Tim Isaac
Partner at Ceres Rural and CEO of Ceres Research
Tim achieved a first-class degree in Agricultural Business Management at Wye College before starting his career as a farm consultant. He subsequently gained a Diploma in Rural Surveying and qualified as an Agricultural Valuer. He went on to become the East Region Surveyor for the CLA, advising and representing members on all aspects of land and farm business management, before joining the AHDB as their Regional Manager. Tim pioneered the Monitor Farm programme in East Anglia and took on responsibility for managing the national arable team. He was then appointed Director of Knowledge Exchange with responsibility for the network of Strategic Farms, Monitor Farms, discussion groups and technical events in all sectors across the UK and was awarded Fellowship of the Institute of Agricultural Management. Tim is now a partner and farming consultant at Ceres Rural where he leads national projects on sustainability, regenerative agriculture and strategic business advice with BASIS qualifications in Sustainable Land Management and Soil & Water. He is also the CEO of Ceres Research which aims to bridge the gap between innovation and on farm adoption through a range of data driven and membership services. Tim has chaired a number of farming organisations and events, sits on various industry committees and was previously the President of Essex Agricultural Valuers’ Association. He lives on his own small livestock farm with his family.
Tom Allen-Stevens
Farmer and Founder of Bofin
Tom Allen-Stevens is an arable farmer and founder of BOFIN (www.bofin.org.uk). He is an award-winning journalist with 23 years’ experience in communicating to an arable farming audience and collaborating with farmers on field trials. He has focused on conveying technical innovations, especially in plant breeding, to a more progressive farming audience, including early adopters. He is a former director and chair of the Oxford Farming Conference with a family farm in Oxfordshire. BOFIN is a network of more than 740 members who carry out on-farm trials, looking for a more scientific approach to progressing farm practice; 51% of the membership are farmers, and the remainder are scientists, knowledge exchange managers, tech innovators and the ‘just curious’. BOFIN has a number of projects underway, including the Nitrogen Efficient Plants for Climate Smart Arable Cropping Systems (NCS) project, Strategies Leading to Improved Management and Enhanced Resilience against Slugs (SLIMERS), (soil/root health), ‘slug-resistant’ wheat, harvest weed seed control and soil fungal communities.
Morning Session
Sarah Kendall
Crop Physiologist, ADAS
Sarah has worked at ADAS as a crop physiologist for 13 years, after completing her PhD at the University of York. Sarah grew up on an arable farm in East Yorkshire and now lives on a mixed farm in Nottinghamshire. Sarah has a keen interest in understanding factors affecting cereal and oilseed rape yields, and how this understanding can be used by growers to make improvements. She is keen to support growers in optimising their crop nutrition strategies through improved measurements.
Mario Caccamo
CEO of NIAB
In addition to his role as CEO of Niab, Mario also holds an honorary professorship at the University of East Anglia. Mario is also Director of the Oxford Farming Conference. He has over 20 years’ experience in life science research, including specific projects genetics and bioinformatics methods to advance our understanding of crop performance. At Niab, Mario leads more than 350 crop scientists, agronomists and pathologists focused on addressing the challenges of food security, climate change and sustainable agriculture and horticulture. Mario actively engages with policymakers to create an enabling environment for science-based innovation. He serves on Defra’s Precision Breeding Working Group, helping to implement the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act in England, and is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture, contributing to the 30:50:50 vision to strengthen UK food security while reducing environmental impact.
Christina Baxter
Senior Research Consultant, ADAS
Christina joined the crop physiology team at ADAS in 2017 after completing a PhD at the University of Reading, investigating improving rooting at depth in wheat through introgression of land races. Christina’s role at ADAS predominantly focuses on improving crop root systems to better capture water and nutrient resources through both genetic and management approaches. Additional areas of research include calculating greenhouse gas emissions associated with crop production, with the aim of working with growers and the wider industry to reduce the environmental impact of cropping while sustaining or improving yields.
