheme. We are, however, planting winter bird feed areas in a rotational pattern. Approximately 10% of the farmed area out of production and we are supplementing these areas with adjacent planting, as well as our irrigation reservoirs which have developed into fabulous species rich wet lands within the farm. The island has little standing water due to the chalk aquifers, so all farm reservoirs provide unique landscapes here."

The island only hosts red squirrels so some 10ha of woodland have been planted in a jigsaw scheme to provide natural corridors. Now mainly mature, these are soon to host a species count by the forestry commission.

Caroline is a member of the Eastern Yar Cluster Group. The group has encouraged farmers in the valley to apply for grant funding to address the issue of riverside trees which are adding to soil erosion and river degradation. As part of this, the group coordinate catchment specific training days which this year led to a very satisfying amount of cover crops being grown throughout the valley.

Growing up on the family mixed farm in the heart of North Yorkshire meant that she combined studying with practical farm work. The ambassador programme will allow her to meet people with different and complementary ideas and to promote engagement across the agricultural community.

He is from an arable background in Suffolk, but is now living and working in Kent for a farm producing strawberries and other soft fruits for the British market. Through the ambassador programme, he hopes to gain some great friends, share ideas and learn from others, while doing his bit to promote the industry.

She is taking over her family farm in North Wales, whilst also working on a local regenerative dairy farm. She also trains and trials sheepdogs. Through the ambassador programme, she hopes to further develop her understanding and passion for the agricultural industry.

She graduated from Aberystwyth University in 2019 with a BSc in agriculture with business studies. She now helps run the family enterprise incorporating store cattle, breeding ewes, broiler chickens and arable. The arable is mainly at the Glanusk Estate where her family are tenant farmers. An active member of YFC, she is excited to help showcase the best of British agriculture.

She grew up on a mixed farm in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Her passion is cows and sheep, and she loves spending a lot of her time with them when she is not in university. She is very happy to be a part of the ambassador programme, especially to meet new people and learn more about the industry she loves.

As a new entrant to the farming business, he thinks being an NFU Student & Young Farmer Ambassador will be a great platform to explain how a person who isn't from a farming background can break into the industry and what you can expect along the way, as well as explaining the role farming plays in our country.

She is a farmer’s daughter from Warwickshire. They farm mainly sheep and arable, but have other enterprises such as a small feed merchant business. She is passionate about agriculture, especially topics surrounding buying locally and seasonally, and is really looking forward to meeting new people and learning more about the ever-changing industry.

For the past six years, he has been supporting his father’s dairy contract farming business. He studies agriculture with business management at Aberystwyth University and his passion is sustainability, and British agriculture's role in tackling climate change. He wants to help promote agriculture as a career pathway, and the vast opportunities for current farmers, new entrants and the wider public.

Mike is also manager of CP Farming ltd, a 4,000 acre mixed estate in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

Previously, he studied Agriculture & Business Management at The Royal Agricultural University and also spent an additional year there as chair of the Students' Union.

His main passion in agriculture is a transition to more environmentally conscious farming, whilst maintaining food production.

Having taken great inspiration from the regenerative movement, he is reducing tillage, increasing cover cropping and incorporating livestock and herbal leys. 

He is looking to understand impacts on soil carbon from varying cropping and establishment techniques to optimise rotations to maximise and retain soil carbon. He is also increasing low input cropping, growing miscanthus and exploring agroforestry.

He strongly supports the NFU’s net zero target, but to achieve this he believes that in the need to focus on neutralising farming's internal emission and in-setting within our supply chains before selling our good work out of the industry.

She has a degree in Rural Business Management and currently works as a Saputo Standards Inspector, Red Tractor auditor for dairy, beef and lamb farms, and relief milker. As an ambassador, she would like to gain knowledge and experience, and to meet other like-minded people within the industry.

He comes from a mixed farming background and this has led to him discovering many opportunities within Young Farmers. He is looking forward to learning more about the political lobbying of the NFU. He hopes to contribute to the voice of the NFU through his passion for education while he is currently studying at Harper Adams University.

She studied languages at Durham University, then returned to the family farm. Alongside arable work and establishing a new farm vineyard, she has set up ‘Spot the Crop’ signs and her own agriculture information website Agri Unwrapped. As an ambassador, she hopes to connect with like-minded individuals, while creating a greater dialogue with those outside farming circles to further public understanding of British agriculture.

Jack’s current role sees him supporting and leading strategic cross-cutting work streams, most recently the organisation’s collective response and asks in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.

Before joining the NFU, Jack spent 12 years at the AHDB and previously HGCA. Whilst at AHDB Jack led the organisations analysis of grain and oilseed markets on behalf of levy payers as well as delivering multi-sector work on how modern day agriculture can manage volatility.

Jack is from a farming background in the South West of England, studied Agriculture at the University of Nottingham after which worked on a New Zealand dairy farm.

Diane has led on the NFU’s policy work feeding into the Environment Act 2021 and more recently other areas such as nutrient neutrality and water quality.  She also provides the secretariat to the NFU’s Environment Forum, which works with members, other NFU commodity boards, government, government agencies and other stakeholders to ensure farmers’ views on the environment are at the forefront of policy making.

Alongside her responsibilities at the NFU, Diane was the Vice-Chair of the Environment Working Group at COPA-COGECA, which is the trade body for farmers and agri-cooperatives at an EU level, for six years until 2020.  

Before joining the NFU, Diane was a researcher at Cambridge University Farm and she has a BSc and PhD from the University of Aberdeen, both in soil science.

They produce, pack and market both colony and free-range eggs along with buying eggs from contract producers.

They also rear some of their own pullets in a multi-tier system.

Phill will bring a practical experience of the egg laying industry to the board and wants to facilitate a better interaction between the farmer, members of the public and governing bodies to enable a viable, productive and environmentally friendly industry with long term benefits to all parties concerned.

Together the family farm two free range laying hen sites and a further site producing vaccine eggs.

David has been contributing to workstreams on measuring the phosphate levels in the River Wye and also has an interest in developing ways in which farmers can feed their flocks more competitively.

James is a previous chair of the NFU Poultry Industry Programme and has always been passionate about ensuring the voice of younger members is well represented.

He is keen for the board to address issues surrounding labour shortages, resilience and supply chain fairness and believes these are some of the industry's main priorities.

In his previous role as the owner of a poultry building construction company, Richard specialised in implementing innovative, new technology into the construction of large-scale poultry buildings.

Alongside this, Richard owns and operates several broiler farms across the UK.

Richard wants to bring his experiences in innovation to the NFU Poultry Board and would like it to address the need for fairness within the supply chain.

Patrick has grown up within the business and is currently a production and sales director.

He hopes to bring his experiences from primary poultry production to the board, to assist in dealing with access to labour and working collaboratively across the sector to tackle any challenges and opportunities going forward.

Will is a former PIP (Poultry Industry Programme) participant and was crowned the PIP award winner in 2021, receiving a prize from the Worshipful Company of Poulters.

Alongside the farming enterprise, Will has invested heavily in solar panels and biomass boilers in attempts to achieve net zero.

During his time on the board, Will would like to place emphasis on better UK food security.

He is passionate about promoting the high standards of UK poultry to consumers, stakeholders and politicians.

As a member of the NFU Poultry Board and a former NFU Poultry Industry Programme participant, Matt is keen to get more young people involved with poultry and farms with the aim to produce more from less, alongside enhancing the local environment.

The poultry sector's resilience, aiming to maintain its environmentally sustainable credentials and producing safe and affordable food for everyone are some of the things Matt sees as key priorities for the sector.

Being a previous participant of the Poultry Industry Programme has led to Will’s interest in the NFU and he joined the Poultry Board in 2022.

As a motivated farmer Will wants to engage with fellow members to ensure the industry’s best interests are put forward.

He is a director of Tristram Plants, part of the Farplants co-operative which grows and markets over 2000 plant varieties and generates more than £50 million annual sales through retail.

He is Managing Director of Sandfields Farms Ltd (part of the G’s Group), growing over 1600ha of salads and vegetables for the major retailers, plus a West Africa farm business in Senegal which produces over 400 ha of winter salads for the UK and EU market.

She is also director of the British Hop Association, member of the Hop Industry Committee and chair of British Apples and Pears.

Ali was chair of the NFU Horticulture and Potatoes Board from 2016 to 2022 and provided strong representation and leadership for the industry. She is regularly interviewed for national media (broadsheet, radio and TV) and has dealt with politicians at a senior level to harness support for the sector.

He is involved in product development and sustainability measures including carbon capture, power generation, packaging developments, robotics and vertical farming. Phil has been chair of the Technical Committee of the Tomato Growers Association for the last 25 years.

Barfoots produces field scale vegetables over 7500 acres in the UK, some protected cropping, and from farming operations around the world.

Julian is a regular spokesperson for the industry and is frequently interviewed on radio and TV.

He has worked at Thanet Earth since the earliest days of the project in 2008 as part of the leadership team on site. He has helped develop a cutting edge, fully functioning greenhouse complex.

Rob is responsible for all aspects of product quality, sustainability, research projects, innovation, varietal development, environment and food safety.

Tim studied Agriculture at the North of Scotland College of Agriculture for 3 years before moving on to do a post graduate in Farm Business Management at Seale-Hayne in Devon.

The Papworth family run four high street butchers in market towns of Norfolk. The contract farming business involves owned, rented, and tenanted land growing cereals, oilseeds, sugar beet, potatoes, and maize for AD.

The cattle are finished inside on a cereal ration and sheep graze the water meadows and catch crops grown.

Tim is also very involved in local community work, including Life Vice President of North Walsham Young Farmers Club, President of Norfolk YFC 2021-23, current Chair of the Parish Council for the Felmingham ward, and Trustee of The Clan Trust.

Tim is a Director of L F Papworth Ltd and Papworth Farms and Chairman of Norfolk NFU. He is a member of the RNAA, UKIA, NIABCUF, BAWAG, Stalham Famers and Mardlers.

The farm hosts school visits and Tim is a Farmers for Schools ambassador and does Farmer Time with an inner city school in Edinburgh.

During any spare time, he enjoys all aspects of horsemanship with his wife Emma and 3 children as well as shooting and skiing – weather permitting!

It has 11 vineyards which span across the counties of West Sussex, Kent and Hampshire.

Ben oversees more than 800 acres of estate owned vineyards with more than 1.5 million vines planted. After working in vineyards across the globe, Ben joined Nyetimber in 2015.

He is a member of the management team for the Cut Flower Centre and has been an AHDB horticulture board member and crop panellist.

The Knapton family has been growing potatoes in northern Lincolnshire for over 70 years. Along with her father and sister, Louise is driving the business forward, and oversees the day-to-day operations of the business, including planting, lifting and staffing. Louise also takes on an equal role in marketing all produce grown.

Louise has been an active member of the NFU Potato Forum and East Midlands horticulture and potatoes board for six years, contributing to regional and national policy discussion.

In recent years she has completed a Foundation Degree in Agriculture at Riseholme University, taken part in the NFU Farming Ambassadors training course where chairing and negotiation skills were developed and, within a team, set up the first Institute of Agricultural Management in Lincolnshire, aiming, through events and visits, to maintain and develop skills, training and delivering information to farmers and industry leaders in the local area.

He is a graduate of Writtle University College where he studied horticulture, agriculture and business, gaining an MBA in 2004. He spent 13 years on the board at Writtle completing his time as chair of F&G and vice chair of the board. He is a 2006 Nuffield farming scholar.

Chris has a depth of experience dealing directly with senior level politicians and all forms of media where he has spoken extensively on labour and water related issues. He has been instrumental in developing a successful soft fruit business at Wilkin & Sons where he has worked for the last 20 years. This sits alongside and compliments their extensive fruit production for processing in their onsite factory. He currently chairs the Awards Council of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers.

A fourth generation family-owned business based in Southport, Huntapac supplies the major retailers with root vegetables, salads and brassicas. He has been with the business since 2012, but his career in fresh produce spans over 16 years and a total 32 years in the food industry.

Stephen has also played a key role across a number of customer facing working groups such as Waitrose Agronomy Group, Tesco R&D Committee and chairing the Co-op’s Crop Production Group.

He is also a Red Tractor Fresh Produce Board member.

Milk is sold to Arla, with surplus heifers sold at calving.

Michael has held various roles within the NFU, as Worcestershire county chair, West Midlands regional board chair and council delegate. Michael has been on the NFU Dairy Board for nearly 14 years; two as vice chair and almost 8 as chair. He was re-elected to serve his fourth term as chair in March 2022. 

Michael believes strongly in farmer collaboration, as well as improving the mechanics of the supply chain and is keen to improve relationships between farmers, processors and end users, whilst continuing to build consumer support for the industry.

The cows are milked using robotic milkers installed back in 2010.

Alongside his work with the NFU, Graham is also an Arla area chair and a Tesco representative. Key areas of interest include the promotion of school milk, improving animal health and creating better farmer/processors relationships.

Graham is passionate about educating consumers about food production and the benefits of including dairy in a healthy diet.

Abi is a third generation mixed farmer, farming in partnership with her parents and uncle in Wenvoe, just outside Cardiff.

Not from a farming background, Paul worked in the financial sector before meeting his wife and joining the family dairy business.

Paul joined the national Dairy Board in 2017 as an appointee before being elected as the North East representative. He has served nearly four years as Vice chair in total.

Paul is enthusiastic about educating people of all ages about dairy farming and is keen to continue developing relationships with milk processors and other farmer representatives to ensure a joined-up industry approach to future farm policy.

Paul believes a fair and transparent supply chain is critical if dairy farmers are to meet the demands of a quickly changing society. He also works hard to ensure the dairy sector is represented throughout the supply chain and at government level so dairy farmers can make the most of future opportunities and have a bright and prosperous future.

Andrew is an area rep for DCD (Dairy Crest Direct) and is particularly interested in the areas of animal health, risk management and improving the functioning of the supply chain. He has many years' experience working with DCD and is keen to promote better collaboration and work to improve farmer contracts.

Wider than the markets, Andrew works with NFU South West and members to promote British dairy products to consumers.

On a total owned acreage of 1200 acres, the brothers milk a herd of 450 Holstein-Friesian cows and grow a range of arable crops.

The farm runs an autumn calving herd producing 4.5million litres on a Sainsbury’s liquid milk contract, supplied through Arla. All replacement heifers are reared on farm whilst bull calves are sold to a private buyer.

The farm has diversified into fly fishing, tourist accommodation (shepherd huts and a yurt village) and a meeting venue which hosts events for agricultural and food-related businesses.

Before returning to the farm, Jamie worked in management training and development. He has also been NFU county chair for Hampshire. Areas of interest include supply chain management, skills and training, and ensuring farmers receive fair contracts.

Jamie wants to work with the NFU Dairy Board to help make a positive contribution to the dairy sector.

The dairy herd calves all year round supplying Arla as a co-operative member.

David is in the process of modernising his farm through investment in infrastructure to tackle the issue of limited grazing availability and to overcome the obstacle of having to move his cows across the busy A road that runs alongside the farm.

David is also an NFU Council Member and sits on the Staffordshire County Council. Currently a member of the West Midlands dairy board, David is keen to promote the importance of fair supply chain standards in the dairy sector.

Not from a farming background, he grew up in the Pennines and attended Myerscough to do a degree due to aspirations to be a farm manager later in life. While there, Ruari carried out relief milking and contract shepherding in a bid to gain as much practical experience as possible. After spells as a cattle nutritionist, dairy consultant and livestock manager on a large 8000-acre estate in Nottinghamshire, he returned to Myerscough College to take up the position of farms director.

Ruari is keen to be involved in dialogue with government and other organisations, putting forward the industry’s point of view and representing the needs of dairy farmers. As he is not from a farming family background, he believes he can bring something different to the board. He has completed a master’s degree in international leadership management to see how big multinational corporations, such as Coca Cola and Unilever, manage their supply chains, corporate social responsibilities and consumer preferences. He hopes to bring those insights back into the agricultural industry and start to try and pass that on to peers and strengthen the lobbying and campaigning power of the farming industry.

The cows are a mixture of Holstein-Friesians and pedigree Ayrshires.

Ian is interested in improving the environment impact of the industry and has recently embarked on a river fencing scheme to reduce potential erosion and water contamination. The farm has since decided to diversify their water source by investing in a pump to drive water from a nearby watercourse for use on farm in an environmentally friendly and cost effective effort to reduce water costs.

Ian currently sits on the NFU’s Dairy Environmental Issues Group and is also the finance director for DCD (Dairy Crest Direct).

A strong advocate of dairy producer organisations, Ian believes in the importance of farmer cooperation to improve the dairy supply chain and is keen to work with the NFU Dairy Board to promote good farmer-processor relations.

Actively involved with LEAF, John hosts educational access visits for people with special needs and liaises with schools to deliver a presentation on food production with a focus on educating inner city areas.

John is part of the NFU’s Organic Forum and sits on the NFU North West dairy board. He also sits on the OMSCo board.

John strongly believes in succession and creating opportunities for young people to allow them to get into the dairy industry.

They provide work experience for student vets and have given many young farmers their first job in farming.

He has a BSc (Hons) degree in agriculture from Harper Adams, a Nuffield Scholarship and a Fellowship of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society. Gary and Jess were finalists in The Farmers Weekly dairy farmer of the year in 2019 and winners of the Welsh Big Bale Silage competition in 2021.

Gary has been on NFU Cymru Welsh Council for eight years and represented Monmouthshire at National Council for four years. He also sits on NFU Cymru’s TB forum.

Alongside her family, Amy manages the 600-cow dairy herd on a New Zealand-style grazing and spring calving system. 

