All three finalists in this year’s Farmers Weekly Arable Adviser of the Year Award are open to sharing their learnings.

Each has developed a worthy reputation of being a trusted adviser, helping them build strong client bonds and gain new customers. 

See also: Farmers Weekly Awards: 2022 shortlist announced

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The finalists:

Robert Daniel
Self-employed, working closely with Agrii, York

Andrew Pendry
Agrovista, Kent

Jock Wilmott
Partner and agronomist, Ceres Rural, Cambridgeshire

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The judges:

Kieran Walsh
Last year’s winner

Philip Case
Farmers Weekly chief reporter

John Barrett
Director of Sentry Ltd

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Robert Daniel

Self-employed, working closely with Agrii, York

Rob Daniel is building a solid reputation as the “crop doctor of the Vale of York”.

The Yorkshireman was raised on his family’s arable farm near Selby and he studied agriculture at Harper Adams University in Shropshire, where his passion for agronomy developed.

After graduating with a 2:1 degree in agriculture and crop management, Rob worked as a trainee agronomist at Masstock Arable (now Agrii), where he spent two years learning his trade and then built up a wide portfolio of farming clients.

He worked at Agrii for a decade before going self-employed and setting up his own company, RD Agronomy, in September 2020.

Business focus

Rob continues to work with clients he walked for with Agrii, as well as his wider client base. He also keeps his hand in on the family farm, where he carries out all the agronomy.

But delivering agronomic support for sustainable and profitable farming to his 38 farm business clients across 8,000ha, focusing on all aspects of crop and soil health, is his primary job.

His work with growers varies greatly from crop walking and providing pesticide and fertiliser recommendations through to soil sampling, crop input ordering and nutrient management planning.

Rob demonstrates a targeted approach to agronomy which is based on his clients’ individual needs. Many say this approach has saved them lots of money – it’s not about selling products.

Roger Kay, who farms in the Crockey Hill area, near York, has been working with Rob for six years and he points to the advantages of having a commercially experienced agronomist with an independent voice.

“Our crop protection is a lot more targeted,” says Mr Kay. “The rates are a lot more sensible for what’s needed. As a farmer previously doing my own agronomy, I was building in robustness and making a few assumptions, which was wrong.”

Innovation

In response to huge increases in fertiliser costs, Rob is using a Yara N-Tester to focus on optimum nitrogen levels for his clients’ crops to help improve nutrient use efficiency. And they are listening.

He is also overseeing a large-scale Agrii field trial at Roger and Mark Mills’ farm (another of his clients) west of York.

The trial started in 2019 by looking at the impact of different cultivation techniques on grassweed control.

It has now evolved to look at cultural controls of resistant ryegrass, soil structure issues, organic matter levels and how these elements can be improved.

This year, the trial area was expanded to cover 20ha which includes 24m blocks trialling different organic manures, such as farmyard manure and sewage sludge, as well as chopped straw and cover crops.

“We’re measuring organic matter, how the soil structure differs and subsequently the yield of the following crop,” Rob explains.

Another exciting aspect is growing AberAce white clover as an understory and “living mulch” beneath spring barley to improve both soil structure and fertility.

Rob says monitoring crops throughout the season and sharing his observations through open days with his clients offers huge benefits, including selecting varieties best suited to their individual situations.

The trials data will be published to Rob’s customers and to the wider Agrii customer base to help inform their cropping decisions.

Future plans

Striking a sensible work-life balance is an important factor for Rob and his young family.

While he is not a big user of social media, his profile locally is excellent with most of his new clients having come via word of mouth.

Rob aims to provide an exceptional agronomy service to his customers and challenge his and their thinking as the industry evolves.

What the judges say:

Rob is a humble and professional agronomist with a focus on doing the best job he can for his clients who hold him in high regard.

Andrew Pendry

Agrovista, Kent

Andrew Pendry has gone from zero to Agrovista hero in less than four years.

The Nottingham-based company’s hashtag is #ForOurGrowers and Andrew delivers this in spades.

He is managing the agronomy and more for 22 fully serviced arable and grassland farmer clients in Kent, East Sussex, and one in Essex.

Before joining the Agrovista team, Andrew was a farm director for Burden Brothers, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, where he was responsible for the arable and actively grew the farming enterprise on one of the largest farms/contracting partnerships in South East England.

Andrew says his passion for crop agronomy grew during this period, and his previous experience as a farm manager has been a “great stepping stone” for fostering strong relations with his clients.

These are built on trust, support, honesty, realism and a “pick-up-the-phone” attitude towards communication.

With UK and global pressures having an impact on farming businesses, Andrew admits the past few years have been challenging.

But his business has expanded, and all his accounts are new to Agrovista, which has naturally kept growing in both size and number. His turnover has increased every year.

Business focus

Andrew says good soil health and testing soils to assess their needs is becoming increasingly important, and his approach is always to turn up on farm with a spade in his hands.

