How would you describe your job?
My main activities are helping with the day-to-day trial jobs. Carrying out disease assessments, spraying individual plots, harvest (driving and sampling) and being on the back of a drill. Key responsibilities involve leading trial teams in field work, in the late summer and in spring managing seed as it arrives for drilling, from documenting deliveries then weighing out seed to the gram for each individual plot. I also carry out the maintenance and calibration of our arsenal of pulvexpers, which all have their own personalities and quirks.
What’s the best part of the job?
The best part of the job is the excellent team we have and the continuous changes in jobs throughout the year. Finishing one job means you are onto the next one, which keeps this varied and interesting until they roll around again the next year.
What is your favourite time of year and why?
Spraying and assessment (May-June), I really enjoy seeing all the different varieties and chemical treatments working or not working in their own unique ways. Seeing two plots side by side, one with hardly any green leaf to be seen for mildew, yet the plot beside has not a sign of disease never ceases to amaze me.
How did you get to where you are today?
Ever since a child I helped on my grandparent’s farm or my dad with his forestry research. This gave me a love for the outdoors and a desire to work in a rural based industry as well as be part of a company that was making a name for itself. Scottish Agronomy has given me all of those things by the bucket full.
What, for you, makes Scottish Agronomy stand apart?
Scottish Agronomy stands apart from the rest by leading the pack. Its dedicated workforce and forward-thinking approach to agricultural problems, means it’s always there to provide the best for its members as well as its clients. Be it finding a up and coming variety or finding a chemical that is losing its efficacy, for examples.
What has been the greatest highlight of your career so far?
My greatest highlight so far is gaining the trust and skills to be able to lead teams in the field. It’s great to see a long list of jobs ticked off at the end of a day knowing it’s all been a job well done. I also think its brilliant to see members, clients and visitors alike being impressed with the scale of some of our trial sites and how grateful they are for all the hard work being put in.
Tell us something that might surprise us about you
I am an avid shooter; I spend as many chances as I can at the rifle range practicing and taking part in club competitions. Another surprise is before Scottish Agronomy I was a veterinarian’s assistant in a post-mortem. A highlight of that was being involved in the post-mortem of Toto the elephant from Blair Drummond Safari. Look it up on google, there is a BBC article about old Toto from March 2016.