As well as her farm role, Amy is also the founder of Pastures Green Communications Ltd, helping rural and agricultural businesses promote themselves and tell their story online. She helps businesses with all areas of their marketing strategy and specialises in social media and influencer marketing within the industry. 

Amy is passionate about communicating a positive message for the dairy industry online and spends much of her time sharing her farming story on social media. She has over 18,000 followers and enjoys communicating the farming story to consumers, next generation farmers and school children.

Jon has had a long involvement with NFU Cymru and is currently its Dairy Board chair, having previously been Montgomeryshire County chairman for three years. He is also a County councillor taking particular interest in the running of the Powys County council farms.  

There are currently 470 milking cows at Dyffryn milking three times a day supplying milk to Muller, with plans to increase numbers to around 600 cows over the next two years.

With two daughters both perusing careers in medicine Jon was keen to ensure that the farm could work for them in the future. With this in mind he now works closely with a progressive local farming family who are helping to take the business forwards.

Robert farms in partnership with his wife in Ross on Wye. They have a mixed farm which includes, arable, beef sheep, poultry and fruit grown for cider.

Alongside this Robert has a herd of around 130 Holsein Friesian cows which are milked robotically and supplies into Arla.

Robert would like to support the board in driving change in the industry to meet the needs of dairy farmers. He has keen interests in the agri-enviroment and animal health and welfare.

Robert is particularly passionate about promoting best practice to address agri-environmental issues and encouraging the industry to work more collaboratively to reduce regulatory burden.

Matt lives with his wife and two children on their farm in East Sussex where they have a herd of 650 Holstein and Fleckvieh cows.

They run an autumn block calving system and supply into Arla through their Arla Care programme. 

Following the announcement of the Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations, Matt is passionate about ensuring the regulation is utilised to drive meaningful change between milk buyers and dairy farmers.

Matt is also interested in ensuring farmers are supported in the increasing pressure to adopt environmentally friendly practices while ensuring their businesses are profitable and efficient through the use of data and benchmarking.

He has 2000 acres of moorland in a HLS agreement and the farm is stocked with mainly Easycare ewes as well as pedigree flocks of Beltex and Suffolks.

He is director of the “7 Hill Farmers Ltd” producer group and has been NFU Livestock Board chair since March 2018.

Cereals grown on the farm are also used to feed his stock, allowing David to use the two businesses to support each other and provide sustainable produce. He also has a very small flock of pedigree poll Dorset sheep.

He has also previously stood as the NFU South West Livestock Board chair and has worked with AHDB as a strategic farm to improve profitability and efficiency.

The enterprise consists of 1000 head of sheep, including 450 traditional Welsh Mountain ewes; the business produces its own replacements, only buying in tups. The cattle enterprise consists of 60 Limousin and British Blue suckler cows which to go a Limousin bull. Calves are finished on farm.

Robert is a lamb buying agent for Pilgrim Foods. He has also judged livestock at many shows including the Royal Welsh Agricultural Winter Fair. He also recently purchased the Triangle Inn in Cwmdeuddwr.

The pub aims to showcase the beef and lamb from Rob’s farm, telling the powerful story of local provenance and a short supply chain. Last year, Rob was appointed as a Fellow for the Royal Agricultural Society.

His 600-ewe lowland flock produces lamb for Marks and Spencer through Dawn Meats. A proportion of the flock is lambed early, with lambs finished inside for the May/June market. The remainder lamb in April.

The 48-ha arable enterprise produces cereals, peas and roots for the sheep. His future plans include maximising available grazing to develop the sheep flock further.

Formerly Agriculture Manager for Morrisons PLC, Andrew sits on the National Livestock Board of the NFU, the Yorkshire Committee of the CLA and chairs the Beef & Lamb Net Zero Roadmap Group (supported by AHDB).

The business has a growing local market for home-produced beef and lamb that is dry-aged and butchered on the farm. The business operates on a forage based grazing system and is part of the SFI Pilot scheme. Oli previously ran the neighbouring organic beef, sheep and arable estate and has worked at the Meat and Livestock Commission and as a farm business consultant.

He is aware that farming may change significantly over the next few years but is very optimistic that positive opportunities will arise for the sector.

The farm is situated in the Bowland AONB in Lancashire. It has 2500 breeding ewes consisting of Swaledales and Mules. Lambs are both sold finished and for breeding. Grazing cattle are also summered. The farm currently participates in Environmental Stewardship.

He says: “Brexit has the potential to impact most severely on livestock farmers. I am very conscious that keeping food at the heart of new policy changes must be our priority.”

The farm finishes 1000 cattle a year and around 1200 lambs over winter.

A practical farmer who is passionate about British meat, Dave chairs the Red Tractor beef and lamb board.

The joint venture has a mix of owned, tenanted and contract farming agreements, growing milling and feed wheat, milling oats, feed and malting barley, peas, beans and, for the time being, oilseed rape. 

Due to the complex nature of the soils in South Herts, ranging from heavy clays to gravel, Jamie and his colleagues cover a wide range of cultivation and drilling methods. However, a happy medium of min-till normally takes place on 50% of the land farmed. All grain is sold through Openfield going to homes relatively locally, usually within 50 miles.

At home, the family farm has diversified, with an 80-horse livery and riding school, with all hay and straw produced in house.

Having been involved in the NFU locally since returning home from Harper Adams in 2005 Jamie has gradually become more and more involved at a regional level and now, as well as being Hertfordshire NFU County chair, he is also East Anglia Combinable Crops Board chair. He is also an ex-Cereals Development Programme participant, and keen to get others involved in these types of initiatives.  

Jamie is passionate about achieving the best for cereal and oilseed producers, and proud to represent the cereals interests of East Anglia members.

Cropping includes wheat feed, malting barley, oilseed rape and beans, all of which is direct drilled.

Olly also rents out office accommodation in converted barns that used to house cattle. Alongside the arable enterprise, he recycles tree waste into biomass and some composting.

Olly also represents the NFU Combinable Crops Board on the Red Tractor Crops & Sugar Beet Board.

He farms 900 acres of combinable crops, wheat, oilseed rape, oats, barley and beans.

Alongside this, he lets out some permanent pasture for sheep grazing and all the land he manages is covered by a HLS scheme. The business uses precision farming techniques extensively and is beginning the journey into conservation agriculture.

Andrew is also involved in a joint venture machinery sharing agreement with a neighbouring farmer.

Having achieved an OND in agriculture, Peter has subsequently farmed a mix of owned and rented land of varying soil types growing predominantly winter cereals and oilseeds, and spring beans. He has represented the cereals policy interests of Nottinghamshire growers through many facets of the industry, including the NFU since 1981 and a six-year spell on NFU Council.

Focus has been on achieving high yields with attention to detail, operating as a sole trader with the assistance of contractors for specific tasks as required. Peter has had a grower representation role on AHDB’s Cereal and Oilseeds Research & KE Board for six years while overseeing significant levy investment for growers. Special areas of interest are IPM and PPPs.

Additionally, Peter has seats on the PGRO RL Pulse Committee and also on the AHDB RL Wheat Committee. Now chair of East Midlands Regional Combinable Crops Board, Peter currently has a role in the Red Tractor Technical Advisory Panel overseeing the standards review.

James also farms in partnership with his wife on 300 acres in North Yorkshire, growing combinable crops and running a small flock of New Zealand Romneys. With a large ELS/HLS scheme, the farm is LEAF Marque accredited. 

James is a governor of Askham Bryan College and a director of its farming company as well as a council member of the Institute of Agricultural Management. Prior to moving to Yorkshire, James managed the Montreal Estate in Kent and has previously been a director of Southern Farmers and RAMSAK.  

After selling the milking cows in 2003 the family went down the path of min-till to cope with the heavy copper marl soils, and now operate a min-till/direct drilling system with the help of livestock to produce their crops, whether that be FYM or sheep grazing crops in the spring.

The Atkins are host to Agrii’s Staffordshire & Derbyshire iFarm site, as well as being an Agrii Digital Technology Farm. They work alongside South Staffordshire Water to trial projects for their spring scheme, by trialling different methods of establishing crop, ideas to reduce chemicals and nitrogen from entering the water courses while trying to improve biodiversity on the farm.

Rob is currently the vice chair of the Uttoxeter and Burton NFU branch and is chair of the NFU Cereals Development Programme for 2022. 

Michael farms in the Fens of North Cambridgeshire and South Lincolnshire, farming 2000 hectares, across three farming businesses. The family has been involved in drainage and farming in the Fens since the 17th century.

The farms grow wheat, spring barley, sugar beet, spring beans, oilseed rape, marrowfat peas and condiment mustard. They are part of the RSPB’s Farmland Bird Friendly Zone, which now covers more than 4000 hectares and landscape scale benefits covering 230km sq. Also with fellow mustard growers, they are working on a landscape scale bee and pollinator project with Unilever.

Michael has also served as NFU county chair and the council delegate for Cambridgeshire, the most farmed county in the UK, chairing the East Anglian regional board for four years, as well serving as chair of the NFU Audit committee.

Michael is chair of the North Level District Internal Drainage Board, serving 34,000 hectares. He spent 10 years on the Anglian Northern Regional Flood and Coastal Committee. He is currently chair of the English Mustard Growers and vice chair of Condimentum LTD for the milling of mustard seeds and processing mint leaf in Norwich, working with Unilever’s Colman’s brand.

Farming close to the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border, Simon currently grows and delivers 40,000 tonnes of sugar beet into the Bury St Edmunds factory.

He also grows wheat, oil seed rape and beans, and runs a farm contracting business and agri-haulage company.

Since graduating from Shuttleworth Agricultural College in 1996, Simon has developed the farm business with a commitment to utilising sustainable and innovative growing techniques. He is committed to the continual development of the sugar beet crop amid challenging agronomic pressures and the removal of quotas in 2017.

Having had the privilege of participating in the 2014/15 Sugar Industry Programme, Simon was delighted to become an appointed member of the board. He lives with his wife and two sons, and when work permits, Simon can be found racing his Caterham or supporting Norwich City Football Club.

Additionally, they run an agricultural contracting business which is mainly involved in combinable crops, dealing with individual jobs through to whole farm contracts. They currently harvest around 4000 acres of sugar beet.

After attending Askham Bryan College, Graham went on to study agricultural mechanics at Bishop Burton. He became BASIS qualified in 2012.

As one of the most northern growers and contractors of sugar beet, Graham is still committed to growing 11,000 tons of beet despite the closure of the York factory. With attention to detail, good performance figures can still be achieved around the Vale of York.

He was co-opted onto the board after taking part in the joint British Sugar-NFU Sugar Industry Programme in 2012 and has been an elected member since 2013. 

Andrew has a degree in agriculture from Newcastle upon Tyne University, and is married with three children. Along with his cousin Stuart, he farms about 1500 acres with land in the Fakenham and Holt areas of Norfolk, growing wheat, malting barley, sugar beet and HOLL oilseed rape.

The farm is responsible for 8000 tonnes of sugar beet quota.

Andrew was BASIS qualified in 1999 and has been on the professional register ever since. He participated in the Sugar Industry Programme in 2011 organised by the NFU and British Sugar.

Andrew was vice chair of the North Norfolk NFU from 2009 to 2011 and chair from 2011 to 2013. He has been chair of his local parish council for the past 10 years and has been an active committee member of Holt RFC on and off over the last 30 years.

Andrew previously sat on the Red Tractor Assurance Board for Combinable Crops and Sugar Beet before becoming the chair of the Beet Reception Committee. 

As well as sugar beet, Tom grows milling and biscuit wheat, potatoes and linseed on the recently expanded 420ha farm near Ely in the Fens. He is an AHDB Board Member and Cereals & Oilseeds Sector Council Chair.

He joined HLS in 2012 and has formed the Ely Nature-Friendly Farming Zone with 22 neighbours and counting, in partnership with the RSPB.

He is keen to educate the public about food and farming. This sees him host local school visits as well as running the Prickwillow Ploughing Festival with the local museum, getting around 2000 visitors every year. He is also active in standing up for British farming on social media and increasingly in the written and broadcast media.

Tom has a degree in economics and politics and an MBA from Warwick Business School. He worked in journalism, local government and as a management consultant across public and private sectors before unexpectedly having to return to run the family farming company in 2009. He is now an accidental fourth generation farmer. He has never studied agriculture but rather ran the business side of things and has learned how to farm 'on-the-job’. Tom was selected as an Emerging Leader at the 2019 Oxford Farming Conference.

Tom said: “Beet growers have a great story to tell about homegrown sugar and the progress we have made so far. There is always more work to do, and crucially through better cooperation I believe growers can seize opportunities, win greater economic power and gain more control over our industry and our livelihoods.”

Alison's father was a pioneer of the first six-row self-propelled sugar beet tanker harvester. Today the team harvests around 1500 acres of sugar beet and has a 4000 tonne contract of their own. They grow W wheat, OSR, and W barley. As a business, they have always appreciated the loyalty of customers, and the importance of building long-term business relationships, some now spanning three generations.

Alison's college years were spent at Hampden Hall in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, and the Norfolk College of Agriculture. She participated in the 2014/2015 Sugar Industry Programme.

She lives with her partner Simon, who works as an agronomist, and her son, Joe.

He left in 1989 to join Sucden in Paris, then left with other senior management in 1991 to start CR Sugar trading in London as joint Managing Director (CR Sugar was the London office of Czarnikow Rionda).

In 2000, Paul started Sussex Commodities and held a board position with an associate ex ED & F Man, and from 2004 he has been running his own trading company.

Paul has a huge amount of consultancy experience, having consulted for a hedge fund, major bank and a large trade house in sugar during that time.

Kit has specialised in combinable crops and sugar beet. He is on the BASIS professional register and is responsible for the farm’s agronomy and crop recording, health and safety and HR. LF Papworth Ltd won the Norfolk Champion Farms competition for 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2014.

Kit was a board member of Anglia Farmers for 12 years and was chair from 2011 to 2014, retiring from the board to chair the subsidiary AF Logic until its sale in 2017. He joined the NFU Sugar Board in 2020 with specific responsibilities for Red Tractor. Kit stepped down from his sugar board Red Tractor representation when he took up the role of Red Tractor Crops and Sugar Chair in September 2022.

Kit has been on the council of the Aylsham Show for many years, managing the food theatre. He is chair of Pensthorpe Conservation Trust. He has three children and lives with his partner Caroline.

He currently sits on the NFU Sugar Board representing active sugar beet growers in what is proving to be a quickly changing market, ensuring growers get a fair deal from British Sugar. 

He farms in partnership with his brother and has a mixture of tenanted and owned farms. He also grows wheat, oats, and oilseed rape.

Previously, he has been a member of United Potato Farmers Limited, a director of Alpha Group, and member of the AHDB potatoes marketing group.

Alastair farms with his brother near Telford.

They took over the farm in 2010 at which point all the land was being contract farmed by a third party and they had free range layers. 

Since taking over they have converted their poultry site back to broilers with 114,000 birds per flock.

They've also taken all the arable land back in hand and now rent a large acreage on a mix of annual and long term tenancies.

Alastair now grows 168 hectares of processing potatoes, 168 hectares of cereals and 46 hectares of Oilseed Rape. 

He has been organic since 1997, farming light land. They are currently running 60 cross reds on a robot with all milk for OMSCO's antibiotic-free premium pool. In the past he has grown potatoes, carrots and onions.

Mark has enjoyed the past 23 years as he likes the feeling of working with nature not trying to beat it.

Rishi was previously Chancellor of the Exchequer from 13 February 2020 to 5 July 2022.

He was previously Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 24 July 2019 to 13 February 2020, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government from 9 January 2018 to 24 July 2019.

Rishi was elected Conservative MP for Richmond (Yorks) in May 2015 and served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from June 2017 until his ministerial appointment.

Rishi went to Winchester College and studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University (USA) where he studied for his MBA.

I lead on NFU’s policy development for food labelling, organics, and sustainable soya. I oversee the NFU’s Organic Forum, a group of organic members who discuss and review policy related to organics.

After graduating from Harper Adams University with a degree in Agriculture, I joined the NFU 11 years ago and have held various positions including, Farm Policy Adviser and Poultry Adviser.

Wheat is predominantly grown for the feed market, spring barley for malting, OSR for Openfield, legumes for seed contracts, and grass for cattle; grazing and silage.

Heather also works at Limagrain Field Seeds as their Cereals and Pulses Product Manager UK. She previously worked at Elsoms Seeds 'Business Development Department where she was tasked with looking at new potential markets, exploring developing ones and researching changing political, economic and industry ideas.

Heather previously developed and managed the Energy, Forage and Hybrid cereals portfolio for the business, following a successful career trading grain for local and national merchants.

The business runs a diverse rotation consisting of winter sown wheat, OSR, barley and oats, and spring sown beans. The business has recently begun to grow potatoes in the rotation again after an absence of nearly 40 years.

The business also runs around 250 breeding ewes and has a biomass enterprise.

Completing BASIS/FACTS has allowed Will to carry out the agronomy in house since 2013.

Utilising all resources available to him, such as poultry manure, Will has improved the business' performance and using grain maize to further utilise these products has enhanced the rotation considerably.

Allowing cover crops and sheep grazing to be brought into the system, along with on farm trials and monitoring, has led to soil health improving.

Will wants to give something back to the industry he so enjoys, and being involved with the National Crops Board is one of his ways of doing that.

As well as arable and poultry, the family business also consists of The Dandelion Hideaway, a successful glamping business and numerous lettings (commercial and residential).

As well as this, they also rent out several fishing lakes, a livery yard and a quarry. Will and his family proudly manage all the above in house to great affect.

Arable farming has always been the mainstay of Will's business for four generations, and is where his passions lie.

