Welcome by chair

John F D Hoy FRICS, Chief Executive , Blenheim Palace 

John Hoy, aged 53, is an unusual combination of farmer, Chartered Surveyor and senior leisure manager.

Heavily involved in the family farm in North Hertfordshire, John qualified as a Chartered Surveyor upon leaving the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester in 1979.     

John joined Humberts (Chartered Surveyors) in 1979 and spent 5 years on the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex as the Assistant Resident Land Agent.    In 1984, John moved up to Hertfordshire as the Agent & General Manager for the Knebworth Estate where he enjoyed a successful 13 years overseeing and running every aspect of the Estate.

At the end of 1997, John left Humberts & Knebworth to join The Tussaud’s Group.   His first role was at Warwick Castle as Head of Operations (and for a time, Head of Retail) and he was then promoted internally to become General Manager of Madame Tussaud’s as from March 2000 and this proved to be a hugely rewarding and challenging role over the next two years.

John left Tussaud’s at the end of February 2002 and then worked for the National Museums of Science & Industry in a consultancy capacity driving secondary spend and commercial opportunities through until January 2003.

In January 2003, John was appointed to his current post as Chief Executive of the Blenheim Estate where he has assumed responsibility for the overall management and running of this prestigious estate. Huge progress has already been achieved in "refreshing" every aspect of the business - much remains to be done to fully unlock the potential that exists.

Coping with Government and EU Red Tape - A Farmers Guide

As both a farm and rural business consultant and as past chair of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs committee of the National Federation of Young Farmer’s Clubs which lobbied for reducing the red tape Douglas is well versed to look at all aspects of government and EU red-tape including SPS, ESS, NVZ, soil protection reviews, CC, waste management regulations and much more!

Douglas Jackson, Farm and Rural Business Consultant, Laurence Gould Partnership

Douglas Jackson is a Farm and Rural Business Consultant for Laurence Gould Partnership based in their Southern England office.  Douglas joined Laurence Gould in 2005 and provides technical and strategic business advice to a range of landowners, farming businesses and government bodies including DEFRA, the National Audit Office, the Welsh Assembly, the United Kingdom Vineyards Association, GlaxoSmithKline and the National Trust.  Douglas specialises in organic farm management, strategic business reviews and environmental management.

Douglas trained at Writtle Agricultural College during which time he also worked for Bidwells Agri-Business Consultants.  Following university Douglas joined Savills PLC before moving to Laurence Gould. Douglas has worked for livestock and arable businesses across East Anglia, the North West of England and Southern England.

In 2009 Douglas was the Chairman for the Agricultural and Rural Affairs for the National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs. He is the regional co-ordinator for the Fresh Start Academies and sits on the national Steering Group. Douglas is Chief Pig Steward for the Heathfield and District Agricultural Society and sits on two South of England Agricultural Society Committees.

Farm Management Accounting Issues

Budgets, cash flow and use of management accounts to successfully improve profitability

Dr Florey will draw upon his recent work which considered measures of financial success and what financial indicators most influence that measure. The session will have an applied practical approach and will share ideas and strategies to assist delegates in the land based sector.

Dr Barie Florey, Head of the Rural Affairs and Environment Department, Harper Adams University College

Dr Barrie Florey is Head of Rural Affairs & Environment Department at Harper Adams University College.  Barrie studied at the Royal Agricultural College and University of Wales, Bangor.  Initially Barrie lectured in agriculture at Bishop Burton College of Agriculture before gaining industry experience within farm managerial and advisory roles.  Following this Barrie returned to academia lecturing in farm business management at Walford College of Agriculture.  He then went onto work in the Banking Sector as a Regional Agricultural Manager for AMC where he was involved in the financial assessment of a whole range of farm based businesses together with public relations and marketing activities.  Barrie joined Harper Adams in 1996 and has extensive experience of academic development and lecturing to both under and postgraduate students and the development and delivery of short courses specialising in business analysis, planning and risk assessment developed for farmers, professionals and practitioners in industry.

