This award recognizes a farm manager who plays a crucial role in the decision-making process of a substantial arable or grassland business. The judges will assess the manager’s ability to drive the business forward, motivate staff effectively, and consistently meet targets. Sponsored by Househam Sprayers.
Simon Andrews – Porchester Farms
Porchester Farms was already a successful enterprise before Simon took over farm management responsibilities, but he has built on its success. He’s done that by adding value across the business.
Simon was behind the idea to press and retail rapeseed oil through the estate shop, added haylage and bedding to the equine range and further refined the nature-sensitive way the estate is farmed. There is now also a vineyard, with the first wines to be retailed this year.
One of Simon’s first tasks was to turn around an underperforming sheep flock. He changed the breed to one that suits the grassland available and converted to an outdoor lambing system, reducing the requirements for labour, feed and bedding.
Moving to milling wheats and cereal seed crops has improved returns, as has a move away from deep, power-hungry cultivations to more direct drilling.
Yields on the arable land have improved through a wider rotation and different establishment techniques. Extending the area of temporary grass for haylage and hay production has helped cut a significant blackgrass problem.
Selling carbon to Agreena and a private biodiversity net gain agreement has added further revenue streams.
The estate is in an area of outstanding natural beauty and the management team is keen to protect local wildlife. Simon is now starting an ambitious new Higher-Tier and Sustainable Farming Incentive combination, a separate Mid-Tier scheme on a permanent pasture parcel and a Higher-Tier scheme at a contract farm.
George Bottomley – Elveden Farms
There probably isn’t anything about agriculture that George doesn’t know. Starting out in the dairy sector, he’s worked on a variety of farms since, set up his own arable contracting business, sold and serviced machinery before moving on to Elveden Farms.
Elveden has gained an enviable reputation, both as a farm and a purveyor of food excellence, recognised for its wildlife conservation. With over 4,000ha, it is the largest ring-fenced arable farm in lowland Britain.
The experience has taught George a lot, especially when it comes to people skills. He has learned how to effectively manage a team, motivating them all while maximising production.
“I take the approach of treating everyone as equals; I would never expect or instruct someone to conduct a process that I wouldn’t be able to do myself,” he says.
The experience from a number of management programmes and specialist courses, especially in regenerative farming, has seen George bring many new ideas to the estate. But he is hands-on too, happy to take over cultivating, drilling or combining.
It’s all part of being a team. Encouraging performance where possible, but spotting and being empathetic to where people have fatigued has its benefits. Cereal harvest completion in 2024 was achieved nine days ahead of the target finish date, something he describes as “logistical management”.
Piers Cowling – Sparsholt Manor Farms
When Piers joined Sparsholt Manor Farms 11 years ago, it was an 850ha enterprise. Now it is 1,400ha, with much of it down to his drive. On joining, he quickly realised that to continue with wheat he needed to get on top of a big blackgrass problem. And he has done that.
The farm had been using a mix of cultivation strategies. That went, as did drilling wheat before late October, and the rotation was stretched to six years. A seven-week gap between cultivating oilseed rape stubble and drilling usually provides two stale seedbeds.
With a standardised two-pass cultivation strategy put in place, soils have been worked shallower over time. Crop establishment is moving to direct drilling as soils are in a good enough state to allow it, although judicious shallow cultivations still occur where required.
The Horsch Pronto can be used conventionally as a cultivator drill, or as a direct drill by lifting the front discs out of the soil. This reduces soil movement to avoid stimulating blackgrass germination. The cultivation change means that despite late drilling winter wheat, he has always managed to get his area drilled.
Organic matter across the farm averages out at 4% and everything else is in good order. Piers consider cover cropping fundamental, along with chopping straw. Biologically active soils have seen a reduction in synthetic nitrogen for wheats by one-quarter. Biology applies to disease control too. No synthetic fungicides are applied before T2, with some varieties taken through to harvest completely biologically.