Due to the number of businesses within the sector, our focus is to elevate the NFU’s presence within the market and to build relationships with specific operators such as McDonalds, KFC, Nando’s, Costa, Burger King, and Mitchell & Butler Group. I also work on industry wide strategies to communicate the NFU’s Out of Home and public sector policy priorities.

I joined the NFU in 2013 as a Graduate Trainee and have held various roles within the NFU, including four years working in NFU Sugar.

We started with a 16,000 bird unit, which quickly developed to 32,000 and then 64,000.

Having arable and poultry on the same farm, it made sense to begin milling our own feed.

On the PIP, I’d like to build my network of contacts. You can never learn too much from people, there’s always somebody who’ll have a little gem in a conversation that can help you with the next thing you’re looking at, or help you change what you’re doing currently. It’s also great to put myself out there a bit more.  

I run the poultry side of the business with my dad, and it’s a great industry to be in. It’s really technology and data driven, so very interesting and quite different to the rest of the farm.

I went to Leeds University to study History and Politics and didn’t have any intention of coming back to the farm, but then my friends went to London and I decided an office job wasn’t for me.

I’m looking forward to meeting other farmers in the sector and industry experts.

I fell into poultry by accident when I got offered a scholarship by Moy Park and did my placement year with them and absolutely loved it.

I want more awareness of what’s going on in the wider industry and a bit more involvement with other young people in poultry on the PIP.

I am now based at Cote Hatchery as a management trainee and have broad role within the business.

I decided to apply for PIP as it looked like a great opportunity to meet new people and expand my knowledge within the poultry industry.

I’m looking forward to meeting like-minded people and developing my knowledge within the poultry industry.

With it being such a fast-moving environment, and technology advancing quicker then ever, I feel it’s crucial to stay at the forefront of the industry.

I then ended up taking an opportunity as a feed sales agent with Noble Foods and have worked there for nine years.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, I also co-founded a poultry recruitment business.

I’ve been running the poultry enterprise from the beginning, after finishing college at 18, and I oversee the ten staff who work across all our sites.

Doing so has made me really quite passionate about the poultry sector and keen to play a more active role in it. I am looking forward to meeting the other members of the PIP as no doubt we will be able to learn a lot from each other, which will be invaluable during these challenging times.

Last year we sold the dairy cows and we do poultry full time.

I’m hoping to get some development, new knowledge and to meet other like-minded people on the programme.

Currently I oversee two as-hatched farm and one sexed farm and I also oversee the ground-source renewables side of the business.  

I’d like to meet some new people on the programme and learn about other parts of the sector and the political side of the industry. 

I’m excited to join the PIP to meet other people of a similar age from the different areas of the industry, so that we can network and hopefully create some good working relationships.

With many of the challenges and opportunities that the industry faces, it is important to be able to work with peers from all areas to solve challenges and support the industry in years to come and the PIP provides a great opportunity to do this.

He is enthusiastic about environmental farming, especially organic.

Andrew is currently a trustee of the Soil Association and has served full terms on the NFU Horticulture Board, LEAF board, AHDB and British Carrot Growers.

He has just retired from playing rugby for Peterborough, and is now the club president. He still skies and climbs mountains, and loves all outdoor pursuits.

The milk is produced using no antibiotics for OMSCo’s US premium pool for export as milk fat, powder or cheeses.

Adam has recently been co-opted onto the National dairy board, has been the local NFU group chair as well as having been on the South West dairy board.

Adam has (recently) been a board member of OMSCO as well as a chairman of the membership committee and the Devon membership rep.

They run a herd of some 100 milking cows consisting of traditional breeds, principally British Friesian, Ayrshire and Dairy Shorthorn.

Milk is supplied to the local dairy (Rachel's) in Aberystwyth. 

Formerly representing NFU Cymru on the Organic Forum, he also chaired the Soil Association Farmers and Growers board. 

She has a herd of 100 pedigree Belted Galloway and a flock of 500 ewes; the common rights are pivotal to her business as she grazes cattle sheep and ponies on two Dartmoor commons.

She is an administrator to several Commons Association HLS Agreements and a Quarterman for the Dartmoor Commoners Council, providing an opportunity to liaise with upland farmers and other interested parties.

She also has a HND in agriculture, a BSc (Hons) in Rural Business Management and a Research Masters: the subjects were associated with the uplands and environmental stewardship agreements.

The farm runs a pedigree flock of Swaledales and breeds Swaledales and North of England Mules; pedigree Swaledale ewes are kept within the flock as replacements and males are sold either to Marks and Spencer or as shearlings for breeding. A closed herd of 40 beef cows made up of pedigree British Blues and commercial Limousin and Blue and Limousin crosses also keep Richard busy on the farm.

Richard is concerned about the viability of upland farming in future years without access to support payments and the necessity of graziers working together to save the commons.

She has been involved with the NFU at branch, county and regional level with a particular interest in upland issues, livestock, and agricultural politics.

In the Peak District uplands they face a number of challenges, whether it is the volatility of cattle/sheep prices, the low uptake of the present Countryside Stewardship scheme, encouraging young entrants into farming, and bovine TB to name a few.

A flock of 280 registered Swaledale ewes and 24 pedigree Aberdeen Angus suckler cows are run on 726 acres of mainly moorland.

The very high-lying farm has an annual rainfall in excess of 70 inches which contributes to nutrient leaching and exacerbates a major heavy metal pollution problem from old mine workings.

Richard is also on the Council of the NFU, Northern Regional Director of FCN and represents upland farming on many other local and regional bodies.

Running a flock of 400 Lleyn breeding ewes, the farm also finishes 250 commercial cattle, predominantly purebred Aberdeen Angus, as stores and has remained TB free since 2001, a rarity for the West Country.

The farm has been in a range of agri-environment schemes over the years and the common land is currently in HLS, with 50 Exmoor ponies feeding into the scheme.

Since handing over the majority of the business to his son, Robin spends his spare time sitting on various boards to fight for the uplands and holds numerous positions within industry; he is chairman of the Exmoor National Parks Authority and the Commoners Association as well as Deputy Chair of the Uplands Alliance.

He also has a herd consisting of 800 cattle, predominantly Belgian Blues and Angus, all purchased as calves and sold as stores. The farm has a strong emphasis on maximising production from grass, with wintering outdoors on kale. A small part of the farm is in Countryside stewardship. 

Graham is currently NFU Ludlow's Branch Chairman and Chairman of the local Parish Council. In his spare time, he enjoys a game of 5-a-side football. 

They also have 250 suckler cows all with followers which are retained on farm for finishing or sold as breeding stock, as well as a small herd of Dartmoor ponies.

Mat actively grazes over 5 commons with hefted stock and therefore has considerable experience of agreements on commons as well as on the home farm.

He is also a director of Dartmoor Farmers a marketing group that sells premium beef and lamb into select Morrisons stores as well as retailers and wholesales. 

They have 1200 sheep and around 50 suckler cattle - mainly beef shorthorn with Blue Grays wintered out on the hill. They aim for low production costs but high output.

Lewis performance records his Swaledales with signet. They weigh the lambs at birth, eight weeks and 21 weeks, then backfat scan to get an estimated breeding value. Their focus is on improvements to the carcass and also milk production in the ewes.

As the youngest member of the forum Lewis is excited to be able to give the next generation view and help shape hill farming at such a crucial time.

Prior to his parliamentary career, he became a councillor age 23, and then went on to become Leader of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council. He was a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee, as a Labour Councillor, and also Labour Group Leader and Vice-chair of the Local Government Association Labour Group.

He works on Opinium’s UK wide polling series for the Observer, as well as conducting regular research for Sky News and The Sun. He is a regular commentator on the polls and politics, having written for The Times, The Guardian, and The New Statesman on these subjects.

Formerly BBC Social Affairs Editor, Polly has also served as an Associate Editor for The Independent, as Co-editor of Washington Monthly and as a reporter and feature writer for The Observer. She has been awarded a National Press Award, What the Papers Say, and British Press Awards Columnist of the Year.

He has worked for the Ministerial teams of Rt Hon Hazel Blears at CLG, Rt Hon Hilary Benn at Defra, and spent time improving local public services across the UK while at the OPM (Office for Public Management).

The couple farm 700 breeding ewes with all lambs sold store or for breeding and 70 pedigree Luing cows, steers sold at 12 months in the store and surplus heifers sold for breeding.

Around one third of the farm is in an upland offer, mid tier countryside stewardship with the remainder entered into the SFI pilot scheme, from 1 January 2022.

In recent years Jon has consulted on all manner of renewables projects, especially in AD, biomass heating and CHP.

He was previously Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons from February 2022 to September 2022, before which he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip) between July 2019 and February 2022. He was elected Conservative MP for Sherwood in May 2010.

Before entering Parliament, Mark was Chairman of the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs as well as a District and County Councillor.

He studied at Shuttleworth Agricultural College before joining the family farm business, which now employs around 50 people. He is still a local farmer and businessman, growing the produce which is sold in the farm shop.

In the 2010 General Election, Robert was re-elected for a second term, increasing his majority from 1,247 to 8,130 achieving a swing of 6.8% from Labour to Conservative. In March 2019 Robert was appointed as a Minister of State at Defra. 

Robert has been a farmer of 250 acres of land near Malton since 1979, where his family have farmed since 1850. He has been the managing director of Mowthorpe Ltd since 1995, a company that offers environmentally friendly burials in the North Yorkshire countryside. With his wealth of experience, he was elected Chair of EFRA following the resignation of Neil Parish as an MP on 4 May 2022.

Patrick specialises in running academic, experimental design, and election-focused projects and outputs. He holds a Doctorate from the University of Manchester and remains active in contributing to academic research and publications. His academic research focuses on diversity and representation among election candidates, public opinion, and British Elections.

Alongside Rachel Sylvester, Alice is a presenter of the Times Radio podcast 'Past Imperfect'.

Thomson has written numerous features on farming and is a member of the Policy Committee of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. 

Growing up on an East Yorkshire arable farm, James joined the NFU after eight years of working for Defra’s science agency on both national and European projects.

Charged with developing a strategic overview of environmental and land use policies in the region, he works to ensure policy is sustainable for everyone and rooted in the real-world. He is passionate that agri-businesses are given the opportunity to develop and adapt, and that their operating environment allows this to happen.

James holds multiple positions on stakeholder groups for water, gas, and electrical companies across the North of England along with both formal and informal roles on flood committee.

In her county adviser role, she supports NFU members and manages activity across the county. This includes managing the NFU’s lobbying activities with MPs and a range of external organisations from local authorities, the police and government agencies to non-governmental organisations and relevant commercial bodies.

She also actively supports NFU group secretaries to drive NFU membership and works closely with elected farmer representatives including county officeholders and members of regional and national commodity boards.

She is also the regional lead on livestock and horticulture.

Before joining the NFU, she graduated from Harper Adams in 2008 and held various positions with agricultural businesses including Shearwell Data, Cogent Breeding and Mole Valley Farmers.

Outside of work, Poppy supports her partner with his agricultural mechanic business and together they have a son and two labradors.

Hannah joined the North East team in 2010, having previously worked in hotel and hospitality management roles.

She lives in York with her husband.

Michelle joined the North East team in 2019, before which she worked for a GP's surgery, Aviva and the NFU Mutual.

She lives in York with her partner.

Joining the North East team in 2016, he works very closely with the region’s team of elected farmer officeholders and has overall responsibility for the regional recruitment and retention of members.

Originally from Huddersfield, and after studying at Askham Bryan College and Newcastle University, he started his career in the NFU as a graduate trainee in 2007. Since then he has worked across three different regions before joining the Brussels Agriculture Bureau for a four-year stint working on European issues.

Adam lives rurally between York and Pocklington with his wife and three boys.

Rob promotes the recruitment and retention of NFU members across the region.

He previously worked as business development manager, as a county adviser in the North East and as a group secretary in Shropshire.

Rob works closely with county advisers and the network of 80 group secretaries based in 47 offices across the North to achieve membership development. He also provides strategic direction and support to the regional sales teams.

Rob lives in North Yorkshire with his wife and two sons.

This includes managing the NFU’s lobbying activities with MPs and a range of external organisations from local authorities, the police and government agencies to non-governmental organisations and relevant commercial bodies.

She also actively supports NFU group secretaries to drive NFU membership and works closely with elected farmer representatives including county officeholders and members of regional and national commodity boards. 

Laurie is also the regional lead for combinable crops and joint lead for dairy with Helen Wainwright.

Laurie joined the NFU in 1999 and, as a longstanding member of the team, has held a number of roles including regional policy adviser and environment adviser.

She lives near Thirsk with her husband and son.

In her county adviser role, she works alongside Anna Simpson supporting NFU members and managing activity across the county. This includes managing the NFU’s lobbying activities with MPs and a range of external organisations from local authorities, the police and government agencies to non-governmental organisations and relevant commercial bodies.

She also actively supports NFU group secretaries to drive NFU membership and works closely with elected farmer representatives including county officeholders and members of regional and national commodity boards. 

Jane is also the regional lead for tenants. 

Before joining the NFU, she graduated from Harper Adams University College and now lives in Northumberland with her husband and their two young sons.

Jane works on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday

In her county adviser role, she works alongside Jane Dungait supporting NFU members and managing activity across the county. This includes managing the NFU’s lobbying activities with MPs and a range of external organisations from local authorities, the police and government agencies to non-governmental organisations and relevant commercial bodies.

She also actively supports NFU group secretaries to drive NFU membership and works closely with elected farmer representatives including county officeholders and members of regional and national commodity boards. 

Anna is also the regional lead for poultry.

Before joining the NFU, she graduated from Leeds University where she worked on the pig research unit, and joined the ABP graduate scheme. From there she joined AHDB Pork and completed a six-month secondment with Defra where she was involved in the climate change adaption team.

Anna works on Monday, Tuesday & Friday

This includes managing the NFU’s lobbying activities with MPs and a range of external organisations from local authorities, the police and government agencies to non-governmental organisations and relevant commercial bodies.

She also actively supports NFU group secretaries to drive NFU membership and works closely with elected farmer representatives including county officeholders and members of regional and national commodity boards.

Jennifer is also the regional lead for sugar beet and is joint lead for horticulture and potatoes with Liz Houghton and Aarun Naik.

Jennifer joined the NFU in 2020 from a Yorkshire based agri-food certification company, having graduated from Harper Adams University and completed a British Poultry Council Scholarship placement year at Gressingham Foods. 

She currently lives in North Yorkshire and in her spare time enjoys walking her dog and riding her horse.

She joined the North East team after a year on the NFU’s Agricultural Policy Graduate Scheme, having graduated from the University of Oxford where she studied geography.

During her time on the graduate scheme, she worked in the climate change team and then in the food and farming department covering dairy, animal health and welfare, and horticulture and potato issues.

Anna has recently moved back to North Yorkshire where she grew up, and in her free time plays squash for her local team.

After studying agriculture at Reading University, Gordon went on to spend 18 years working as an agricultural adviser in the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service (ADAS). In May 2001, he was seconded to the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food to assist with the disposal operations during the 2001 FMD outbreak.

During 2002 and 2016 Gordon held various roles for the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency before transferring to Defra for his current role.

She has been instrumental in the government’s tireless efforts to manage the unprecedented ongoing outbreak of avian influenza in the UK.

Zoe’s passion is to ensure that members are properly represented and supported by the NFU, and in turn that they understand the significant benefits that being a member of such an incredible organisation brings.

Prior to joining the NFU, she worked for the National Pig Association from 2008 to 2022. She took on the role of Chief Executive Officer in 2014 and led the organisation through some very turbulent times.

This followed five years working in the Livestock Science Unit within Defra where she managed the research and development portfolio on livestock production.

Previous to that she ran a large pig rearing unit and trials facility for the integrated pig production company BQP in Suffolk. She gained a PhD in outdoor sow management and welfare with Cambac JMR Research in 1998.

Zoe has been awarded the OBE in the first King’s Birthday honours list. She was granted the honour in recognition of her services to the pig industry.

Charles took over as regional policy manager after three years as NFU Suffolk county adviser.

He grew up in rural Yorkshire near Harrogate and first fell in love with farming at 15, when he began working on a nearby family friend’s organic farm during weekends and holidays.

After completing a four-year business and economics degree at the University of Liverpool, he joined the MDS fresh produce graduate student scheme. This included placements as technical management for a tomato nursery and planning the import of various vegetables to supply the ready meal market.

Before joining the NFU, he worked in the seed potato industry for five years, coordinating planting, allocations and forward planning in East Anglia and further afield.

The regional policy manager role includes championing farming in the East and supporting colleagues and members with a wide range of policy issues.

Rob grew up on his family’s arable farm in Cavendish, Suffolk and studied agriculture at Newcastle University, before completing an MSc in agricultural economics at Michigan State University.

Before joining the NFU his career included five years of policy work in Washington DC, where he helped to draft the 1990 Farm Bill, and time as UK adviser to the Director General at UKASTA, now AIC. He also worked as regional adviser for the CLA and served as chairman of the NFU’s Stowmarket and Sudbury branch.

Previously she worked for Grainseed, where she was responsible for the official maize trials and then the wider on farm trials in various other crops such as OSR and grass. She also took on a sales role, focusing on mainly forage crops.

She grew up on an arable farm in Norfolk and was heavily involved in setting up a farm diversification there, a riding school and livery business.

After an apprenticeship in business management with local buying group Anglia Farmers, she joined the the British Beet Research Organisation, where she undertook many different roles within the organisation, including working in the lab monitoring aphids and virus levels within the crop. 

He is a former journalist whose career has included working on weekly and daily newspapers in Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Australia. He was Chief Reporter for the Morning Advertiser, the trade newspaper for the brewing and pub retailing industry, before moving into public relations.

Brian joined the NFU in October 1999 as regional public relations officer. As well as editing the regional pages of British Farmer & Grower, he organises campaigns to promote a positive image of farming and advises members on communication issues.

