Sector council ratification vote 2024

Matthew Curry is Managing Director of North East Grains, a farmer-owned cooperative based in Northumberland.  The cooperative runs two sites, providing grain drying and storage to its 100-plus members. In addition, the cooperative operates a members input buying group, an agronomy service, and large livestock feed production enterprise.  Matthew, a farmer’s son originally from the Scottish Borders, is a qualified agronomist. He also completed the Worshipful Company Farmers Business Management course in 2018 and was previously an independent judge for the Farmers Weekly annual awards. By joining the Sector Council, he hopes to provide transparency and return value to the levy payer, enhance the Knowledge Exchange element of AHDB and help drive food production communication.

Anna Bowen is a fifth-generation dairy farmer whose family own the century- old Lan herd of pedigree Holsteins. However, she has embarked on her own farming career and farms 300 spring block calving cows through a contract farming agreement in Ceredigion. The herd aims to produce just under 500kg of milk solids per cow from just over a tonne of concentrate feed, with a focus on healthy, happy cows producing milk from grazed grass. They are a Forage For Knowledge farm for Ceredigion. Anna also works for The Andersons Centre as a dairy consultant, a role which involves financial, technical and strategic consultancy, as well as facilitating eight dairy discussion groups. She is a 2021 Nuffield Scholar and now sits on the board of trustees, as well as being a scholar mentor and report editor.

Emma Furnival is a seasoned dairy farmer, co-managing a 230-acre dairy farm in North Shropshire alongside her husband, Steve. They also oversee a 110-acre young stock rearing unit in Staffordshire. Together, they manage a herd of 340 Friesian crossbred cows, milked twice daily in a herringbone parlour, operating under a spring block calving system. Emma holds a business degree and has a strong commercial background in corporate business. She has successfully applied these skills to the farm, optimising animal health, enhancing operational efficiencies, and improving financial planning and people management. Emma is actively involved in two farm discussion groups, enjoying the opportunity to stay updated on industry changes, innovation, and best practices. In addition to her farming responsibilities, Emma serves as the Cheshire District Chair for Arla, where she actively supports fellow farmers. She is also a trust director for a local primary multi-academy trust, driven by her passion for education.

Andrew Rutter manages the dairy herd at Clayden Holsteins. He worked at Genus for 18 years, 15 of those as a sire analyst, before he was given the opportunity to come home. He now farms in partnership with his parents and sister just outside Crewe in Cheshire, where they milk 400 pedigree Holsteins with 450 followers. He is particularly interested in the role genetics plays in breeding more efficient, robust, healthy and, ultimately, profitable cattle and has tailored their breeding programme to mirror this. In his spare time he enjoys reading and watching films, and is an avid F1 and Aston Villa fan.

Andy Warne was Managing Director of National Milk Records plc (NMR) for over 20 years, stepping down in 2023 to follow his interests both inside and outside of the UK dairy sector. At NMR, Andy gained extensive experience of managing the complementary and sometimes adversarial needs of diverse customer groups, with farmers and milk buyers as customers, and vets, retailers and government agencies as data partners. He is positive about the prospects for UK dairy, as illustrated by the inward investment by UK milk processors, but has a thorough understanding of the environmental and commercial challenges that face the sector. He believes that AHDB has a key role to play in navigating these challenges. 

Jim Brisby was born in Yorkshire. His grandfather was involved in arable and mixed farming, while his father had a life-long career in the pig industry and running a breeding company. After university, Jim joined Cranswick in 1995 and was subsequently appointed to the PLC main board as Sales and Marketing Director in 2010. He became Commercial Director in 2014 and then Chief Commercial Officer in 2022. Jim has been a key member of the team responsible for the growth of the group and development of its commercial strategy, leading the commercial relationships with the group's retail and foodservice customers, as well as its marketing and innovation plans.

Ben Harman is a fourth-generation farmer with a mixed farm of 385 ha spread over four sites in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire. He has both pedigree and commercial cattle and retails meat through his ‘Chagyu^TM’ brand. Ben is a former Chair of the British Charolais Society and the British Cattle Breeders Club, is an NBA board member and sits on various boards including CHeCS (the Cattle Health Certification Scheme).

Mark Jelley is a commercial beef producer with a herd of 90 suckler cows in Northamptonshire. He runs a closed herd using AI to breed replacements and taking all finishing stock through to slaughter. The family farm also grows 350 acres of cereals and pulses, hosts a holiday cottage business and has several renewable energy projects. Mark is a former AHDB strategic farm host and has a keen interest in ruminant health and welfare. He is Chairman of the Cattle Antibiotic Guardian Group at RUMA, a farmer representative on the Veterinary Products Committee at the VMD and has contributed to Defra policy work too. 

James MacCartney is a mixed sheep and beef farmer from Rutland. He has a purebred flock of 800 Lleyn ewes and fattens 250 dairy beef cattle annually, as well as a diversified business with a background of direct-to-consumer sales. James is a Nuffield Scholar, who has studied ways in which the beef and lamb sector can respond to the rising environmental concerns of customers. He is passionate about ensuring a profitable future for farming businesses and believes that a focus on profitability rather than productivity, and cooperation amongst strong rural networks has an important role to play.  

Tamara Pickstock is one of the directors at Pickstock Foods and has over 15 years of experience in the meat industry, during which time she completed a PgC in Meat Business Management at Harper Adams University. Brought up working in the family business and on the family farm, she has hands-on experience in both sheep farming, and mutton and lamb processing, specifically within operations, finance, sales and marketing roles.