What does an Agronomist do?

I come from an arable farming family near Melbourne, South Derbyshire. I joined Wynnstay in June 2021, following a role where I focused on research and development of new product trials, varieties and biostimulants before coming onto the market.

I graduated from Harper Adams in 2018 with a degree in Agriculture with Crop Management. Growing up on an arable farm, I’ve always had a passion for crop nutrition and soil health.

Now as an Agronomist with Wynnstay my main focus is to advise farmers on their targeted inputs, looking at soil health, crop nutrition and protection as well as the financial aspect of farming with yield and cost analysis.

With the rising cost of inputs, nutrient management is key as well as providing the best technical advice to ensure the maximum yield potential can be achieved.

When visiting a farm, my role is quite varied, from taking soil samples and discussing the analysis to improve soil health, to walking my customer's fields to advise on crop protection products for weeds, pests and diseases.

When on farm, any aspect of the season can be discussed with the opportunity to be improved to maximise profitability and yields from cultivation techniques, variety choice, and nutrient management to a crop’s chemical spray programme.

I also support the sales team with any specialist crop protection questions their customers might have on farm. Working alongside the sales team, we also do on-farm visits which is a great way to get together and transfer knowledge. Recently we visited Craven Arms to look at soil health and compaction in grassland and how that will affect plant growth, soil fertility and nutrient uptake.