Barrie has a PhD in Agricultural Economics; he is a Farmers Club Charitable Trust Scholar and a Fellow of the Institute of Learning and Teaching.  Barrie’s research interests include business performance indicators and risk management.

Diversification and the modern farm 

A look at alternative income streams

• What is diversification?  Is this a help or hindrance?
• Utilisation of resources
• Aspects and categories of diversification
• Practical case management studies on Sentry diversification

Robert Kilby, Regional Business Manager South East, Sentry

Robert Kilby joined Sentry in 1985 as an Assistant Manager on a mixed dairy, sheep and arable farm in Gloucestershire, rapidly progressing to Manager after 6 months. After 3 years Robert moved to an arable farm in Wiltshire, before moving in 1992 to his present farm in Kent. Robert is Business Manager for the overall business at Whelan Farms, but also oversees and manages a further 7,000 acres in Surrey and Kent on 3 separate units. He advises on 3 other smaller units also.

Robert is also Sentry's Grain Marketing Strategist, monitoring trends within and outside the company and advising on sales and policies.

Managing human resources

This session will look at managing your human resources before, during and when employment ends and will cover:

• Effective recruitment and interviewing
• Putting in place the basics. A look at references, contracts, probation etc. 
• Getting  the best from those you employ - managing by objectives, maximising performance
• Dealing with difficulties including absence, disciplinary, poor performance etc.
  
• Fair dismissal including redundancy
  

Toni Trevett, Director, HR Solutions

Toni Trevett is a Director of CompleteHR Ltd, an HR consultant, coach and trainer specialising in management development and HR skills as well as employment law issues.  She also lectures and tutors students studying for their master degree equivalent CIPD examinations. She has experience of working with a variety of large and small organisations and has considerable experience of work in both the public and private sector.  She was formerly a Human Resources Director within the BAA plc group. She is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a member with 15+ years standing of the Employment Tribunal judiciary.  In addition she conducts investigations and hearings for clients on disciplinary, grievance, discrimination, harassment and bullying issues and is a qualified workplace mediator.

Clients vary from Westminster City Council to Network Rail and from British American Tobacco to the Bodyshop.

Lunch

Succession planning steps and checklists

Family business succession is the elephant in the room. Everyone knows it's there but no one wants to talk about it. Having a clear, well thought out succession plan is one of the primary responsibilities of a family business owner and yet few do anything about it. Succession will happen. Either it is a well planned process or it is an event that costs money and often destroys good family relationships Anecdotal evidence suggest that at least 1 in 4 farming families in the UK are not speaking to a member of the family due to succession issues. An exaggeration? I still come across farm businesses where Granddad signs all the cheques and he's over 80!.

Siân Bushell, Director Sian Bushell Associates

Siân Bushell facilitates Family Business Meetings throughout the UK and Ireland and is also in demand as a speaker and trainer.

She was a director of a very successful dairy farm for over 20 years.

In 2005 Siân graduated with a master degress in Business Administration. In 2006 she travelled to Australia to be trained by Lyn Sykes as a Family Business Meeting Facilitator. Having experienced the issues of succession first hand as a farmers daughter and daughter in law Siân recognised the need for this kind of help for family businesses.

 A to Z Legal Round up

This session will look at the key issues affecting farms and estates in the areas of:

• Health and Safety Regulations
• Current Employment Law
• Sale and Purchase
• Tenancies
• Rights of Way
• Contract Disputes
• Boundary Disputes

Fred Harrison-James, Associate, Loxley Agricultural Solicitors

Fred Harrison-James specialises in litigation and advising on disputes involving rural land and farming businesses. After studying law at the universities of Oxford and Exeter, Fred trained as a solicitor with Burges Salmon. He joined Loxley as an Associate in April 2010. Fred regularly advises on property and agricultural holdings disputes, farming partnership dissolutions, insolvency issues and public and EU law.

