Meet the NFU Poultry Board 2022-2024

Aside from poultry, the family business farms 1000 acres of arable, has a 1MW biomass boiler system, a 1MW biomass CHP system, 500KW solar PV arrays and a 500KW wind turbine.

James is the current chair of the NFU Poultry Industry Programme and was previously co-opted to the board as a PIP representative which ensures the voice of younger members is well represented. He is keen for the board to address issues surrounding labour shortages and rising costs of production and believes these are some of the industries main priorities.

They produce, pack and market both colony and free-range eggs along with buying eggs from contract producers. Recently, they have started to 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.

Thomas has planted 5000 trees and hedgerows which complement the solar panels and biomass boilers to create a carbon neutral business.

Of the many challenges the sector faces, Thomas is interested in the board gaining a better understanding of the impact ammonia emissions could have on the sector, and how to resolve this before it becomes an issue.

In addition, he wants to continue promoting any technological improvements and engage with decision makers of poultry rearing standards.

Over the last 42 years, Charles has sat on various NFU Poultry Boards, both regional and national.

He has always taken an active interest in everything to do with poultry production and believes it should be profitable. Charles holds a depth of poultry experience from both the UK and Europe and is highly knowledgeable of not only the poultry industry but also the people in it.

Matthew is one of the Wot-A-Pullet founders, which is an independent pullet rearing business born in 2008 from the Wot-an-Egg enterprise. Wot-an-Egg now has 100,000 organic, 200,000 free range and 40,000 vaccine egg producing hens. Wot-A-Pullet produces 3.5 million pullets per year.

With the poultry industry at its lowest ebb, Matthew hopes to help enable better conditions and communication throughout the supply chain to produce high welfare food at competitive prices for the consumer, while simultaneously allowing poultry producers a fair return for their hard work and investment.

Duncan represents the NFU as the vice chair of the BEIC and is a trustee of the BEMB Trust.

He realises that avian influenza has been a huge problem for a lot of producers and one of his main priorities that he is keen for the board to address is a review of the marketing regulations for the free range status of eggs.

Simon's main priorities for the board are to investigate the availability of grants for UK poultry producers and to look at how using new technologies and carbon calculators can help the industry to improve its efficiency.

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.

In his role as an owner and director of Morspan Construction Ltd, Richard specialises 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 fairer prices within the supply chain.

Prior to this Liz worked for an egg packer, building up her knowledge base by working with their free-range egg producers. Liz participated in the NFU’s Poultry Industry Programme and following that joined the NFU’s Next Generation Forum before joining the NFU Poultry Board.

As a relatively niche business, Liz is keen to bring the views of poultry farmers operating on a smaller scale to the discussions of the board and would like to ensure that policies are achievable and relevant.

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.

In addition to previously producing ducks and broilers he also worked in feed sales before taking on the role of agriculture director for producers at Noble Foods.

Graham would like to work collaboratively across the supply chain to face the challenges presented to the industry such as sustainability, environmental credentials and avian influenza and he looks forwards to representing the views of members going forwards.

Will recently completed the Poultry Industry Programme 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, in particular the sector's unsustainable reliance on soya meal, both economically and environmentally.

Matthew 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 Matthew is keen to support during his time on the board.

Being on the most recent cohort of the Poultry Industry Programme has led to Will’s interest in the NFU and to stand for the current NFU Poultry Board. As a motivated farmer Will wants to engage with fellow members to ensure the industry’s best interests are put forward.

He produces free range and organic chickens and turkeys with their own breed of chicken – The Norfolk Black.

In addition, he operates a fully automated and highly invested modern poultry processing plant in South Norfolk. 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 giving a balanced approach to Red Tractor Scheme.

The business has a solid egg production background, having been producers up to 2017. As a feed compounder it specialises in just poultry feeds, with a strong emphasis on free range.

The business has also been a specialist manufacturer of organic poultry feeds for 25 years, producing organic layers, broilers, and turkey feeds.

Martin focuses on working with independent poultry farmers, assisting them to optimise their poultry production.

He is keen to bring his experience of contributing on matters connected to poultry feed, pullets, free range and organic to the board.

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.