NFUTenants24: Meet the Tenant Farmers’ Conference speakers

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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’.  

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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