Earlier this year, AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds gave visitors to the 2015 Cereals event the chance to record video messages saying what skills they think the industry needs most, what makes a grower ‘professional’, and what AHDB can do to support them.

Delegates at Cereals were enticed into recording their views by the chance of winning an iPad. The responses were wide-ranging, with some responders emphasising specific areas of expertise like understanding soil structure or using the latest technology, and others commenting that professionalism is more a “combination of attitude with qualifications and ongoing development.”

The winner of the iPad was William Brundle, a Writtle College graduate working as a trainee farm manager on a large arable farm near Thetford which grows cereals, OSR and sugar beet. He cited ongoing personal development, collaboration with others and adaptation to change as key indicators of professionalism within farming: “What makes a grower professional are the skills and knowledge he has acquired over his life, and teaching and leading others to come up to his standard as well.”

“I think farming is an industry where you’re learning every day. Not one day is the same, not one season is the same. With more regulation coming in, learning is a task that we have to come to terms with within agriculture, and I think it is a positive way to stop people getting injured, and from doing practices correctly throughout the industry.”

“AHDB can provide support and information about how growers can be professional and what avenues they can take to carry on to grow and develop their skills. I think that would be a good link to pass on to other industries and to see how they can develop in that way.”

Mr Brundle will receive his prize from AHDB Regional Manager Tim Isaac at the next Stowmarket Monitor Farm meeting, held on Friday 6th November.

The video responses also highlighted common concerns and ideas among growers, many of whom made it very clear that to be professional, farmers must be prepared to adapt to constantly changing pressures and to try new things.

One commenter, Sam Diplock, took it a little further, wryly suggesting that to be a professional farmer “you need to learn the same skills as a rocket scientist, a biologist; the same as a solicitor, an accountant, a politician; there’s many skills you need for the future.”