After undertaking an Agriculture BSc at Cirencester he worked on an arable farm in Cambridgeshire, and with Farmcare as a trainee agronomist before he joined Greens of Soham.

Away from work, he is a qualified water sports instructor and an infantry reservist.

Hannah is already a familiar face to many members, joining the NFU in 2005 as assistant business development manager, after previously working as county development officer for Essex Young Farmers.

She grew up on her parents’ farm in west Essex, near Bishops Stortford, graduating from Reading University in 1993 and obtaining an MSc in rural and regional resources planning from Aberdeen University in 1996. She was business development manager for East Anglia before taking on the county adviser role in 2012.

Hannah manages the NFU’s eight-strong county adviser team and leads NFU growth and engagement strategies across the region.

In her spare time, Karena enjoys horse riding, gardening and running.

Alastair graduated from Harper Adams in 2018 with a 2:1 BSC (Hons) in Agri-Business. Following his passion for agricultural policy, Alastair joined the NFU's graduate trainee programme, which has since led to Alastair's current position as an environment adviser.

Richard’s work falls into four key themes: 1) development of support scheme policy; 2) implementation of scheme policy; 3) assisting NFU members with scheme issues and; 4) educating and raising awareness of scheme issues with members.

Prior working for the NFU, Richard was a farm business consultant working with farmers in the eastern counties on a range of administration issues, such as applications for farm support, farm budgeting and contact management. Richard is from a farming family in the southern counties.

Amanda’s also works at Woodheads Bros (Morrisons) as Livestock Buyer/Technical Livestock Specialist.

This has given her great knowledge of processing cattle, lambs and pigs alongside providing her with a strong understanding of the customer requirements and animal welfare throughout this processing.

Amanda manages the Morrisons Integrated Dairy Beef Scheme “Elite Beef” and the Morrisons Farming “Next Generation”.

Amanda feels passionate about upland farming and can relate to challenges faced by many sheep farmers on common and, due to her family owning grazing rights and now being the only remaining farm on a 500-acre moor exercising these.

Whilst she accepts the uplands have an important role to play in helping to achieve biodiversity and other environmental goals, she feels the stratified sheep system in the UK still plays a vital role for farming and rural communities.

Sheep will continue to be important within these areas and she is passionate about seeing sustainable production that can achieve both food production and environmental benefits without destocking.

Having not come from an agricultural background, he has no preconceived views and sees everything as an opportunity within agriculture. Charlie can’t wait to mix with likeminded people during the programme and learn a lot about the NFU and its policies.

She's enthusiastic about building a more sustainable industry and promoting what farmers do through education, developing interest in agriculture and reaching out to people outside of farming circles.

Emily hopes that the Student & Young Farmer programme will give her the opportunities to learn how she can advocate for UK agriculture in this way.

Her experience primarily consists of sheep and dairy, and her new advisory role consists of mitigating on-farm carbon emissions.

Through the NFU ambassador programme, Evie wishes to develop her knowledge and passion for the agricultural industry.

That has now grown into a thriving regional bike-delivered veg box scheme with 200 subscribers, nine wholesale outlets and employing four full-time livelihoods from 16 acres.

Hamish is excited to champion the ecological necessity and economic viability of small-scale regenerative farming and bring more diverse youth voices into farming and political fields.

Hannah was part of the NFU's Student & Young Farmer Ambassador programme during the final year of her politics degree. As an ambassador, she embraced learning about the NFU’s role in lobbying towards government.

She has a BSc in Agriculture from Harper Adams University and has benefitted from a wide variety of work experience across different farming sectors.

Liz is currently studying for a Master of Research in Agricultural Education at Harper. She's excited to be an ambassador to encourage people from urban and non-farming backgrounds into the industry and to understand how the NFU influences politics to campaign for change.

Louise wants to make a positive and lasting impact on the agriculture industry, and thinks that being an NFU ambassador is a great way to start.

She's now training to be a Land Agent while studying at Harper Adams University.

During her time as an Ambassador, she hopes to champion the agricultural industry while meeting other like-minded people.

Thomas believes this moment in time is crucial for the future of the industry. As one of only a few young people in agriculture he feels it’s important to make every effort to be part of the discourse as our future's being shaped by decisions made today.

Having been at Burgate since leaving college in 1981, Peter fully took over the business in 2021.

His land is part tenanted, part contract farmed and part stubble to stubble contracted. Cultivations have been non inversion/min till for 15 years, recently moving towards direct drilling wherever possible.

There are a mix of variable soils, from weald clay, greensand to chalk. Being solely reliant on arable cropping, the aim is to be as efficient and lean as possible.

Peter is a past Surrey County chairman and currently Surrey NFU Council representative.

Kate is a member of the House of Lords where she regularly contributes on agricultural and rural economy matters.

Over half of England’s agricultural land has a tenant farmer as its steward. In order to produce quality food, and sequester carbon, and restore wildlife, it is essential that the incentives to do this are accessible to tenant farmers. The Rock Review, built on solid evidence and extensive consultation, sets out clearly how this can be done.

Kate is a director of a tenant farming enterprise in Dorset. She is also chair of the infrastructure business Costain plc and the senior independent director of the geo-technical specialist contractor Keller Group plc.

For 10 years, David has embraced regenerative agriculture practices has done a range of work to improve soil health on farm. In 2022 David won Innovation for Agriculture's Arable Soil Farmer of the Year.

She was previously Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and Deputy Prime Minister, between 6 September 2022 and 25 October 2022.

Ms Coffey was also Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions between 8 September 2019 and 6 September 2022 and Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs between 25 July 2019 and 8 September 2019.

She was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 17 July 2016 to 25 July 2019. She was elected the Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal in May 2010.

The role of the food business unit is to raise the profile and the voice of NFU members within the supply chain.

It supports with building better fairer supply chain relationships through its understanding of the challenges for all in the supply chain.

In 2019 Aimee was named the EPIC Young Poultry Person of the Year and eight months later was appointed NFU chief poultry adviser.

Aimee leads the NFU poultry team on a number of policy issues covering both the poultry meat and egg sectors and manages the national poultry board.

Karen’s previous roles included establishing DIT’s new Scotland team during 2021, leading the policy and secretariat work for the independent Trade and Agriculture Commission in 2020 -2021, and Covid supply chain roles in both Defra and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office during 2020.

Karen was the UK Government’s first overseas Agriculture Counsellor in the British Embassy Beijing from 2015-2018 and led the UK’s participation in the Beijing International Expo in 2019.

Prior to this she held a number of roles in Defra spanning environment, marine, water, international development and UN environmental governance.

Jan is a regular contributor across BBC Radio 4, on programmes such as Just A Minute and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, and also current affairs programmes such as Broadcasting House, The Week in Westminster and Today. Jan has acted in countless R4 dramas and comedies including The Charles Paris Mysteries, Alexei Sayle’s The Absence of Normal and most recently Jo Brand’s spoof obituary show V.I.P R.I.P.  Her stage work includes seasons at Chichester Festival Theatre, playing Hoyden opposite Richard Briers as Lord Foppington, Birmingham Rep, as Viola in Twelfth Night, Sophia in Tom Jones at Watford Palace Theatre, The Children’s Hour, 5@50 at Manchester Royal Exchange, and Pentecost and After Easter at the RSC.  TV acting credits include Hebburn, Big Bad World, Skins, Carla Lane’s Luv and Janet Grimley in The Grimleys. And Midsomer Murders. Of course.

Alongside her work on screen and radio, Jan achieved rave reviews and broke box office records with her solo show Difficult Woman, followed by a sell out tour with Rory Bremner.  She recently appeared on Richard Osman’s House of Games.

She spent three years working for the British Agriculture Bureau as a European policy adviser in Brussels, representing the UK Farming Unions through the Brexit transition and helping to build new trading relationships with the EU.

Re-joining the NFU's dairy team in the summer of 2022, Verity works closely with the National Dairy Board on areas such as exports and trade, air quality, farmer representation and helps to manage supply chain relationships.

She studied political science at Exeter University and grew up on a mixed arable and livestock farm on the Herefordshire border.

In 2008 Keir was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service for England and Wales, a role he held until 2013. Keir studied law at Leeds University and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and has published several books including Three Pillars of Liberty: Political Rights and Freedoms in the UK (1996) and European Human Rights Law (1999).

Keir was first elected as the MP for Holborn and St Pancras in 2015. He lives in the constituency with his wife and two children and is an avid Arsenal fan.

Since the 1980s, Elwyn and his brother Gareth have grown the business which today includes pullet rearing, egg production and a packing centre, as well as egg processing and production of added value cooked products.

Ewlyn’s priorities for the national poultry board include improving UK food policy and enabling farmers to produce food in an environmentally and economically sustainable way.

He also sees addressing challenges within the planning system as a key focus area.

After a brief spell with Cranswick Country Foods, Alice moved back into Morrisons in December 2022 to work as the Agriculture Specialist for the whole Morrisons business. When not at work, Alice is a Council Member for the Yorkshire Agriculture Society, Vice Chair of the Masham Sheep Breeders Association and a fourth generation livestock farmer, through Liddle Lambs.

His research interests involve dairy and beef cattle, with a focus on feed efficiency, protein, and trace element nutrition. During the February conference, James will discuss the potential implications of sustainability for United Kingdom livestock farmers.  

Mark enjoys all aspects of farm animal practice but has a speciality in cow and bull fertility having obtained a Diploma in Bovine Reproduction from Liverpool University in 2001.

Richard has 900 ewes with a further 200 ewe lambs that are off farm nearly 12 months as a ewe replacement policy, and a 40 suckler cow herd with 30 to 40 bought in growing stores, along with a small livery system for 14 horses.

The farm is an 162ha upland unit with 84ha of this being improved land.

Prior to the UK Agri-Tech Centre, Phil has had a varied career across food and farming: he led the 50-strong market intelligence team at AHDB (Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board), equipping farmers and processors with the insight to manage market volatility, profitability and policy change; he was also chief economist at the NFU, spearheading the evidence to support a range of lobbying activity.

Other roles include specialising in agri-trade issues at the US Department of Agriculture and advising a range of agribusiness clients with Bidwells.

Phil grew up on the family livestock farm has a degree in agricultural economics.

The farm is a mix of Heather hill and improved pasture, running 1,300 composite maternal sheep and a 40 head herd of Angus and Hereford cross cows.

There is also an integrated dairy beef system on the farm together with glamping pods and a photography business.

Tim lives in Milnthorpe, south Cumbria with his wife Rosie, and their four children.

He made the move to communications, joining The Ministry of Defence, where he was Director of News for the department and Press Secretary to two Secretaries of State. He joined the private sector in senior communications and government relations roles in-house, and as an agency director.

James joins the NFU from Toyota GB PLC, where he was Head of Press and Public Affairs for the Toyota, Lexus and Kinto brands.

Originally from the New Forest, James lives with his family in a village in Oxfordshire where he enjoys rural pursuits as well as taking old cars apart and wondering why they won’t go back together again.

He is passionate about the welfare of the farm's animals and the quality of their products.

Jonathan’s main priorities for the group are to make sure the turkey sector is represented and heard, especially with avian influenza, increased energy costs and the availability of labour.

In addition, he operates a fully automated and highly invested modern poultry processing plant.

He has always farmed in an environmentally friendly way, having planted many tens of thousands of trees and vast areas of range enrichment and biodiversity.

Mark wants to bring his experiences of the speciality poultry table bird industry and poultry processing to the board. One of his biggest priorities is for longer term solutions for avian influenza including fair compensation and producing a vaccine.

Alongside poultry he has diversified into beef production.

He represents the independent sector as the NFU representative on the Red Tractor Poultry Board trying to give a balanced approach to the Red Tractor assurance scheme.

Paul is the owner of KellyBronze where they grow and process Christmas turkeys for sale through e-commerce and independent butchers.

His key aims for the board are to ensure we maintain a fit and vibrant UK turkey industry alongside all other poultry.

He leads the dairy team and works closely with the Dairy Board to drive forward their priorities and represent dairy farmer members.

James has recently taken on the position of Special Projects Manager for the NFU, working on a number of sector specific and cross-sector focused projects and supply chain reviews.

As a graduate of Environmental Science from Southampton University, he has a keen interest in environmental issues and climate change. James grew up on a family dairy farm, and also runs a diversified beef farm business on the Isle of Wight with a farm shop.   

Following a short spell travelling in New Zealand and Australia, he joined the Co-operative Farms as a trainee farm manager.

Ed progressed to assistant farm manger during his time with the Co-op/ Farmcare before joining Velcourt in 2015 as a farm manager.

After 3 years with Velcourt, he joined Stetchworth Estate Farms as farm manager. Stetchworth is a diverse rural estate with farming and a significant property portfolio being the two main enterprises.

The rotation is made up of cereals, oilseeds, pulses and sugar beet with the beet area accounting for between 150 – 200ha each year. There are also large arable mid-tier and woodland higher-tier schemes in place on the estate.

John is responsible for representing the interests of beef and sheep members on a wide range of policy issues. The livestock team manage the national livestock board and uplands forum.

He is a former director at the Institute of Grocery Distribution and adviser to Arla Foods and the Food Ethics Council.

He works closely with the NFU Sugar board to shape the organisation's policy and plays a crucial role in price negotiations.

For over 12 years, Joe farmed at home on a mixed arable and livestock farm, gaining valuable experience in dairy, beef, arable, and sheep, before moving to the Allerton Project, a 320-hectare research and demonstration farm located on the border between Leicester and Rutland. Joe joined the Allerton Project in 2021 and currently has the role Head of Training and Partnerships. Joe is also the County Chair for Leicestershire Northamptonshire and Rutland and sits on the East Midlands Crops Board.

The Allerton Project has been at the forefront of promoting sustainable farming practices for over 30 years. As a research and demonstration farm, it has pioneered many of the approaches that are now being encouraged under the UK's Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMs). For example, the project developed and pioneered techniques such as beetle banks, supplementary feeding, and pollen and nectar mixes, which are now being widely used to promote biodiversity in farming. The project is also currently leading research into soil health and soil carbon, which is becoming increasingly important.

Joe is passionate about the integration of ecosystem services within the farm system. This involves bringing nature and farming closer together, rather than treating them as separate entities. Joe believes that integrating ecosystem services, such as water storage, carbon sequestration, and pollination, into the farm system is essential for promoting long-term sustainability in agriculture. This approach has been a key focus of the Allerton Project's work in recent years.

In addition to his work at the Allerton Project, Joe is a published author and regular contributor to Farmers Weekly and the NFU Countryside Magazine. His book, "Farm to Fork: The Challenge of Sustainable Farming in 21st Century Britain," provides a non-farming audience with insights into the basics of modern, British agriculture and the key issues facing the industry today. Joe's goal is to disseminate the information that the Allerton Project has collected over the last 30 years to help farmers transition to more environmentally sustainable practices.

Overall, Joe Stanley is a highly respected figure in the UK agricultural sector, known for his expertise in sustainable farming and his commitment to promoting long-term sustainability in the industry. His work at the Allerton Project and in the wider agricultural community has had a significant impact on the development of sustainable farming practices in the UK, and he continues to be a leading voice in the conversation about the future of farming in the country.

Peter's farm has been in the family for 75 years, since Peter’s grandfather purchased the farm in 1948. The farm consists of 700 acres of rented and owned land, 200 acres of which is in arable, growing crops such as maize, barley, wheat, and beans. Peter has 220 crossbred and Norwegian Red Cross dairy cows on his farm.

Although farming has always been Peter's profession, his first love was wildlife conservation. Peter has implemented habitat schemes on his farm and has participated in Higher Level Stewardship and Mid-Tier schemes. Peter has planted hedges along almost all of the farm's boundaries and created lapwing plots, nectar plots, and birdseed mixes to provide different habitats for wildlife. Peter is also interested in Cricket Bat Willow, a special cultivar that is very saleable and will provide a different habitat for wildlife along the River Nadder.

Peter's farm hosts the Kingfisher Award Scheme run by Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), and Peter is the chair of the local Natural History Society. From this, Peter leads walks on his farm and on other farms where members come to share their passion for conservation. Elm trees are also Peter’s passion and hobby, where he has planted these trees on his farm to provide a habitat for the white letter hairstreak butterfly and provide a second income for the farm. Peter has won awards for his conservation efforts, including the Wiltshire Life Award for Conservation Project of the Year for his reintroduction of Elm trees and the Silver Lapwing award. In addition, Peter also sits on the board for Tisbury Nadder Energy, an energy movement in which energy generation is owned not by large industrial companies but by local communities.

In recent years, Peter has embraced regenerative farming practices to be more sustainable. He has stopped ploughing and now has permanent pasture with herbal lays. Peter aims to reduce the use of fertilisers and uses spot spraying instead of boom spraying for weed management. With his passion for conservation and regenerative farming practices, Peter is an excellent example of how farming can coexist with nature, promoting sustainability and biodiversity.

Richard started farming in 1965 with only a handful of livestock. Over the years, Richard has made significant changes to the farm to improve the welfare of his cows and promote a more sustainable farming approach.

Richard is committed to sustainable and responsible farming and believes that improving soil health is key to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the farm and its impact on the environment. This is reflected in the farm's practices. Since 2013, his farm has used a grass-based system as they sought to improve the welfare of their cows and promote a more sustainable farming approach.

Richard’s farm has been members of Arla since 2016, and since 2022 has been one of the six pilot regenerative farms of Arla in the UK. The aim of the pilot is to farm regeneratively without losing milk production while trying to improve soil health.

Richard is using multispecies herbal lays to improve soil biology and root depth, and he is exploring the use of compost to enhance soil health. The farm is primarily focused on improving soil health, especially by increasing organic matter to improve water retention, which is especially important given the farm location.