Loxley is a niche legal practice, formed in 2007 to meet the diverse needs of owners and occupiers of rural land. Providing expert advice on the law affecting the agricultural sector, the firm specialises in all aspects of property litigation and non-contentious property work.

Restoring the balance 

A look at how farms can meet their individual needs in producing food and fuel whilst achieving effective conservation

Peter Danks, BSc (Hons). CEnv MIAgrE MBIAC AIEMA

Divisional Chairman BIAC and Director of Reading Agricultural Consultants

Peter Danks is an agri-environmentalist, with a practical background in agricultural engineering gained through working for two major international suppliers of irrigation and pollution control equipment. Since joining Reading Agricultural Consultants in 1986 he has mainly been concerned with the impact of agriculture on the environment principally through livestock related development, waste management, spray irrigation, water supply and soil water matters, latterly working on environmental research projects with RACEnvironment.

He is a Chartered Environmentalist, Director of Reading Agricultural Consultants and Director of RACEnvironment, Chair of the British Institute of Agricultural Consultants' Environment Division, Chair of the National Farm Waste Management Register, and a member of the Environment Agency's Thames Regional Environmental Policy Advisory Committee. For 17 years until 2007 he was an elected Trustee and member of the Board of Management of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

With colleagues, he has undertaken research for the Environment Agency and Water UK into the impact of outdoor pig production and pesticide use on groundwater. With RACEnvironment he has lead projects to identify the flow of materials and resources in the UK pig and poultry supply chains, and assessed the feasibility of a county-based farm waste collection scheme, funded by the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme. With RAC, working with the British Pig Executive he has prepared an Environment Strategy for the UK pig industry, and for the National Farmers Union has produced an analysis of the likely impact of a proposed Nitrates Action Plan on livestock farmers.

Peter's main interests are in the resource efficiency of livestock farming and the peaceful coexistence of livestock units and country dwellers at a time of rapid change in the dairy, pig and poultry sectors that is leading to larger livestocks units that take advantage of economies of scale.

How smooth is innocence - sound marketing strategies to reconnect with the consumer

Rob Garrett – operations consultant for Peak Choice Ltd and Collette Burk, Peak Choice Cooperative

With a background in marketing and business development across both agricultural/forestry and non agricultural sectors, rob has been working with Peak Choice since March 20009 and is involved with the day to day operation of the co-operative and input into strategic planning/direction, having recently restructured the business and negotiated a distribution agreement for the Peak Choice brand.

Brought up on a mixed livestock and arable farm in Suffolk Rob left agricultural college in 1989 and started a national commercial forestry harvesting business which he sold in 1997. Moving to Yorkshire in 1999 to take the position of Marketing Manager for an EU/MAFF funded farm woodland initiative “Yorwoods”,  Rob was involved in the distribution of capital grants, marketing of forest products and overseeing farm woodland and environmental projects.

Diversifying into hospitality in 2001 as Operations Manager of a family owned 48 bedroom hotel in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, where the opportunity was taken to hone his business development skill, cumulating in the sale of the hotel in 2007 with an increase in asset value of 200%.

Moving to Derbyshire in 2007 Rob formed Artaine Ltd a small investment company targeting the environmental sector and is actively pursuing investment opportunities alongside consultancy work for peak Choice and others.

Colette Burke 

Colette Burke worked for Cadbury Schweppes for 25 years prior to a decision taken in 2003 to focus on the agricultural sector.

A marketing professional, she held general management positions in diverse markets including chocolate, food and soft drinks; has extensive experience of change management programmes; and has been closely involved with major acquisitions

Upon moving into the agricultural sector she completed a Masters degree in Farm Management at the Royal Agricultural College then founded Land Strategies, a marketing and business consultancy which explores added value opportunities for livestock farmers.

Colette also blogs regularly on consumer issues of relevance to food and farming.

She and her brother farm in the uplands of Peeblesshire, with a herd of 30 pedigree Luing suckler cows and 400 Scotch Mule ewes.