Pete Berry
Co-lead of Crop Physiology, ADAS
Pete is a Crop Physiologist who has worked at ADAS for 22 years and co-leads the ADAS Crop Physiology team. He is based at ADAS High Mowthorpe in North Yorkshire. Prior to this he worked as a post-doctoral researcher in crop science at Nottingham University. The main aim of his work is to improve performance and reduce pollution of cropping systems. His goal is to produce sound practical advice for the farming industry which is based on high quality research. Important areas of his research include; increasing crop yields sustainably, optimising crop nutrition, minimising greenhouse gases, precision farming technologies, lodging control & plant growth regulation. He works on a wide range of crops including all cereals, oilseed rape and grassland in the UK and overseas.
Todd Jex
Agronomist & Technical Advisor for Regenerative Farming - Agrii
Todd graduated from Harper Adams in 2011 with a BSc (Hons) degree in agriculture with crop management. He also holds the BASIS diploma in agronomy and Harper Adams University graduate diploma in agronomy. He has worked as an agronomist in southern England since graduating, covering a large acreage of predominantly combinable and forage crops. Within Agrii, he is the national technical adviser for regenerative farming. He coordinates trials locally with a particular focus on soil health and crop nutrition, also using his bees to observe interaction between broad-leaved crops and pollinators. He was the winner of the Farmers Weekly Awards Arable Advisor of the year 2023 and National Arable and Grassland Awards Young Agronomist of the year 2024.
Dmitry Feoktistov
Sustainability and Climate Change Adviser, NFU
Dmitry is the Sustainability and Climate Change Adviser, having joined in 2025. The main focus of this role is developing a climate adaptation policy which adequately reflects the needs of NFU members and shape UK adaptation policy. Prior to this, he led a climate campaign at an international NGO, working with UK banks to improve their agricultural sustainability policies. He holds an MSc in Food Security from the University of Edinburgh, where he had a particular focus on soil science.
Afternoon Session
Tom Allen-Stevens
Tom Allen-Stevens is an arable farmer and founder of BOFIN, he is an award-winning journalist with 23 years’ experience in communications to an arable farming audience and collaborating with farmers on field trials. He has focused on conveying technical innovations, especially in plant-breeding, to a more progressive farming audience, including early adopters. He is a former director and chair of Oxford Farming Conference with a family farm in Oxfordshire. BOFIN is a network of 740+ members who carry out on-farm trials, looking for a more scientific approach to progressing farm practice. 51% of the membership are farmers with scientists, knowledge exchange managers, tech innovators and the “just curious”. BOFIN has a number of projects underway, including The NCS Project, SLIMERS, TRUTH (soil/root health), “slug-resistant” wheat, harvest weed seed control and soil fungal communities. www.bofin.org.uk
Sarah Clarke
Co-lead of Crop Physiology, ADAS
Sarah has been a crop physiologist at ADAS since 2008 and now co-leads the group. Her practical farmSarah has been a crop physiologist at ADAS since 2008 and now co-leads the group. Her practical farming background means she is keen to improve the physiological understanding, agronomy and sustainable productivity of crops for growers and the agricultural supply chain. She has particular interests in grain quality and oats physiology/agronomy. Sarah currently leads the ADOPT Support hub, supporting farmers, facilitators and organisations with ADOPT funding applications, projects and KE.
Roger Sylvester-Bradley
Head of Crop Performance, ADAS
After working more than 50 years in crop science, Roger was awarded the RASE’s Science & Technology medal in September 2025 for “such a significant and wide-reaching impact on farm practice”. He still believes we need to act urgently to enhance crop yields globally and is delighted with the enthusiastic support from both industry and academia for the YEN initiative.