In addition to farming, Richard is actively involved in the dairy industry. He was the Vice Chairman of the Dairy Co for five years and was a Director of First Milk for 15 years. Currently, he is a Director of Anglia Farmers. He has also held several positions in the NFU, including County Chairman for Bedfordshire, the NFU Regional Dairy Board Chairman, and the NFU Council.

Richard's future plans for the farm are focused on improving soil health and sustainability. He wants to continue farming regeneratively and look for ways to increase fungal activity in the soil.

Andrew manages a 1000ha Cambridgeshire farm growing cereals, oilseeds, pulses, sugar beet and potatoes.

He is leading the third generation of Sugar Beet growers for the business and with over 22 years experience has overseen many changes on the farm to keep this key crop, and others, profitable. The business grows 10000 tonnes of Sugar Beet for delivery to the Wissington Factory.

Graduating in 2001 from Newcastle University with an Agriculture degree, he returned to the family farm.

Andrew is BASIS and FACTS qualified. With the farm in the Countryside Stewardship mid-tier, Andrew is keen to trial and integrate innovative farming methods, seeking to minimise the farm’s environmental impact whilst keeping expenditure low.

His team is responsible for recruiting and retaining members, running regional events for members and lobbying and campaigns across the NFU Midlands' counties of Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Lincolnshire, Holland (Lincs), Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland (LNR), Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. 

Peter is the Founder and Executive Director of Peach 20/20 is hospitality's premier networking forum for senior executives.

Emily grew up on a mixed farm in Bedfordshire and has been involved in helping out across the business, from working in the family farm shop to working with livestock and driving the combine at harvest.

She graduated from Harper Adams with a BSc (Hons) in Agriculture with Farm Business Management in 2021 and then worked as the Students’ Union president until 2022. She was also an NFU Student & Young Farmer Ambassador from 2022 to 2023 so has a good understanding of the NFU and what it can do for members.

In her spare time, Emily enjoys playing her guitar, being in the outdoors, fitness and following women’s rugby. She is also an active member of Bedford Young Farmers.

Sarah and her team are responsible for ensuring that growers' deliveries of beet are handled in accordance with the approved procedures agreed between the NFU Sugar team and British Sugar.

She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to NFU Sugar not least from her previous role with Germains.

The role extends to public affairs and communications, working closely with the wider industry to ensure that sugar growers' interests are heard by government. He also oversees NFU Sugar grower engagement.

Sam was on the NFU agricultural policy graduate scheme prior to joining the NFU Sugar team.

His role is a key part of the NFU Sugar negotiating team, ensuring they have the evidence and confidence to support their positions.

The Commercial Analyst also provides the NFU Sugar team, board and growers with analysis of market conditions, and leads on the effective application of, and development of, policies and regulations, including those related to the commercial relationship between NFU Sugar and the sole UK processor of sugar beet British Sugar.

He was educated at Oxford and London, and is a Visiting Fellow at the Open University. 

She is not from a farming family but has always lived in Suffolk. She started helping out on farms during lambing and went on to study for a BSc in agriculture at Harper Adams. This included a placement with BASF in its trials team at Woolpit, assisting the development agronomists and helping with the trial seed department.

Prior to joining the NFU she was innovation crops product manager at Agrii, sourcing, developing, contracting, and marketing niche crops, including naked oats, naked barley, haricot beans, and chickpeas. Ella also plays an active role with Suffolk Young Farmers.

Clare has a particular interest in animal health and welfare, using Agri tech and soil management to maximise livestock productivity. She is also an keen early adopter of new technologies on farm, always eager to give new opportunities a try.

Concerning all things net zero, Clare is determined to ensure farmers can maximise their productivity and financial rewards through this, especially in securing our unique place on supermarket shelves against imports.

She is very keen to preserve and value traditional stockmanship skills and ensure these work alongside new innovation and are valued.

Clare is also actively volunteering with the NFU Education Farmers for Schools programme and regularly visits schools to promote farming and food to the next generation of consumers.

Clare hopes to use her role on the Livestock Board to provide support to livestock farmers in the post subsidy world, ensuring they are rewarded and valued for their hard work and unique skill set, and that government policy supports farming to be a profitable and enjoyable career.

Sanjay has worked as an economist for the last seven years, having previously worked in regulation and competition economics.

In her new company Sarah's work is focused on nitrogen and phosphorus sensitive areas, working with LPA's, developers, utility companies and landowners to assess potential impacts and, where required, develops innovative schemes and mitigation solutions. She is also working with a number of local landowners and farmers on long-term water security and environmental improvement projects at field and catchment scales.

Regina also has overall responsibility for the NFU’s 16 Legal Panel Firms in England and Wales.

Regina is passionate about helping members resolve their legal disputes, especially those who may find themselves in the "David and Goliath" situations when they are up against large companies and government agencies.

She grew up on a small mixed livestock farm in East Sussex. In 2014 she graduated from the Royal Agricultural University with a BSc (Hons) in agriculture and animal management.

Harriet then worked in New Zealand on a beef and sheep trial farm before she joined the NFU’s bovine TB team in 2015. She moved to the livestock team in 2019.

Her spare time is mostly taken up with farming but she also has two green houses and polytunnels where she grows vegetables and cut flowers for the local florist, as well as some tropical plants.

Alex is a founder board member of GB Potatoes and a former chair of the NFU Potato Forum.

Kate provides comment and analysis on programmes across Times Radio’s schedule, as well as breaking political stories and interviews on the station. 

She had previously joined TalkTV for its launch in April 2022 as political editor, leaving her role as Sky News political correspondent which she had held for four years. Before moving into broadcast journalism, she was senior political correspondent at The Telegraph for three years and previously spent time as Whitehall correspondent for The Sun. Kate started her career in Westminster as a Parliamentary Researcher.

Tim leads the Council’s work to create change within the sector, build a more productive and sustainable food and drink system and look for new opportunities for co-operation within the wider government agenda. As part of his work with the Council, Tim will be delivering some of the measures outlined within the Government’s Food Strategy.

For over three decades Tim held leading roles at several manufacturers in the food sector including Northern Foods, Sara Lee, Express Dairies and latterly Arla Foods where he was CEO. Smith remains the Chairman of Cranswick plc. Between 2008 and 2012, Tim served as Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Will is currently President of the Academy of Social Sciences, remains a regular columnist for the Observer and co-chairs the Purposeful Company – a think tank that argues that companies’ intrinsic purpose should drive their strategy, values and ultimately profit.

Will also chairs the advisory board of the Fairness Foundation, is governor of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, a member of the Progressive Economic Forum and editorial advisory board of Prospect magazine.

He was elected as the MP for Streatham and Croydon North in July 2024.

The Secretary of State has overall responsibility for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He has specific responsibilities for:

• budget, including Official Development Assistance (ODA)
• international relations
• senior appointments
• economic growth

Chris four years working with farmers to deliver the UK government agri-environment schemes, before joining the National Farmers’ Union nearly eighteen years ago.

Most of his NFU career has been spent on horticultural policy, heading-up that team for two years. In 2017, Chris moved to join a new NFU plant health unit as Senior Regulatory Affairs Adviser and headed-up the NFU’s science and regulatory affairs team for a short while.

His work focuses on the regulatory process and its implications for availability and use of crop protection products as well as the relationship with UK regulatory authorities and international regimes. Chris is the NFU policy lead on the GB pesticides regime post EU-exit, bee health and pollinators.

He leads the NFU's work on the SFI IPM standard and is a driving force behind the NFU’s plant health strategy.

Net zero priorities are set by the member-led Net Zero Steering Group to identify benefits and barriers of transition. A key step in the journey is the development of the Sector Resilience Plans, launched at the NFU conference in February 2023.

Each sector board has outlined initial priority areas to help members identify low-carbon opportunities. The plans bring together where we need support from policy, the value chain and R&D, and will evolve as members feed into the process.

Outside of work she enjoys reading, walking, and spending time with her family and friends. 

Mollie also runs YPHA (Young People in Horticulture Association) which she founded in 2020 alongside two colleagues. YPHA’s primary focus is to consider how the industry might evolve to appeal to a younger demographic both in terms of future horticultural employees and future garden centre customers.

Mr Barclay was elected as the MP for North East Cambridgeshire in 2010.

He was previously the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care between 25 October 2022 and 13 November 2023.

Prior to his election to Parliament, Mr Barclay was educated at King Edward VII School, Lytham, did a short-service commission with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, and read history at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He then qualified as a solicitor working in various roles for Axa Insurance, the Financial Services Authority, and Barclays Bank.

She is the facilitator of the climate change working group of the World Farmers Organisation and is the focal point for the Farmers Constituency in the international climate negotiations process (UNFCCC).

Ceris has also been a member of the advisory panel for the UK citizens’ assembly on climate change. 

With many crediting the opportunities and supply chain insights gained, coupled with the chance to meet other young people from within the industry, the experiences they have shared have been a major reason for my application.

Initially, at a younger age, I admit poultry was not a natural passion of mine, but over time it is something I have become increasingly passionate about, and therefore am always keen to keep furthering my knowledge of both the free-range egg industry and the wider poultry sector.

Since leaving the family farm, Edward has set up his own small regenerative farm alongside his wife where they specialise in rare and native breeds. Edward is looking forward to embracing all the opportunities the programme has to offer and meeting likeminded people.

She cuts, packs and supplies wholesale markets, florists, and the public.

Hannah is really looking forward to promoting the British cut flower industry as well as production horticulture and educating the next generation about a career in the sector during her time as an ambassador.

James hopes to meet lots of new people who he can relate to and learn from, to help promote British farming.

Jessica sells meat from her farm's Belted Galloways directly to the consumer and is chair of her local Young Farmers Club.

She is looking forward to having the opportunity and platform to increase the awareness of current agricultural issues to both farmers and the general public.

Jon is excited to take part in the NFU Student & Young Farmer Ambassador programme to meet new people and learn as much as possible from the farm visits and shows.

Magnus endeavours to champion British farming whilst meeting like-minded people and scrutinizing industry decision makers.

She is looking forward to increasing awareness of neurodiversity in the farming community, as well as advocating for improved government strategies to deal with Bovine TB and farmer communication.

Hailing from the valleys, a self-proclaimed late comer, it wasn’t obvious she was ‘allowed’ to join the industry however after joining YFC her feet are firmly under the table. Establishing her farm in 2018 with her partner, Naomi hopes to help others realise their farming dreams can come true!

Sian is looking forward to learning more about UK agriculture, networking, and meeting likeminded young farmers.

Not from a farming background, Sophia stumbled into the world of farming. She went to the Royal Agricultural University and has worked on various different farms to gain experience.

Rory grew up on a mixed arable and beef farm in Essex and graduated from Harper Adams University in 2022 with a degree in agriculture with crop management. 

After graduating, he worked for a large contractor in New Zealand and then went travelling. Before joining the NFU, he worked for a large arable enterprise in Norfolk.

Her specialisms are the CRM, membership and WATO training as well as working together with the admin team to assist staff and members with events and queries.

Suzanne is a keen potter, enjoys the great outdoors, reading and spending time with family. 

She is also a qualified events & wedding planner, mental health first aider as well as an emergency first aider, she also passed her bereavement & grief counselling diploma.

Originally from Cheshire, he got into farming by milking for an ICI test farm as a holiday job whilst a teenager. He came to Shropshire to attend Harper Adams over 30 years ago and has remained living in the county ever since. He has worked for the NFU for more than 23 years in various roles. 

As well as lobbying local authorities and public bodies, in her role public engagement is fundamental to reach out to the general public, particularly the younger generation, so that they can develop a better understanding of UK agriculture. 

Aside from her county adviser role, Ali also leads the NFU Midlands Poultry Commodity Board which identifies challenges poultry producers across the region are facing and inputs views to shape the policy positions and arguments the NFU take to the top of government and the supply chain.

As someone who has grown up on a poultry and arable family farm in Herefordshire, Ali is aware of the immense pressure farmers are under to operate successful businesses and works to help the farming community move forwards.

Prior to her role at the NFU, Ali worked for an agricultural PR company, working across a number of different global businesses within the sector. This emphasised the importance of good communication, particularly for an industry that is often mis-represented, and making sure the wider population understand farming principles and the challenges it faces.

Outside of work Ali is usually helping out on the farm, spending time with her black Labrador, playing hockey, or enjoying Herefordshire’s social farming community. In recent years she also completed the Tesco Future Farmers Foundation which was a fantastic programme that enabled her to meet and learn from top industry professionals and senior executives in retail and food businesses across the supply chain. 

Prior to joining the NFU, Jeremy worked as a farm manager, mostly on dairy farms, and then joined MAFF State Veterinary Service (now the Animal and Plant Health Agency, APHA) in 1996 based in Devon, initially as an animal health officer and then for 10 years as a senior animal health officer. During this time, he gained a wealth of experience dealing with animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease (2001 and 2007), Newcastle disease, avian influenza and bovine TB. During his last two years at what had become the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Jeremy managed a headquarters project, writing farmer-focussed guidance, providing comprehensive information on bovine TB and animal by-products.

Away from the ‘day job’, Jeremy is a licensed lay minister (reader) in the Church of England’s Hereford Diocese, an agricultural chaplain and member of Lichfield Diocese’s Community of Chaplains. Jeremy also helped set up the Staffordshire Group of the Farming Community Network in 2016 and is especially interested in supporting the mental health and welfare of the farming community and promoting the positive role the land-based sector can have in mitigating the effects of climate change. 

Outside of work, Jenny is an active member of several choral societies, enjoys travelling and exploring new places, listening to podcasts and reading.

Emma graduated from the University of Leicester with a degree in biology and worked as a plant breeder for CPB Twyford before becoming a plant health and seeds inspector with MAFF – now Defra.

As well as the day job, she and her husband run a small beef and arable enterprise where they practice regenerative or conservation agriculture. Emma is a BASIS and FACTS qualified agronomist and sits on the NRoSO register. Her keen interest in botany and agronomy helps in her role as secretary to the NFU Midlands Combinable Crops Board.

Outside work, Emma is active on several community groups and enjoys sewing, walking, travel, natural history, conservation and spending time with her family. 

Having gained an honours degree in agricultural science from Nottingham University in 1986, he returned to the family farm in Edale, Hope Valley, then a small dairy and sheep farm which he modernised and expanded. He also took on the management of a small upland estate in the valley which included 1,200 acres of moorland on Kinder Scout.

In 2006 Andrew decided to cease full-time farming, sold the dairy herd and embarked on a series of short term contracts, which included advising Defra’s Catchment Sensitive Farming team and delivering advice to farmers on behalf of Business Link and Natural England.

When the county adviser's role became available, Andrew jumped at the opportunity, being familiar the work the NFU does for the industry having been an active member since he was 20, including Derbyshire county chair in 2004-5.

As well as dealing with all things Derbyshire, Andrew is the Midlands NFU Dairy lead and picks up uplands issues for the Peak District area of the Midlands.

Outside of NFU, Andrew still farms, rearing Mule and Masham shearlings from bought-in, six-month-old lambs, plus dairy heifers on a B&B basis in the winter. This, he says, keeps him very grounded and in tune with the realities of what NFU members face. 

Bella joined the NFU from the hospitality and leisure industry. Working within the food and drink world with a retail and consumer focus, she wanted to flip that table to champion British produce and all the dealings our network of farmers and growers face day-to-day. 

Mark has joined the NFU from the Church of England where he was providing advice to the church in the House of Lords and national church institutions on public policy issues relating to rural affairs, environmental science, land and heritage.

He has a background supporting agriculture as regional director for the Farming Community Network in the South East and with water research working for Adas as a consultant.

Mark has also been involved volunteering with educational work promoting agriculture in schools and supporting students at land based colleges with the South of England Agricultural Society.

He is now based in Northamptonshire with his family where he has an active involvement in local village life.

Raj also provides background statistics to colleagues and external stakeholders.

Prior to his current role, Raj worked for Warwickshire Police as an analyst interpreting crime statistics.

Before joining the NFU in August 2023, Adam worked as a journalist in East Anglia for nearly 20 years, starting out in Ely and the Fens before moving to Norfolk and working for the Eastern Daily Press (EDP).

He has been chief reporter, district team editor, news editor and print editor for the EDP. He has also been the editor of the North Norfolk News, Dereham Times and Fakenham and Wells Times newspapers.

Adam is keen to hear from members who are developing their businesses and have interesting stories to tell.

As Chief Science adviser at the NFU she leads our policy and advocacy work on agricultural and horticultural science and research, biotechnology and data, and food safety.

She has managed teams of policy advisers within the Policy Directorate in various iterations over the years, including on food standards, animal health and welfare, plant health, better regulation, farm inputs, safety, employment, skills & training, and transport. She works extensively and proactively with organisations across all sectors of the agrifood industry and the academic community to influence Government policy, R&D funding strategies and legislation impacting NFU members.

Helen is a member of many groups and panels in the agrifood and research sectors including a non-executive Director of the NIAB (National Institute of Agricultural Botany) Board, Chair of the Crop Science Centre Alliance Board, and was appointed to Defra’s Precision Breeding Working Group in 2023.

As well as communicating developments and consulting on changes in policy with members, Poppy regularly engages and works with key industry stakeholders such as Defra and the RPA.

After completing a Master's degree at the Royal Agricultural University, Poppy has undertaken various roles within the agricultural industry and has been with the NFU for two years.

Poppy understands the many challenges farmers face and is passionate about ensuring environmental policy works for farming businesses.

Tamsin joined the NFU as Assistant Secretary in 2010, was appointed Head of Compliance in 2011 and Secretary in June 2023.