“Regenerative farming is the buzzword, but you can only do this if you’ve got the soil right. It’s not all about what comes out of can anymore, it really is about good soil health and a holistic approach,” Andrew says.

Among his portfolio of satisfied clients are Roger and Tom Lingham, farmers and contractors, based in Sevenoaks, Kent.

Both appreciate Andrew’s wealth of experience in practical farming and how he actively reacts to circumstances, rather than just recommending a product from a textbook.

Tom said: “Andrew has started from a turnover of zero and has had to get new clients and is now gaining clients from recommendations working with existing clients.

“He brings a higher level of experience than other agronomists we use. He is helping with different techniques and cultivations and has brought in a strip tillage drill for beans, which was the best decision we’ve ever made.”

Innovation

Andrew is pushing the boundaries of new products and is happy to take the risk sharing with clients.

For example, some are growing crops purely with Agrovista’s MZ28, a foliar-applied fertiliser with the efficiency of between 80 and 95% nitrogen uptake, which is saving clients money and the environment.

Andrew believes every farmer should know their costs of production which can enable them to make structured, management decisions.

As such, he has created his own spreadsheet, which he uses with clients to inputs data throughout the year.

This includes seed, spray, fertiliser, fixed costs, rent and so on, which can be entered into the spreadsheet to calculate yield expectations and cost of production per tonne.

Upon harvest, the yield data and sale price is inputted to give a true cost of production to the penny.

Future plans

Andrew’s vision for growth is ongoing and he is comfortably looking for new clients. He envisages staying with Agrovista for the foreseeable future to retain and build his client base.

“Technology is constantly changing and within Agrovista’s technical team I have the ability to reactively change to every scenario,” he says.

What the judges say:

Andrew’s enthusiasm and drive to use his previous farm management experience to deliver practical agronomic advice for his friends and clients shone through.

Jock Wilmott

Partner and agronomist, Ceres Rural, Cambridgeshire

Jock Willmott has worked his way up the agricultural ladder from a teenager milking cows in the Brecon Beacons, to working alongside Adas soil scientists with the first introduction of Vaderstad drills.

Moving into farm consultancy in 2005, he is now a partner and technical lead agronomist at Ceres Rural, having moved there in March 2021 after working as a partner at Strutt and Parker for 15 years.

Jock lists his two biggest farming career influences as retired plant pathologist Bill Clark, the former head of Niab, and John Bailey, a mechanisation consultant at Adas.

Jock is proud to provide agronomy advice to two recent winners of the Farmers Weekly Farmer of the Year award – Andrew Robinson, from Heathcote Farms in Toddington, Bedfordshire, and Edward Vipond, from Troston Farms, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

Business focus

Ceres Rural is a start-up group of consultants providing independent business advice to farmers and landowners.

Over the past year, the business has focused on advising people on coping with soaring input prices and the transition away from basic payments.

Jock manages farms as well as a large agronomy portfolio. He covers 7,500ha of agronomy and 5,100ha of strategic agronomy advice.

He manages a 650ha arable farm in Hertfordshire and administers a 1,300ha joint venture with three farming businesses.

He is serious about developing young agronomists to help develop their careers and grow the business at Ceres Rural.

Some are recent university graduates, but most have worked in an agronomy role for two to three years.

Ceres Rural will double the number of professionals in 12 months and will have a team of 14 trained agronomists who are comfortable delivering wider business advice.

The focus is on the next five to seven years of making sure the arable businesses is as profitable as it can be, which starts with better decision-making across the board – whether that’s regenerative agriculture, cover crops, or more conventional systems.

Technical innovation

Jock is involved in a series of nitrogen trials and in-field diagnostic testing for disease. The whole idea is to see if they can make better decisions and use inputs in a more targeted fashion.

He is also exploring the suitability of different crop varieties with varying plant growth architecture, as well as looking at various green cover crops.

“We are trying to keep up with climate change and the evolutions of pest and disease and all the while be mindful of optimising margins for the farmer,” he explains.

With Reglone banned, Jock and one of his clients, Essex grower Christopher Hill, are using an alternative method of desiccation of peas with borage in the rotation already being swaffed.

They have taken advantage of swaffing two-thirds of the peas this year by employing a local contractor.

Concrete plans

Continuous improvement is the cornerstone of Jock’s work, and he aims to introduce at least one big improvement each year.

He is currently guiding Mr Hill to secure grant funding for yard improvements, to futureproof his business at Pattiswick Hall Farms, near Braintree.

With new farm manager James Tubby in place at Pattiswick Hall, the farming team, including Jock, is looking at alternative drills.

They had been considering an 18m Avatar drill as part of their review, with an Avadex applicator incorporated as part of their strategy to control blackgrass.

What the judges say: 

Jock is dedicated to building a new farming consultancy to do the best for his clients as well as bring on future generations of advisors within the industry.