Arable Horizons speakers

Karl Schneider

Karl Schneider is editor of Farmers Weekly and editorial director of Proagrica, the global agriculture media, software, data and connectivity business.

Karl has been a business journalist for 30 years, working closely with the Farmers Weekly team for more than a decade and before that holding senior roles on some of the UK’s biggest titles including New Scientist and Computer Weekly.

Tom Wolf

Tom Wolf grew up on a grain farm in southern Manitoba and has spent his whole life farming or working for farmers. He obtained his BSA (1987) and MSc (1991, Plant Science) at the University of Manitoba, and his PhD (1996, Agronomy) at the Ohio State University where he specialised in spray application technology.

He is a professional agronomist, a member of the American Society of Agricultural and Biologicial Engineers and a member and past president of the Canadian Weed Science Society. Tom’s expertise is spray drift, pesticide efficacy, and sprayer tank cleanout, and he has published and spoken extensively on national and international stages on these topics.

Jack Wrangham

Jack Wrangham runs Northumberland-based precision farming business Drone Ag with his brother Hugh. Jack has been involved in the drone industry for over 10 years, as well as being from a family farming background.

He started Drone Ag in 2015 after previously running a successful company that provided drone-based filming and photograpy services to the media sector.

The business is focused on using drone-based technology to increase productivity in agriculture. It is currently involved in trial work on drone-based spray application.

Paul Temple

Paul is a tenant farmer on a mixed beef and arable farm, in HLS and now moving farming practice to Conservation Agriculture. He is a past NFU vice president, chairman of COPA COGECA’s Cereals, Oilseeds and Protein Group and founder of the European Farmers Biotech Forum. Paul is also currently on the main board of the AHDB, chairing the UK’s Cereals and Oilseeds sector and the chairman of the Voluntary Initiative.

James Thomas

James Thomas is a New Farming Technologies & Digital Agriculture Lead at Syngenta covering Europe North. In his current role, James looks at how to best use and apply Syngenta’s portfolio of products on a farm scale using a combination of technology and machinery. The aim of which is to develop practical integrated solutions that deliver the optimum balance of product efficacy, farm efficiency and environmental safety.

James has worked for Syngenta for four years after completing a Master of Agricultural Engineering degree from Harper Adams University. he is a qualified agronomist with practical farming experience across the world including Europe, Australia and most recently Uganda.

Clive Blacker

Clive Blacker is CEO of Precision Decisions, a leading company providing comprehensive precision-farming services. He has been involved with precision agriculture for over 20 years and continues to challenge the boundaries of technology to enhance productivity and profitability of farmers globally.

Through his consulting services to the world’s largest agri-engineering companies and the UK Department of International Trade, Clive has gained extensive knowledge of the global precision agriculture market including China and Africa.

In 2004, his Nufield Farming Scholarship on Precision Agriculture took him through Europe, Australia and the US.