In her role as Secretary, Tamsin is responsible for advising on Corporate Governance and ensuring the NFU Constitution and Rules are observed and kept up to date. In addition to that, Tamsin manages the Compliance Department, which is responsible for legal compliance, insurance, risk management as well as the NFU's Quality Management System and Business Continuity Plan.

Tamsin also oversees the management of the NFU’s property portfolio, is Secretary to Council, the Governance Board, the Audit and Remuneration Committee, NFU Staff Pension Trust Company Limited, NFU Commercial Holdings Limited and is a Director of NFU Energy Limited.

Prior to joining the NFU Tamsin gained considerable experience working at board level in London and Warwickshire in a number of industries ranging from private equity to environmental compliance.

Originally from a small rural village in Yorkshire, Tamsin lives with her family in Warwickshire. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking for family and friends, gardening and holidaying on the North Norfolk Coast.

I focus on building and maintaining influential contacts within the supply chain to represent NFU members and promote their interests within the industry. Within my role I act as an account manager for key retail accounts such as Lidl, Asda and Waitrose.

I also manage and co-ordinate the NFU's work on key strategic policy such as improving fairness in the supply chain on behalf of NFU members.

I have been in the role since January 2022, and previous to the NFU I worked for an organic fruit company as an account manager.

Previously she worked at Farmers Guardian as Head of News, and in the NFU’s government and parliamentary affairs team.

She began her career in Parliament, where she worked for six years. She has won a number of accolades for agricultural journalism, including the Young Leaders in Agricultural Journalism Award from the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists.

Since 2015 he has held Non-Executive Director and Chair positions, including NED for the last 10 weeks of Carillion, and Chair of Interserve. He is now a non-executive director and senior independent director of SIG plc. 

Part of Andy’s role is to help ensure UK beans remain the cornerstone of the quality bean market in Egypt, as well as identifying suitable homes for the domestic feed market.

She is also currently NFU Branch chair for Mid-Somerset and Deputy Chair for the Somerset branch.

She is also a former NFU Cymru Next Generation Group member. Currently, Delyth is a Farmer Time participant and NFU Farmers for Schools Ambassador, as well as the founder of Mootiful Soap Co.

He is currently chair of his NFU local branch and has worked off the farm as a journalist. Most recently, Hugh presented the Farmers Weekly podcast up until December 2023.

Prior to joining the Institute, Jack served as the Director of Global Food and Water Policy at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and as the CEO of Futurity, a food foresight company.

He is the author of the 2021 book ‘Why smart people make bad food choices.’ Recognised by Scientific American as one of the 100 most influential people in biotechnology, he also served as the Chief Communications Officer and SVP for Global Policy at Intrexon Corporation and as a senior advisor for food policy at the U.S. Department of State.

A global thought leader, Jack has delivered more than 500 keynote speeches in 50 countries on the future of food. Degrees include J.D. in Law, M.S. in Environmental Science, B.S. in Biology and B.A. in Psychology and Chemistry.

He previously worked as Head of Political and Social Research at YouGov and was a director at the founding of the company back in 2000.

Kate is Chair of the Tourism Alliance and co-Chair of the London Tourism Recovery Board, representing the needs of the wider tourism sector in discussions with Government and the Mayor of London. She sits on the Government’s Tourism, Hospitality and Food & Drink Sector Councils and has previously Chaired the London Night-time Commission. She is a Board member of Best Bar None, PASS and is a trustee at Hospitality Action. In July 2021, she was appointed as the first Government Disability Ambassador for hospitality, promoting inclusivity. Kate was appointed co-Chair of the London & Partners’ Tourism Advisory Group in November 2022, who have a critical role in turning London’s 2030 Tourism Vision into reality.

Kate initially worked as a researcher in the House of Commons and European Parliament on food, employment and environmental policy before joining Whitbread to work in Strategic Affairs. She has extensive experience as a political and strategic communications consultant and is a graduate of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and Kings College London.

Her research and consultancy expertise focusses on food security, sustainability, resilience, and food integrity. Louise is also involved in broiler production on her family farm in Herefordshire.

They operate a mixed farming enterprise, consisting of a pedigree South Devon Suckler herd, Pedigree flock of Dorset Sheep, Cereals and Roots over 500 acres. Luke is the 3rd generation on the farm which is a mix of owned and tenanted land.

He is a predominantly tenanted farmer on the Raby estate, situated just west of Darlington. The farm consists of around 500 mixed acres, 200 head of cattle, arable and 30,000 free range layers.

Her recent research has focused on the treatment of obesity and interventions to encourage healthy and sustainable diets.

Susan has a long-standing interest in the translation of scientific evidence into policy. She was the Science Advisor to the Government Office for Science Foresight report on obesity in 2007 and an advisor to Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy (2020-2021).

She has previously chaired the cross-government expert advisory group on obesity (2007–2011), the Department of Health responsibility deal food network (2011–2015) and public health advisory committees for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2013-2018). She was awarded an OBE in 2008 for services to public health.

Susan continues to hold a part-time appointment at the University of Oxford as Professor of Diet and Population Health alongside her role as FSA Chair.

Part of Steve’s role is to oversee the curation of the Descriptive List for pea and bean varieties, which this year expanded to include 12 new varieties.

She heads Agriculture and Sustainable Sourcing policy and programmes for Morrisons and is the Technical and Sustainability Director for the manufacturing business.

He had a long career with Vitacress Ltd. where he was Commercial Director and then Managing Director at Vitacress Herbs Ltd and more recently Vitacress Salads Ltd.

He was Vice Chairman of West Sussex Growers association for 4 years and is current Chair of British Tomato Growers Association.

Sarah is a highly experienced director with more than 25 years’ experience in retail, leading commercial category teams. Most recently, she was Group Quality Director at Tesco.

He started his business in 1991 with a loan from his father, growing 10 acres of iceberg lettuce. In 2007 Philip began growing spinach and babyleaf crops and producing bagged salads.

She was previously the first woman to present a Sunday morning political show - anchoring Sophy Ridge on Sunday from 2017 to 2023.

Sophy has interviewed Prime Ministers past and present, including Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. She has anchored coverage from Washington and Brussels and was in Downing Street to witness the first and last days in office for Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

Before presenting, she was senior political correspondent, where she was first to break the news that Jeremy Corbyn had won the Labour leadership contest and that Ed Miliband would resign as leader of the party.

In 2017 Sophy published The Women Who Shaped Politics, a book on the history of women in Westminster.
Before joining Sky News in 2011 she worked for the News of the World focusing on political, business and consumer stories.

Daniel was previously Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2020 to 2024. Prior to this, he was Shadow Minister for Transport.

Daniel founded and chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Data Analytics, is chair of the All Party Parliamentary University Group and the All Party Parliamentary Group for Life Sciences, and is Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the East of England among others.

Daniel has a History degree from the University of Cambridge, and on leaving university ran a small nursery with his partner in rural Norfolk before embarking on a career in computer programming.

Outside of work she enjoys walking, gardening, watercolour painting and spending time with her family and friends.

He is committed to delivering positive environmental outcomes in support of long-term resilience and an advocate for grassroots, locally relevant action to address global challenges.

In the last 20 years the farm has evolved from a milk producer/retailer unit, to a farm that focusses on their beef herd, hill sheep and environmental outcomes. They have also diversified with a holiday let and contracting business.

The business has grown through their ability to change and also by collaborating with their landlord on water management, heather regeneration and hay meadow restoration. Rachel takes an honest approach and has an open mind-set. 

Rachel was elected to the position of NFU Vice President in February 2024.

• Workforce skills and training
• Education
• Science and research and development
• Regulation review and enforcement
• Planning, housing and rural development
• Agriculture supply relations
• Infrastructure (HS2, roads etc)
• Rural broadband and mobile communications
• Rural crime
• Water and air issues
• Organics
• Member development
• Member engagement

As part of her role within farm safety, Sarah manages the Farm Safety Partnership, supporting the chair.

This is collective of key industry representatives, working together to improve the record of farm safety.

Sarah regularly corresponds with industry stakeholders such as HSE, DVSA, DVLA and HMRC, among others.

Sarah is very involved with her family farm and is passionate about improving safety and wellbeing in the industry.

In October 2023, she moved across to support the Midlands region.

Her role includes overseeing and ensuring a coordinated administration service to regional staff, as well as the NFU's boards and committees.

Oliver works with colleagues on communications strategy, reputation management and positive outcomes for the NFU, its members and their businesses. He has responsibility for NFU media work in the Midlands, writing news stories and responding to and briefing journalists.

A former journalist with the Midlands News Association his career saw him work on weekly titles as a chief reporter before moving to daily newspapers as a senior reporter and news editor before he made the move into PR.

Oliver is keen to hear from NFU members about their farms, food production, sector news, diversification and environmental stories and can also offer media assistance to farmer and grower members.

Warwickshire born and bred, George has been working for the NFU since graduating from Oxford Brookes University in 2013 with a 2:1 degree. Joining the NFU and working in CallFirst advising members on various topics, George has moved across various teams and positions: the NFU bTB team in the south-west for two years and assistant county adviser for Warwickshire before becoming the full county adviser after spending time on secondment as Gloucestershire county adviser.

George is a partner in a 300-acre family farm, assisting when time allows. The farm has changed in recent years since selling the 200 strong dairy herd in 2012 and moving into beef and now more crops. They have also introduced diversification, including a biomass boiler, selling firewood across the county as well as pick your own sunflowers during the summer months.

He has a wife and two children and most Saturdays you can find him playing rugby in the winter and cricket during the summer for his local teams. 

He joined the NFU in 2018 after 14 years as a senior news and court reporter for the award-winning Retford Times newspaper in Nottinghamshire. He has also worked for the Lincolnshire Echo and Target series in south Lincolnshire, as well as writing articles that have appeared in the Daily Mirror, the Daily Mail and other national titles.

He lives in north Nottinghamshire with his wife, two young children and West Highland terrier and is a keen countryside walker, cook and cricketer. James is also an award-winning cricket commentator with his YouTube channel Wheatley TV, which follows the ups and downs of his beloved local club, North Wheatley with Leverton. 

Georgie joined the NFU in February 2021. After graduating from Harper Adams University, she has worked in cross compliance, on-farm anaerobic digestion, rural land agency and latterly providing on-farm support and advice to improve water quality and farming practices throughout South Shropshire.

Outside the office she takes an active part in Tenbury Agricultural Society and Countryside Show. Her membership of Worcestershire Young Farmers Club provided her with years of various roles and competitions. Floristry displays are something she continues to practice and enjoy throughout the seasons.

Georgie joined the BASIS Environment Advisers' Register and hopes to continue this professional development. 

In his new role of county adviser for Warwickshire, he has been involved in and around farming for as long as he can remember and am now looking forward to getting stuck in serving our Warwickshire farming members. 

Rhonda’s passion is to engage with members and the next generation and encourage them to make the most of the significant benefits they get from being a member of the NFU.

Prior to joining the NFU, she worked as business development manager at Bishop Burton and Riseholme colleges from 2015 to 2018. Here she worked with industry partners including Asda to conduct on-farm practical trials with students. She also secured funding of £75,000 from the Prince's Countryside Fund to help deliver and develop the Farm Management Development Programme brought with her from her previous role at the Royal Agricultural University (RAU). The programme focus was to help develop young people in management roles either on the family farm or in employment, to instil confidence and to create groups of like-minded individuals who would become lifelong friends.

Previous to working at the colleges she worked at the RAU co-ordinating Business Management and Leadership Development training programmes for the Worshipful Company of Farmers, John Edgar Trust and Institute of Agricultural Management from 2005 to 2015. 

Emily’s background is in private practice, advising clients on a range of matters impacting rural property and business, which means she has an acute awareness of issues facing farming members. She also specialises in infrastructure projects, planning issues and matters affecting the tenant sector.

Outside of work, Emily spends most of her time enjoying the countryside, often with her gundogs, and cooking for her family and friends. A keen traveller, Emily has spent time working on cattle ranches in Texas and Oklahoma. 

Gabby was also was involved in the GB Calf Strategy since its inception, playing a key role in its publication.

Gabby has previously worked for the NFU in the bTB and Dairy teams, and is now currently working in artificial intelligence livestock technology.

All stock from Luke’s farm goes to his own abattoir which processes for local pubs and restaurants in the south east.

Luke runs this abattoir on a tenanted site and caters for a wide range of businesses, especially those which are family run.

Esther also has a strong interest in the environment, winning the Farmers Weekly Environmental Champion in 2020, winning the Wye Valley AONB farm of the year on 3 occasions, and is a previous winner of the Hereford Cattle Society national suckler herd of the year and Three Counties Mixed Farm of the Year.

Esther and her family won the 2020 Mixed Farmer of the Year at the Farmers Weekly Awards.

The farm covers around 2,500 hectares of land where he uses the latest techniques to produce high-quality market fresh root vegetables, packing potatoes and onions.

The main site at Brandon Fields includes two vegetable packhouses and employs around 80 full-time employees alongside seasonal staff.

Allan is very concerned for the future of the potato sector and was a member of the Potato Marketing Board for the last 18 months of its existence, he then became a founding member of the British Potato Council and continued in that role for nine years.

When the NFU Potato Forum was launched he was happy to be a part of it and has continued into the newly constituted Potato Policy Group.

Robin went to a local comprehensive school and went on to attend Lancashire College of Agriculture, studying part time and was recognised as the top agricultural student in Britain, 1978.

After college, Robin started an agricultural contracting business focusing on the specialist application of ag chem on a range of agricultural and horticultural crops.

Robin was a founder member and vice chair of a North West Potato co-operative.

At the same time, Robin and his brother expanded their farm to around 1500 acres growing combinable crops and specialising in the production of chipping potatoes predominantly for distribution throughout the North West.

He has been actively involved with the NFU at a local level, on the North West Regional Commodity Board for Horticulture.

At national level, Robin sat on the NFU Potatoes Committee and latterly as a member of the Potato Forum.

He has also been involved in promotional work for the industry (TV, radio and national press) in his position as a Potato Ambassador for the Potato Council.

Robin is a father of three and has a particular interest in the cooking and promotion of potatoes as a healthy choice for consumers.

Edward, who works off an 80 hectare farm, sells potatoes through a number of merchants to fish and chip shops. 

He grows on a combination of owned land, permanently rented, contract farmed and single crop rented land. 

Andrew enjoys meeting up with like-minded potato growers and is passionate about new technologies and products which contribute to farming sustainably, ensuring a future for many generations. 

Andrew believes the potato industry needs to make its voice heard within government as well as higher up the supply chain, to ensure British potato growers remain sustainable. 

CUPRA member, Andy Alexander, is well seasoned when it comes to potatoes, having been an Associate Independent Potato Consultants member, Andy has also sat on the Nematicide Stewardship Board. 

Peter is a former potato grower who now works at NIAB as Research Development Manager for potatoes.

In 2020, Peter won the Nuffield Farming Scholarship. 

Giles studied Agricultural Business Management at Wye College, University of London before going on to study Rural Estate Management at the Royal Agricultural University.

Having secured a training contract with the National Trust he moved to Norfolk where he qualified as a Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor.

Further roles with the Trust have included time spent in the Midlands and the South West leading teams of Surveyors and other professionals in multi-disciplinary teams, before moving to the Trust’s Headquarters in Swindon to take up the role of Head of Estate Management and was appointed its Land & Estates Director in September 2017.

Giles has been active within his profession serving as an APC examiner and on various Boards and Committees for the RICS and currently serves on the CAAV’s Property Committee.

He has also worked with educational establishments as an external examiner and Advisory Board member.

Living with his wife and daughter in Wiltshire, walking, cycling and generally being outside exploring the more remote parts of the UK, are all much enjoyed family activities.

Alastair has worked across most property disciplines, including valuation, development, agency, dispute resolution and management, leading to him specialising in the management of mixed-property portfolios across much of England and Wales.

He has a particular interest in embedding sustainability and resilience into the shaping and management of property investment portfolios and holds various trustee and non-executive appointments, including being on the Council of The Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of their Rural Committee.

He was also a member of the Rock Review tenancy working group in 2022.

Julian's planning and management expertise associated with a diverse range of projects, including the preparation of whole farm and estate plans, have led to assignments throughout the UK.

He also specialises in the promotion of development land, property acquisitions, estate management, agricultural tenancies, succession advice, and tax planning.

He is a Deputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire, Chairman of The Worshipful Company of Farmers Trustee Company, a Trustee of the Lawes Agricultural Trust, chairs the Farm Tenancy Forum for the Defra Ministers, a Vice President of The Farmers Club and chairs several farming and estate management boards.

In recent years, he has been Master of The Worshipful Company of Farmers, Vice Chairman of Governors at the Royal Agricultural University, Chairman of The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, the Oxford Farming Conference and The Farmers Club.

He is a Life Vice President of the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Agricultural University.

Around 700 native dairy beef cattle and 700 Romney breeding ewes are farmed.

Their farm runs a low input grass and forage based system with the majority of stock being out wintered on fodder beet and then grazed on herbal leys.

Marc was also awarded Grassland Farmer of the Year by the British Grassland Society in 2021.

Marc also works off farm as a Grass and Forage Consultant, working with farmers to develop low cost sustainable livestock systems.

John was born and raised on the family dairy farm in Lancashire. He studied Agriculture in Lancashire and Estate Management at Merrist Wood in Surrey. He now farms in Sussex with his wife Sue with whom he has three grown up daughters.

He secured an AHA Tenancy in the late 1980s and owns his own farm. Both farms are primarily arable and are entered into Countryside Stewardship and now SFI. John has soil types ranging from brickearth over gravel to traditional weald clay.

John’s interests and experience span many sectors, dairy, beef, sheep and arable, always with conservation and nature in mind.

He has been a keen member of the NFU sitting on the Livestock and Wool Board Committee over 35 years ago and now currently as the chair of the NFU National Tenant’s Forum, having represented the South East for the last seven years.

