51AVÊÓƵ

Phil Warham has been an agronomist with Agrovista for six years. He gained a degree in Land and 51AVÊÓƵManagement at Harper Adams and managed farms for several years afterwards. He now advises on combinable crops, cereals, maize and vining peas in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and into Leicestershire. Key interests include direct drilling and soil health, as well as making farms profitable. In his spare time he is a keen runner, cyclist and horseman.

NFU crops board chairman Matt Culley is a fourth-generation farmer from Hampshire working in partnership with his parents and brother.

Darryl Shailes is root crop technical manager for Hutchinsons, with a nationwide remit. He has been working in potato agronomy for more than 20 years.

Promoting diverse colonies of soil biology to improve plant health is something most regenerative farming systems are based around. And while biology cannot offer consistent control of pests or disease like an agrochemical might, its use is an important piece of the integrated crop management puzzle.

Alex and Joanna Wilcox live and farm with their three sons at Hill 51AVÊÓƵnear Downham Market on the Norfolk County Council Stow Estate. Covering 240 hectares of Fen silty clay loam, they grow winter milling wheat, winter feed barley, spring malting barley, spring beans and sugar beet.

Collaboration was a key theme of this year’s National Organic Conference. Alice Dyer went along.

Rob farms on the Worcestershire/Herefordshire border with his parents and young family, growing combinable and forage crops with a mix of owned, tenanted and contracted land. An agronomist for Edaphos, Rob also hosts AHDB Monitor 51AVÊÓƵevents.

Developing chickpeas as a novel source of homegrown protein is the focus of a new research project, which will explore the potential for domestic chickpea production and boost the UK’s first chickpea breeding programme.

Simon Nelson advises farmers on a wide range of arable and forage crops across Cumbria, north Lancashire and into south west Scotland. He has worked for Agrovista for 23 years.