Chief Executive: Jill Hewitt Bsc. (Hons)
"Self-motivated
and determined" - that is how Jill Hewitt describes
herself on her CV. However, whilst that is true,she hopes
that members will also find her friendly and approachable!
As the NAAC Executive Officer, she spends each day looking
for new challenges facing the contracting industry, whether
in the arable or livestock sections, and her agricultural
background certainly helps her to find practical solutions
to members' problems.
Jill was brought up on a mainly arable farm in Lincolnshire,
although from a very early age she managed to persuade her
ever tolerant parents to help her in ventures such as rearing
lambs, and eventually going into business by selling her
faithful pony to buy and rear calves (without a great deal
of profit!)
She went on to graduate from Sutton Bonnington University,
Nottingham with a degree in Agricultural Science (and a
good training in agricultural socialising!)
From there Jill spent the next 8 years as a Technical Officer
with the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) - an internationally
recognised charity, specialising in the welfare of livestock
in markets, during transport and at slaughter. The HSA takes
a rational approach to animal welfare, making real, practical
improvements through research, development, training and
education, and this rather unusual job involved her in a
variety of activities, including: visiting and auditing
abattoirs; gaining a poultryslaughter licence; liasing with
Government and industry; and media and press work. Never
a boring day - rather like the NAAC!
Whilst at the HSA, she was also awarded a Churchill Fellowship,
which allowed her two months of independent travel on a
study tour around rural China, Israel and the USA.
Joining the NAAC in February 2001, Jill had a 'baptism
by fire' with the Foot and Mouth outbreak, but is now enjoying
meeting members new and old at NAAC events.
In her spare time (although this can be limited in this
industry!) Jill enjoys training at the gym, walking her
mad spaniel and the occasional 'social' evening with her
not so 'young farmer' friends!
Office Manager: Alice Clayton
Alice
Clayton joined the NAAC when their office moved from Maldon
in Essex to Peterborough in September 2000. Her role is
specifically to look after the administration and accounts
of the Association.
Alice does not have an agricultural background,
other than a brief flirtation with Young Farmers in the
mid 70's, but has been involved with office administration
throughout her working life. Prior to being with the NAACshe
worked for the Local Council.
She has 2 children, a very large dog and very
small cat, the cat of course rules the roost! When Alice
is not working, if she gets a chance, she likes to get lost
in a book. As a family they enjoy long walks and in the
fairer weather cycling. She also loves playing cards and
can play really well when she cheats!
Development Manager: Richard Trow-Smith NDA
Richard fills a new post at the Association and is responsible for recruiting new members, promoting the NAAC to the press and providing training courses for the members. He makes a mean cup of tea as well !!
He could not escape from farming as a boy. His Dad was editor of the old Farmer and Stockbreeder while his Mum minded the family farm in North Hertfordshire, milking the cows and tending the sheep. From the age of 13 Richard wanted to follow his Dad as an agricultural journalist. His first taste of hard work came as a Seale-Hayne student on an arable farm in north Essex and combine-harvesting for a farm contractor in South Devon. Despite this, he managed to get his National Diploma in Agriculture but then promptly went to the Herts and Essex Observer in Bishops Stortford to get journalism knocked into him. For the next two years he covered anything from Mothers Union to murder.
His big break came when he went to the Farmers Weekly as a raw recruit in its Fleet Street days. Narrowly escaping the daily pub crawls, he slaved in the general newsroom before becoming the grassland correspondent in 1972 and then arable editor in 1976. It was an invaluable introduction to leading edge farming and some of the unique folk who make UK agriculture so special. He did a stint as technical editor, looking after all the technical content in the paper, before receiving an offer he could not refuse from the British Agrochemicals Association in 1986.
The BAA job was a baptism of fire into the crazy world of the national media and concern groups. It gave him white hair and the haunted look he now wears. As communications manager he had to explain the need for pesticides to every audience, from Lords and Ladies to five-year-old schoolchildren. It took him into TV studios, circus big-tops, Alton Towers, straw huts, village halls and the European Parliament. Of them all, the kids were his favourite - little girls still hate live cockroaches and the rampant sex life of aphids still enthrals 14-year-olds. The high spot was his involvement with the introduction of Integrated Crop Management in the late 1980s and he is still on the executive committee of LEAF.
A country lad for all his three-score years, Richard is a keen naturalist, roaming Britain and Europe with his wife Sue in their search for wild flowers and birds. His other love is good wine, good music and a good book, preferably all together at once.
Technical Officer: Adrian Riley
Adrian Riley is the NAAC technical officer and he’s keen to tackle the challenge of developing the NAAC’s Assurance Schemes, the three-year project which is being funded by DEFRA.
Adrian brings young blood to the NAAC team. He is 24 and but he has already crammed in a lot of farming experience. He has learnt the hard way on the family farm near Raunds in Northamptonshire. The farm ran a 90-cow milking herd plus followers until 1998 and Adrian was the relief milker who also drew the short straw of Christmas duties. Faced with a big investment bill to maintain the dairy, the family decided to switch into arable crops. They have also recently diversified into a livery yard and, as luck would have it, a young lady called Juliette stabled her horse on the farm – she and Adrian got married two months ago.
His College education has been a little unusual. He took the National Diploma Course at the Moulton agricultural college in Northamptonshire but moved to do a HND top-up at Harper Adams College. He then took the degree course on crop management when he wasn’t playing as a front-row forward for Harper’s rugby second team.
Apart from working on an arable and beef unit near Alconbury in Huntingdonshire, Adrian did his year’s practical session at Moulton on a small arable farm at Little Staughton near Bedford where he got his first taste of working for a farm contractor. “We did a lot of baling and I learnt a lot about customer relations. You get all sorts of folk as customers – some of them were easy-going but others were much more demanding – but you have to be the same to all of them.”
He also got another taste of farm contracting in New Zealand last year where he was milking 3,500 cows twice a day – no, that wasn’t a typing error …. 3,500 cows twice a day -- on a huge dairy unit. He was part of a team which included two teat-cuppers on each shift. Travelling around farms in New Zealand he was struck by the simplicity of the farming. It was usually little more than a man, a dog, a quad-bike and a milking unit but with contractors running every other operation on a unit.
Why did he want to work for the NAAC?
“I needed a new challenge; I did not want to work on a farm for someone else and this three-year project was just the career move I wanted to get my teeth into."
He has already had experience of assurance schemes.
“We were part of the ACCS scheme at home and I got to know the FABBL scheme at Alconbury. There I had to work closely with the boss to make sure all the paperwork and qualifications were up to standard for the Schemes. I was the spray man so I had to look after the chemical store and put the sprayer through the National Sprayer Testing Scheme. It certainly gives me a view of the schemes from the practical end, though I am very aware that any scheme has to be acceptable to consumer demands as well.”