Thomas Wilkinson
Senior Crop Research Consultant, ADAS
Tom is a crop physiology research consultant at ADAS, based in Nottinghamshire. Tom has worked on break crops such as oilseed rape, field beans and combining peas at ADAS for six years. Before this, he gained his PhD investigating the symbiotic interactions between soil-fungi and plants, focusing on nutrient delivery and pest tolerance. Tom is a technical lead for the Pulse and Oilseed YENs, which aim to understand how best to optimise crop performance. Tom has contributed to past and current AHDB projects investigating tolerance of OSR to CSFB. Tom also works on understanding the wider benefits that legumes can bring through the Nitrogen Climate Smart and LegumES projects, such as through nitrogen provision to the rotation and other ecosystem services.
Charlotte White
Senior Crop Research Consultant, ADAS
Charlotte joined ADAS Crop physiology in 2011 after gaining her her PhD from the University of Nottingham on the water use efficiency of tomatoes. Charlotte works on a variety of projects which focus on root systems, water use, and improving yield through an understanding of crop physiology, breeding and agronomy. Charlotte has achieved the Basis Soil and Water Management certificate, is convener of the AAB soil and root biology group and Engagement Officer for the ISRR. Charlotte’s particular interests include plant root systems and the rhizosphere, crop water use, legumes and cover cropping and the impact of these on soils and crop performance.
David Hawcroft
Technical Agronomist, BASF
I am a Technical Agronomist for BASF manging the region of Yorkshire. My role is to carry out R&D crop trials focusing on development and demonstration work. The development work looks at how pre approved chemistry can be registered to meet current standards and the demonstration work is to run a range of scenarios to further enhance our technical advice offered to wider agronomy. I also work and manage my families carbon neutral farming business which is based between 20 miles south east of York. We grow a range of combinable crops alongside other diversified enterprises which include a large scale chicken unit and a tourism business. My driving force is a real passion for food production, maximising output whilst protecting the environment.
Paul Barnes
Estate Manager, South Ormsby Estate & Walmsgate Estate
Paul has been the estate manager for South Ormsby estate since 2017 covering in-hand farming, property, and woodlands. The estate covers some 3000 acres of which 1800 acres is managed in-hand and farmed organically. The estate runs a mixed rotation, integrating the organic/pasture for life herd of single population Lincoln Red Cattle. The estate has a diverse range of interests from gin production to our newly planted vineyard. In 2024 we purchased Walmsgate Estate adding a further 1900 acres of arable, grass and woodland, currently managed with regenerative practices with a view to convert to organic status over the next three years
Peter Southwell
Grower, East Yorkshire
Peter has been farming on the East Yorkshire Wolds for over 32 years, working alongside his parents and wife. Growing cereals, OSR and vining peas, the farm focuses on efficiency and attention to detail to drive profitability. Peter is BASIS and FACTS trained and regularly hosts trials for academic and industry organisations. Outside of farming, Peter is an avid hiker and climber - when not encumbered by a broken leg.
Daniel Kindred
Agronomic Scientist, ARC
Daniel grew up on an arable farm, studied agriculture at University of Nottingham and obtained a PhD in Agronomy from Reading University. He worked as a Crop Physiologist for ADAS for 18 years, working to understand yield and nutrient requirements of arable crops, developing expertise in nitrogen responses, biofuels, crop GHG emissions, sensing technologies and precision farming. Daniel is proud to have been involved in the initiation of the YEN in 2012, and in the development of Agronomics and FarmPEP approaches to on-farm research and knowledge exchange. In 2023 Daniel joined Anglo American Crop Nutrients as Crop Scientist, helping to understand, innovate and improve nutrient performance. From 2025 Daniel is looking to support on-farm research in understanding what works on-farm, through experimentation, evidence and exchange.
Erin Matlock
Research Agronomist, PGRO
Erin Matlock is a Research Agronomist at PGRO, specialising in pulse and legume crop production. With a background in both practical farming and applied research, Erin has over 15 years’ experience supporting growers in the UK and internationally, including time advising pulse producers in Canada. At PGRO, she works closely with farmers and industry partners to deliver field-based research, variety evaluations and knowledge exchange, and is actively involved in the Pulse Yield Enhancement Network (YEN). Her interests include sustainable agronomy, integrated pest and disease management, and improving pulse crop performance on farm.