Her areas of specialisation include succession, surrender, rent reviews and normal landlord and tenant matters.

Ellie is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Fellow of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers, Recommended Professional for the Tenant Farmers Association and Professional Member of the NFU.

Ellie is keen to help all farming generations face the future with particular focus on the more experienced.

Ten years later, John established an award-winning recruitment business, growing it to 100 staff and servicing some of the fastest growing and most innovative companies in the world, where he saw good ideas put into practice, fast. He also learnt to deal with complex organisational structures in large corporations.

Initially starting farming as a hobby, he finally went full time as the issues that Covid-19 would bring became apparent. Fully up to speed on good agricultural practice, he is also politically aware and commercially very experienced, and looking to bring a different perspective to the board.

He is interested in several areas of Board activity; beet delivery, factory performance (and sugar extraction), crop forecasting and AI, and the preservation and evolution of the IPA. His motivation for joining the board is primarily to help tackle unfairness in the supply-chain and support the industry to become an exemplar of best practice.

BASIS, FACTS and soil and water qualified, he uses his skills and experience to farm as sustainably as possible.

Robbie is passionate about growing beet and bringing the views of growers within his area to the NFU Sugar Board.

His priority is to help secure a sustainable and profitable return for growers, increasing confidence in the crop and securing the future of the homegrown beet sector.

Max runs an autumn block calving system and supplies Mondelez International into Cadbury.

Max also works as a consultant combined with his position as Company Secretary at Selkley Vale Milk Ltd, a dairy co-operative of farmers in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.

Using his broad ranging experience, Max is passionate about building a viable and productive industry which promotes innovation and change.

He is keen on improving collaboration to strengthen farmers position in the supply chain.

The farm supplies Longley Farm and the milk is also sold directly to the public via a vending machine which was installed on the farm. 

Helen has a keen interest in the Jersey breed. She is a member of the National Board for UK Jerseys as well as being the secretary of the North East Jersey Cattle Club.

She also writes a column in the Farmers Guardian called 'in your field' on a monthly basis, which covers a range of topics affecting everyday farming life.

With personal experience in the supply chain, Helen is passionate about creating a more collaborative approach to dairy.

She would like to see recognition from the government and the supply chain regarding the requirements dairy farmers are expected to meet and for these demands to be fair and achievable.

Ciara’s focus is managing the Church Commissioners’ 82,000 acres of let productive farmland across England, part of a £10.3 billion endowment fund which provides long-term financial support for the mission and ministry of the Church of England.

Ciara seeks to develop the portfolio of rural assets and deliver strategic objectives, as well as exploring opportunities for new rural exception sites, renewable projects and mineral extraction.

Ciara has sought to ensure that the Church Commissioners remain at the forefront of supporting farming tenants and agribusinesses in their transition to more sustainable farming.

Ciara is passionate about agricultural transition and has been part of the working group drafting the recently launched ‘Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice for England’.  

Julia Hayhurst grew up on a dairy and arable farm in Staffordshire. She started her surveying career in Lancashire, qualifying as a Chartered Surveyor in 2013.

Having worked for a small regional firm specialising in Estate Management and then a National Utilities company, Julia moved back in Staffordshire in 2014 to join Bagshaws LLP. 

She undertakes a wide range of general professional work from the Uttoxeter office including valuation, compulsory purchase and compensation, grant schemes and landlord and tenant advice working on behalf of both landlords and tenants in a range of different scenarios. 

Malcolm joined The Crown Estate in October 2012 as Rural and Coastal Portfolio Manager for Wales and the North of England.

Promoted to Head of Rural in October 2017, Malcolm is now responsible for the management and development of all the Crown Estate’s extensive rural assets, including onshore minerals and renewable projects energy across England and Wales.

Previously Land Strategy Manager at the Co-operative Group, he was responsible for the strategy, management and development of the Group's rural assets.

As well as leading on a variety of development projects, this role also included advising the group's farming business on land and property issues.

Prior to that, Malcolm spent 10 years with land agents Strutt & Parker.

Guy's farming operation at Benningholme Grange is predominantly arable based, with 1,400 bed and breakfast fattening pigs, 700 romney ewes and a 50 head beef shorthorn suckler herd.

He also runs an arable contracting business across east Yorkshire which was started when he returned from working in New Zealand.

Guy won the Farmers Weekly arable farmer of the year in 2016.

John's farm is a 300 hectare mainly grassland unit and is rented from Harrowby Estates.

John's dairy herd, which consists of around 550 cows and associated youngstock, is a crossbred jersey herd, run on a grazing split block system. 

A graduate from Reading University, in 2012 John also achieved a Nuffield Scholarship.

Jo also farms blackcurrants, cider apples and grapes for wine as well as being a passionate advocate of the stewardship of our beautiful countryside.

She operates three 650KW chicken litter burners and several arrays of 500kw solar panels and employs six people to help look after her chickens.

Alongside this she has raised awareness of the steps poultry producers are taking to address water quality concerns in the River Wye, bringing some rationale to that very polarised debate.

Her role is to ensure members in the region continue to have a strong voice in the media.

After studying at the University of the West of England, she worked as a journalist for almost a decade, writing for a huge variety of publications.

Before joining the NFU, Charlotte was an editor for local online news publications across the South West.

In this role he covers a variety of policy areas including rural crime, rights of way and access whilst supporting the team on tenancy, infrastructure and planning.

Cameron has previous experience as an agricultural contractor alongside managing his family farm in Warwickshire which specialises in predominantly beef cattle.

Eleanor was part of the Farm Tenancy Forum Expert Working Group tasked to draft the new Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice and has been working with DEFRA on access to ELMS and land resumption.

Eleanor has worked on the government consultation on taxation of environmental markets and more recently the call for evidence on addressing poor behaviour in the tenanted sector and the need for a Tenant Farming Commissioner. As well she deals with day to day tenant farmer issues.

Eleanor has a degree in politics and a Graduate Diploma in Law as well as having taken the Legal Practice Course.

She moved back down to the family farm in Worcestershire in 2003 and worked for Carver Knowles and then John Amos carrying out a variety of professional rural work specialising in the Single Payment Scheme, agricultural valuations and rural grant applications in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.

Louise leads on tenancy issues for the NFU across England and Wales and she advises the NFU Tenants Forum on tenant related issues and has been involved in the latest response to the Government’s Call for Evidence in improving behaviours between parties and the call for a Tenant Farmer Commissioner, holding meetings in the regions to gain members views. Farm Tenancy Forum work is ongoing.

Louise covers infrastructure and compulsory purchase for NFU members particularly on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Schemes. She has been involved with HS2 since it started giving evidence to the Select Committee on behalf of all farmers on Phase 1, Phase 2a and 2b. She has represented NFU members and helped many agents acting to present evidence at oral hearings for infrastructure schemes applying for a development consent order and negotiated many voluntary heads of terms.

Louise is the current chair and member of the Herefordshire & Worcestershire branch of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers.

Charlotte studied Physical Geography and Geology at Royal Holloway, University of London.

She gained her Postgraduate Diploma in Agriculture at The Royal Agricultural University.

Not coming from a farming background, Charlotte started her career in farm management. She is now a Rural Business Consultant for Sentry, covering the Southeast, proving professional business support to clients including estate management, funding applications and environmental solutions.

In addition to this, she manages the Sentry Surrey farms, covering over 1000ac, across three sites of arable land, on a mixture of CFA and FBT agreements.

Growing mainly winter cereals, oilseeds and spring barley, Charlotte is an advocate for sustainable agricultural practices, that promote environmental stewardship and enhance the long-term viability of crop production.

Lucy has invested heavily in renewables over the years and has solar panels, biomass boilers and a ground source heat pump which all contribute to business resilience while reducing her carbon emissions.

One of Lucy’s key focus areas is highlighting the career opportunities that poultry can offer. She sees staff training and career development as critical for attracting and retaining talent across the sector.

Lucy sees promotion of British poultry products to consumers as a priority work area for her first term on the board.

Alongside the poultry meat business, 11 years ago Harry was instrumental in setting up a free range and organic egg business, packing and marketing free range and organic eggs into retail.

More recently Harry has diversified further into a small speciality mushroom business supplying into retail.

Harry brings a breadth of poultry meat and egg sector expertise as a co-opted member of the national poultry board.

Rebecca is based in Cornwall and her business produces, packs and processes British free range eggs from their own farm as well as from producers across the South West of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Rebecca is an advocate for women in agriculture and is passionate about connecting farmers and farming practices with consumers to help educate and inform the public about how food is produced and why they should back British farming.

Sophie and her partner run an organic dairy farm which includes arable and beef production of 1,400 acres in the Dorset countryside.

They have been organic for more than 9 years and their farm consists of 400 dairy cows.

Sophie is very focused on working with the community, this includes hosting school trips, farming discussion groups, and going into schools to teach children about dairy farming.

Sophie feels responsible to encourage people from non-agricultural backgrounds into the industry and employees, apprentices, and work experience students to learn more about farming.

She was awarded a Nuffield Farming Scholarship in 2023 to look at the future of organic farming. 

Sophie also sits on the Arla Board of Representatives.

She also won the Women in Dairy, 2021 Dairy Woman of the Year Award.

Since joining the business in May 2022, Ryan has developed a diverse cropping rotation, set a new machinery strategy to suit a regenerative approach and is creating a forward-thinking team culture.

With a key focus on soil, air and water health, Ryan now operates a 12-year cropping rotation, integrating grazing livestock across arable land, moving to variable rate liquid
fertiliser, reduced tillage and a block of Wildfarmed Bi-cropping.

Ryan is BASIS and FACTS qualified and has a continued passion for data, innovation and technology.

Ryan achieved silver in the British Farming Awards, ‘Arable Innovation’ award in 2019.

A member of the 68th Worshipful Company of Farmers, Ryan completed his Advanced Business Management Course in 2018.

He grew up on a small family farm just outside of Finchingfield in North Essex and attended Writtle College, studying for a diploma in agriculture.

He worked for several farms in the region before becoming a partner on the family farm five years ago. 

Hamish said: “I’m really passionate about farming and am looking forward to joining the NFU and supporting farmers across the region."

A former journalist, he worked on regional daily newspaper the Western Morning News and spent nine years as a reporter and producer at ITV Westcountry, before moving into public relations.

David joined the NFU in 2011 as assistant regional public relations officer, before becoming regional public relations officer and then taking on the membership communications role.

Hattie also is the secretary for the new South Uplands Group, supporting uplands farmers in Cornwall, Devon, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Somerset.

She has a master’s degree in Environmental Health, and previously worked within local authorities and environmental protection.

Hattie grew up on a mixed farm outside of Bristol and has always had interest in the environment and food.

Alongside this, he was the agent for the Thames Valley Police and Crime commissioner, working on the political side of campaigns and policy.

Nathan’s agricultural career began on local farms in the Vale of White Horse, when he also attended Oxford Brookes studying politics and international relations, before moving into agricultural engineering.

He has also been a district councillor and leader of the opposition on the Vale of White Horse district council.

Before working for the NFU, Fiona was an officer in the British Army Educational and Training Services. Fiona lives on a beef and arable farm in North Devon.

She previously worked as an agricultural adviser in a specialist firm covering Wales and the border counties.

Katie was an active member of Llysyfran YFC and at all levels of the organisation, finishing as Wales YFC Chair in 2021 and is still involved as a club leader. She completed the Worshipful Company of Farmers; Challenge of Rural Leadership Course in 2022.

Previously, Lindsay managed an equine veterinary laboratory.

Her role includes overseeing, and ensuring, a coordinated administration service to regional staff, as well as the NFU's boards and committees.

Prior to graduating from Hartpury University in 2022 with a BSc in Equestrian Sports Science, Molly worked with injured and retired racehorses, rehabilitating and pre-training them to return to racing or retraining them for secondary ridden careers.

She has also worked across several other equestrian sectors, ranging from elite level eventing to stud and reproductive work.

Izzy has a particular interest in sustainable agriculture and soil health, and holds a BASIS certificate in soil and water management.

She has always been involved in farming, helping out in the summers with corn carting on the family farm in Hampshire.

Izzy has an MSc from UCL in Environment, Politics and Society, focused on agri-environment policy, and a BSc from Exeter University in Geography with Biology with a focus on land management through agri-environment schemes.

Emily grew up in Buckinghamshire, finding her love for farming through lambing and calving on friend’s farms.

She graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2018 with a BSc (Hons) in Animal Science and then moved to the South West for her role in the NFU.

James' farm has two main farming enterprises: a 1,500 head sheep flock managed on an extensive system lambing outdoors in May, and a closed herd of 80 spring calving cows using Pedigree Aberdeen Angus genetics.

Complementary to the farming operations is a glamping business of both tents and luxury wooden lodges operating from April to October, and a dog exercising paddock.

Providing filming locations has also been a part of the mix, from major productions to car adverts being filmed on the farm.

James has been active within the NFU representing members for several years, whilst simultaneously encouraging others into representation within branches, counties, and boards.

James enjoys providing farm tours for the glamping guests where he can talk about what the farm, food production and farming in general.

This has often led to some interesting conversations and challenges, but it’s good to be challenged as it makes you question your perceptions and perhaps opens new opportunities.

Jacks previously worked in rural surveying and farm business management.

She lives on a family farm in South Gloucestershire, and has a passion for agriculture, and rural businesses.

Matt's 210ha farm grows mainly wheat, oilseed rape and beans.

He also chairs the NAAC (National Association of Agricultural Contractors).

Nigel has a predominantly mixed farm consisting of an autumn lambing Poll Dorset flock along with a spring calving Hereford suckler herd.

Nigel specialises in the production of herbage and cereal seed, as well as producing wildflowers for seed destined for use by farmers on environmental schemes.

He has also been involved in the Countryside Stewardship scheme for over 25 years and his farming practices have been geared towards environmental production methods. 

Nigel studied agriculture at Bicton college of agriculture where he took a keen interest in arable seed production.

Since then, Nigel has maintained a passion for giving young students opportunities to participate in agricultural apprenticeships on his farm and has done so for the past ten years.

Nigel believes this is a fundamental part of agriculture to safeguard the future of the industry.

David's role is to work with the team to deliver value to members across the region, running regional events and delivering effective lobbying and campaigns across the counties of Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Riding and Durham, Yorkshire West Riding and York East. 

David lives on his family farm in Saddleworth and has been an NFU member for many years.

Adam works with the team to make sure that policy issues they are working for across the region are delivering for members.

This includes all aspects of agricultural policy including supply chain issues, labour availability, all environmental policy areas such as new scheme development and water quality as well as taking a lead on NFU lobbying activity across the region.

Adam works closely with the commodity boards to make sure that their work is focused on the politics that can impact on their sector and tat there is sufficient member engagement on these issues.

His role is key to making sure that the work the team do is focused on the policy areas which can make a difference for members and that the team have all the support they need to address any issues which may arise.

This includes managing the NFU’s lobbying activities with MPs and a range of external organisations from local authorities, the police and government agencies to non-governmental organisations and relevant commercial bodies.

She also actively supports NFU group secretaries to drive NFU membership and works closely with elected farmer representatives including county officeholders and members of regional and national commodity boards.

Helen is the joint regional lead for the North dairy and poultry boards.

Helen was born and bred in Cheshire and runs her family Angus beef suckler farm alongside her role as county adviser.

Helen joined the NFU from a local feed company after completing an agricultural degree at Harper Adams.

This includes managing the NFU’s lobbying activities with MPs and a range of external organisations from local authorities, the police and government agencies to non-governmental organisations and relevant commercial bodies.

She also actively supports NFU group secretaries in Lancaster, Clitheroe, Bury, Preston, Blackburn, Chorley and Skelmersdale to drive NFU membership. Liz works closely with elected farmer representatives including county officeholders and members of regional and national commodity boards.

Liz is also the joint regional lead for horticulture and potatoes with Jennifer Costello and Aarun Naik and combinable crops with Laurie Norris.

Catherine supports NFU members across North Cumbria.

She manages the NFU’s lobbying activities with MPs and a range of external organisations from local authorities, the police and government agencies to non-governmental organisations and relevant commercial bodies.

She also actively supports NFU group secretaries to drive NFU membership and works closely with elected farmer representatives including county officeholders and members of regional and national commodity boards.

Catherine joined the NFU in November 2023. Prior to starting her role as County Adviser, Catherine worked in the NFU Mutual Carlisle office supporting the group secretaries by organising events and meetings for NFU members and signposting member queries.

Before moving to Cumbria eight years ago, Catherine had no farming experience and had spent much of her life working in social care or homeless services for local authorities. This all changed after Catherine moved in next door to a farm and tried her hand at sheep work. She then worked on several farms as a calf rearer and eventually became a full-time seasonal calf rearer and general farm worker on a dairy farm.

James supports NFU members across the Furness Peninsula, the Lake District, Sedbergh, Kirkby Lonsdale and North East Cumbria up to Tebay.

He manages the NFU’s lobbying activities with MPs and a range of external organisations from local authorities, the police and government agencies to non-governmental organisations and relevant commercial bodies.

James also actively supports NFU group secretaries in Kendal, Sedbergh, Broughton and Ulverston to drive NFU membership. He works closely with elected farmer representatives including county officeholders and members of regional and national commodity boards.

James is from an agricultural background and runs a small sheep farm with his wife and son.

Prior to joining the NFU, James spent many years working in politics and uses his knowledge to work with local MPs and Councillors on policies and issues that benefit farming. 

This includes managing the NFU’s lobbying activities with MPs and a range of external organisations from local authorities, the police and government agencies to non-governmental organisations and relevant commercial bodies.

She also actively supports NFU group secretaries to drive NFU membership and works closely with elected farmer representatives including county officeholders and members of regional and national commodity boards.

Charlotte is the regional lead for the livestock.

Charlotte joined the NFU in 2023 and is covering maternity leave for York East County Adviser Poppy Arnett until September 2024.

Helen joined NFU North's environment team in 2023, after having previously worked as Cumbria county adviser.

Helen works alongside James Copeland and Abigail Teward.

Her focus is on the on-farm aspects of plant health issues, such as IPM, stewardship and the impact of farming practices on plant and soil health.

Speaking to farmers regarding the adjustments they've implemented in their farming practices is one of Stuart's key roles, as well as focusing on enhancements to both environmental sustainability and business performance.

These case studies serve as guidance for other NFU members striving to build robust and adaptable businesses.

Stuart is editor of the Environment Matters newsletter (which you can subscribe to via the My Profile section) and manages the NFU Environment X account.

Before joining the NFU, Stuart was awarded a BSc in geography from the University of Edinburgh, with a particular focus on the physical aspects of the discipline.

In his free time, Stuart enjoys playing hockey and badminton.

He leads on:

• Access to labour and the seasonal worker scheme.
• National Living and other minimum wage rates.
• Employment regulation.
• Skills development representing the NFU on Agriculture Trailblazer groups and T Level consultative groups.

Prior to joining the NFU in 2015, Christine worked across the commercial and supply chain roles within one of the UK largest fresh produce manufactures and is an MDS alumni graduate. 

In addition to being the secretariat for the NFU Potato Policy Group, Rupert looks after farm assurance for the fresh produce sector, including representing the NFU on the Red Tractor Technical Advisory Committee. Rupert also covers a range of other areas such as water, planning, and net zero.

The farm is home to 250 head of organic dairy Shorthorn cattle and the land is made up of a mix of pasture and meadow, interspersed with a range of habitats, such as hay meadows, wetland, ancient hedgerows and woodland.

The family won the 2022 FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group) Silver Lapwing Award in recognition of their commitment to farm conservation.

I’ve been with PD Hook for around two and a half years, joining on a placement and staying as a graduate.

I know a lot of people who have done the PIP and they’ve all been encouraging me to have a go.

It looks like you get so much out of it and I’m also quite into politics so the programme really appealed to me.

After graduating from Harper Adams with a BSc (Hons) in Rural Enterprise and Land Management, Romy qualified as a rural surveyor in Essex before moving to Scotland, where she covered traditional estate management and delivered in a national renewable energy projects role.

Romy has also completed a Masters in Agricultural Professional Practice with the SRUC and completed the Worshipful Company of Farmers Challenge of Rural Leadership course in 2022.

In terms of what I would like to get out of it, I believe there is always room for some self development.

I pride myself in my ability to grow chickens well, but to move the business forward I need to be able to pass on those skills.

The social aspect of the programme is also important. I don’t tend to leave the farm walls due to work, so I’m looking forward to getting out and having a look around the industry, as well as meeting some new poultry folk.

I always fancied myself as a farmer so reached out to the local farms and worked at one for three years after school.

I’ve been at A&C Poultry for around two and a half years now, starting as assistant farm manager and proceeding to manager within six months.

I’d love to inspire other people who aren’t from a farming background to get into the sector, it is still accessible and is a rewarding career.

I wanted to apply to the PIP for the great opportunity to meet other people involved in the sector and to see different parts of the supply chain beyond our family farm.

Predominantly, I hope to make some good contacts and friends out of the programme and learn a lot! You learn the most from speaking to other people.

The family business is quite traditional and we’re trying to move forward in a more modern way so I’m really looking forward to learning some tips to help us in that direction.

We recently took up a tenancy about half an hour from our current home farm and have set up a new company there where we have about 40,000 free range laying hens at that new site, in addition to the 20,000 at the home farm.

I’m looking forward to learning new things and picking up from other producers well as getting to understand more about the different sides of the sector – not just the farming, but also from the commercial side.

I’m interested in promoting circular economies within the poultry sector through our wider agricultural team and hope to gain more understanding of how to help farmers and growers as well as the broader industry through this programme.

With increasing demands and strains placed on the poultry industry, it could be an interesting few years ahead.

I believe that education is key to helping the public understand the importance of the industry and of supporting our farmers by buying British.

I have grown up on a small holding with sheep in Gloucestershire. While studying at Harper Adams I decided to pursue a career in the poultry industry.

I grew up on the family broiler farm so was lucky enough to have that as an option.

I gave it a go and five years on, I’m loving it.

I’ve never met anyone my age that does what I do so it will be really nice to connect with a like-minded group of people that are my own age.

I’m building my confidence within the poultry sector and am excited to learn more while sharing what knowledge I do have with other people.

I’m also excited to learn a bit more about the different areas within the sector, network, and build contacts for the future.

This involves booking and facilitating meetings and events, dealing with incoming queries and looking after the region’s budget.

Leanne joined the NFU in June 2015. She works with fellow regional administrator Louise Dobson.

This includes assisting with member meetings, shows, events and general admin support.

Louise, a long serving member of the team, works with fellow regional administrator Leanne Matthews. 

Abigail joined the NFU in July 2024 after working as a agricultural business consultant.

Abigail works alongside James Copeland and Helen Forrester.

This includes managing the NFU’s lobbying activities with MPs and a range of external organisations from local authorities, the police and government agencies to non-governmental organisations and relevant commercial bodies.

He also actively supports NFU group secretaries in Lancaster, Clitheroe, Bury, Preston, Blackburn, Chorley and Skelmersdale to drive NFU membership. Liz works closely with elected farmer representatives including county officeholders and members of regional and national commodity boards.

Aarun is also the joint regional lead for horticulture and potatoes with Jennifer Costello and Liz Houghton.

A former Cheshire county adviser, Aarun returned to the NFU as Lancashire county adviser in June 2024.

Her role includes helping to develop and deliver a coordinated member communications and engagement plan for the North, which supports recruitment and retention of members.

Nicki looks after the NFU North social media channels, website, weekly newsletter and is the North regional editor for the British Farmer and Grower magazine.

Nicki is a former journalist. She was News Editor for the Holderness and Hornsea Gazette before moving into public relations. Nicki joined the NFU in August 2023.

Coming from a non-farming background Hannah has charted her journey from 'townie' to farmer on social media and also describes herself as a 'public speaker, occasional tv, writer, adventurer and photographer'.

Prior to that she spent 15 years at the BBC specialising in analytical and investigative journalism on both television and radio.

She has produced and reported a variety of Radio 4's best known long-form shows and been a daily editor of the Today programme.

She was later investigations producer for BBC Newsnight.

Her book, 'Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for Children', is a Sunday Times Bestseller and was shortlisted for Orwell Prize for Political Writing and Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.

He specialises in farm management and strategic planning.

Prior to entering Parliament, Sarah was a councillor with Manchester City Council representing Northenden, having been elected in 2014.

During that time, she served as vice-chair of the Wythenshawe Community Housing Group improving tenants’ access to good homes. Sarah is solicitor specialising in employment law, mostly advising employees.

Sarah is a member of the NFU’s Food and Farming Fellowship Scheme.

He started his career in the British Army, working his way up to Captain, and has also worked as regional director and operations manager at British Eventing.

Chris is looking forward to channelling his passion for farming into this new role and is keen to meet members across the county.

She is keenly committed, along with her team, to providing the highest standards of care and service to our members across a whole range of topic areas from employment to land; contract to motoring offences; SFI to transport and almost everything in between.

Her role includes raising awareness of our valuable service to members as we often help members resolve matters, saving them worry as well as costs.

Claire joined the NFU eight years ago as an employment adviser, coming from her role as an employment solicitor at a HR company. She has over 30 years of experience in providing advice to clients, starting her career as a family law and criminal law solicitor.

She joined the NFU more than eight years ago as a specialist adviser, advising on employment, land and legal and general, but for the past five years she has been a team leader of the legal and technical team and also responsible for leading on NFU Employment Service day-to-day.

Lara's role primarily requires her to ensure the NFU's team of employment advisers are up to date with current employment law and best practice guidance so that we can deliver a high quality service to our members. This includes reviewing and updating the employment business guides available to our members.

Employment queries can be complex and sensitive matters for our members to handle so it is essential for the team to be able to deliver effective and impactful advice clearly and concisely giving the member the confidence to apply this to their business.

As team leader, Lara also supports advisers taking on new topic areas, creating structured training plans tailored to the individual and providing mentoring and guidance.

Since 2017, Raj has advised extensively on various aspects of employment law assisting some well known national businesses.

Raj started with the NFU in June 2023 and provides primarily telephone advice to members on legal and general matters, wills and probate, employment matters and business structures. He also assists with writing articles for member publications.

Raj's role is quite varied with the broad range of legal issues he advises on.

Fiona joined the NFU in 2020. 

Before joining the NFU she worked as a lawyer in private practice for more than 20 years, specialising in residential conveyancing, property law and wills and probate.

Prior to this role, Jennifer trained to be a trading standards officer and is currently undertaking an MA Law. Jennifer is also a trained mediator.

Chris is a solicitor, and prior to joining the NFU, he worked in private practice for a law firm where he handled a range of property transactions for his clients.

Karen started working for the NFU’s legal and technical team within the CallFirst service in March 2019.

She became one of the three Team Leaders who provide day-to-day management of and support to the team in December 2022. Prior to this she was a legal and technical adviser.

Karen also has responsibility for the training needs of the team as it is essential that everyone keeps their legal knowledge up to date to be able to provide a high quality and reliable service to members.

In addition to this, Karen coordinates the reviews and finalises updates to over 100 of the business guides (non-employment) which are available to members.

Karen has previous experience of working within other membership organisations, predominately in the manufacturing industry where she provided employment and HR advice to members. Prior to this, she spent over 15 years delivering telephone based private and commercial legal advice covering numerous areas of law, together with inhouse training for staff.

Balvinder qualified as a solicitor in 2004, and began her legal career at Coventry Law Centre before moving into private practice and then continuing her career working for a HR Consultancy firm and then for a ABS.

She has specialised in providing employment law advice to both employees and employers throughout her career, including conducting and representing both employees and employers in Employment Tribunal.

More recently she has been trained to provide advice and support to our members on legal and general matters such as utility disputes and contract law matters.

Jeffrey plays an active role in providing advice and support to NFU members more specifically in the areas of employment law, transport, business structures, and legal and general (such as both commercial and consumer contractual disputes and any other matters not covered within the 12 other topic areas on which the legal and technical team also advise).

He has been with NFU since August 2019, initially working as a legal and technical adviser within the NFU CallFirst service and, from April 2023, as a team leader.

Prior to joining NFU, Jeffrey had spent 43 years working as a lawyer both in private practice and several major commercial organisations (including 28 years as a legal consultant and team leader in a legal advisory service, providing advice on a wide range of commercial and private legal issues) and also with a public service broadcaster.

Jeffrey brings a huge amount of experience from a varied career to help inform the advice and support which the legal and technical team provide to NFU members.

He studied undergraduate law and post graduate legal practice in Leeds. 

Luke has previous experience in personal injury, insurance litigation, real estate/banking litigation, residential/commercial property sales, residential repossessions, commercial conveyancing and debt recovery (court and enforcement).

Luke says no two days are the same in CallFirst, with the nature of the calls the team receives demonstrating the large variety of legal issues members face.

He enjoys being able to help members deal with legal issues which they can find challenging when faced alone.

Before working for the NFU, Rachel worked as a herdsperson and general farm worker on farms in the UK and abroad. She studied agriculture with business management at university college.

Rachel lives on her family beef farm and manages to find time to get outside and help mostly when an extra pair of hands are required for moving cattle and Tb testing.

She does, however, get some farm work done as she is a relief milker on local dairy farms. 

She played a key role in the NFU's member information pack on the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Order 2012.

Furthermore, she provides consultancy services through the NFU Employment Service membership, including reviewing of employment contracts and policies and drafting of bespoke Settlement Agreements. She has also been out on farms up and down England and Wales.

More recently, she has been advising members on other legal topics such as contracts and wills and probate.

Zoe has a passion for agriculture and helping members and has been with the NFU for more than 10 years.

Prior to working for the NFU, Zoe was a local authority animal health officer at Trading Standards. 

Zoe lives on a mixed farm in Warwickshire with her young family.

When advising members, on often complex legal issues, Sarah takes a personalised approach tailored to the member’s business needs and desired outcomes.

Prior to working for the NFU, Sarah worked in private practice and for the Office of Fair Trading.

Nick is from a mining area and previously worked as a lands officer in the estates department at British Coal. He has been talking to farmers in a work capacity for more than 30 years.

Louise joined the NFU in 2021 and is a solicitor. Prior to joining the NFU, she worked in practice for many years in East Anglia advising farmers, landowners and developers on land matters and property transactions.

Louise enjoys helping members to understand their legal position and find practical solutions to the problems that they face.

In his spare time he has a couple of retired ex-racehorses and two working springer spaniels which he take beating when time allows.

He is also an avid Wales rugby supporter and is looking forward to being entrenched in enemy territory for the Six Nations.

Dilwyn is delighted to start the role and have the opportunity to carry on the fantastic work that his predecessor, Harriet Ranson, has done on behalf of LNR members, including work with the police forces on rural crime as well as working with a range of stakeholders to ensure that the voices of our members are heard.

She previously worked in an admin role for 12 years for Coventry City Council in Children’s Services.

Having lived in villages in Warwickshire all her life and enjoy being surrounded by our beautiful countryside. Her favourite hobby is walking and being outdoors and has done a lot of travelling in the UK and overseas.

Mandeep also provides advice and guidance on subsidy matters.

She has previously worked at the Equality and Human Rights Commission where her main specialism was discrimination law.

Mandeep has recently taken on a consultancy role in addition to her work, which means she creates bespoke employment documents for clients including contracts of employment, offers letter and more.

His main aim is to provide clear concise telephone legal advice to our members. 

In addition, Chandra also sits as a (lay) judge at the HMRC Employment Tribunals, and has been doing so for 14 years now.

This role vastly enhances his employment law knowledge, in particular the legal arguments barristers advance at the Employment Tribunals and critically evaluating all the evidence to reach a judgement that is just.

As a legal and technical adviser, she delivers legal advice to our members on employment, legal and general, transport, health and safety, and business structures, demonstrating a wide range of knowledge and skills.

As part of her role, Rebecca reviews employment documents, writes articles for various NFU and Employment Service publications, contributes towards the review and updates of the business guides across her topic areas and provides training and support for our less experienced advisers.

My placement year from Harper Adams started my interest in the poultry sector which led me into my current role.

I’m looking forward to learning more about different areas of the poultry sector during the PIP programme.

After graduating from Haper Adams in 2010 with a degree in agriculture and crop management, George went into farm management with Velcourt, working in Norfolk and Kent before spending seven years managing a large arable farm in Alnwick, Northumberland.

He returned to the family farm in 2020. He has been BASIS and FACTs qualified since 2012 and on the professional register ever since.

He grows just over 3600t of beet, now supplying Newark since the closure of the York factory.

Beet is grown on the lighter soils which occupy about a third of the farm, with winter combinable crops occupying the heavier soils.

After taking part in the Sugar Industry Programme in 2022, he took up the role of North East Sugar Forum chair.

Co-opted onto the board in 2024, he is passionate about representing the interests of Northern beet growers.

Jenny leads on arable and horticulture, plant health and environment issues.

Jenny also represents the UNFCCC Farmers' Constituency in agriculture and climate change negotiations at COP.

She comes from Balmonth Farm, her family’s sheep and arable farm near St Andrews, Scotland.

She graduated in Agriculture from Seale-Hayne faculty, University of Plymouth. Prior to this, she was an agriculture student at Duchy College, Cornwall.

She undertook the Worshipful Company of Farmers’ Challenge of Rural Leadership course in 2005, became a Liveryman and is a Windsor Leadership alumnus (2022).

Mel was a non-executive director on the Heart of the South West LEP Board 2016-23 (Devon and Somerset), a longstanding CBI Council member, and is a Leadership fellow for the University of University.

She led the IDE (Inclusion, Diversity and Equality) work of the NFU from 2020-2023 and currently chairs the Great South West’s pan-regional partnership programme board for Food Security.

In June of 2008, Mel was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours for services to Gloucestershire’s rural community and for animal welfare efforts during the flooding of July 2007.

She was awarded the ARAgS (Associateship of Royal Agricultural Societies) for her distinguished achievement in the agricultural industry in 2015 and subsequently awarded a FRAgS (Fellowship) in 2020.

She is a Council member for the DCAA (Devon County Agricultural Society) and The Royal Bath and West of England Society.

Mel was promoted to the NFU’s Executive Leadership Team as Director of regions & membership in December 2024.

Mel is passionate about all things farming, food, rural life, and the countryside; privileged to work with a fantastic team and farmers, representing their interests and campaigning on their behalf.  She is a keen walker, a lover of country pursuits and a very proud mum.

She is former chair of the British guild of agricultural journalists and is an accredited CIPR practitioner.

Editor of British dairying magazine, Olivia is also a regular contributor to Farmers Weekly, Farmers Guardian and other specialist publications.

Her PR and journalism business, Agri-hub, specialises in rural and agricultural business promotion.

As the only institutional body working on behalf of the European agricultural and cooperative sector, Copa Cogeca represents over 22 million farmers and their family members alongside the interest of 22,000 agri-cooperatives.

Gian Luca has varied experience including project management, research economics, and territorial marketing. He is knowledgeable about the global economy particularly in relation to trade and investments and has proven ability to develop solid partnership with high-level officials to achieve favourable results.

With professional experience in a number of countries Gian Luca will bring a truly global view to panel discussion.  

Previously, Mr. Orive was the Executive Director of the Central American Sugar Association (AICA) for 19 years.