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Holland (Lincolnshire) NFU’s new chairman is Ian Stancer. Ian farms at Dowsdale, near Crowland with his father, on 800 acres of tenanted arable land. He takes over from Boston brassica grower, Sarah Pettitt at the NFU’s annual conference in Birmingham, next week.

Ian Stancer

Ian grows winter wheat, oilseed rape, spring beans, and sugar beet delivered to the Wissington factory. The farm is on heavy Cambridgeshire clay soil and at or only slightly above sea level. The farmed area includes some contract farmed land and is otherwise rented from several landlords, including St John’s College, Cambridge, on various Agricultural Holdings Act and Farm Business Tenancy agreements. The farm is currently entered into the Environmental Stewardship Scheme with wide field margins, buffer strips next to ditches and field corners providing an array of habitats for wildlife.

In addition to the farm, Ian also runs an internet tool business, which has been an interest for some years, beginning when a good friend was the local sales rep. for Draper tools. Ian’s agricultural engineering qualification from Holbeach agricultural college (now part of Lincoln University) is useful when he’s asked for bit sockets and nut splitters!

’When I left school, I did a day release course at Holbeach and started work on the farm with my father. Since then, life’s provided me with a wife, two children and some more land. On the farm we took the decision to become a limited company last autumn, so we’re now getting to grips with what that means. One thing it does mean: I’m a director now, not just a partner!

’My term as county chairman of Holland (Lincs) NFU will be an interesting one, both for me and for farming. I’ve studied the CAP reform proposals and can’t think of a more complicated way of reforming farming support systems, but we’re a long way from agreeing anything and with the political maelstrom whirling around Europe at the moment, the EU budget will be further under pressure than ever, so the CAP’ may end up being a 27-way tug of war!

’Two of my top priorities for the next two years are farm safety and younger farmers. On safety, we have to do something, as individuals and as an industry, to reduce the numbers of people injured and killed on our farms. We all have to take that little bit more care and perhaps take more time to decide on the best and safest way of doing a job. Otherwise what will be the consequences? More regulation?

’The next generation of farmers will have huge opportunities to produce food for a growing world population and if we can ensure farming is a prosperous and innovative industry, we will attract young people to farming and growing. As a nearly younger farmer (I’m 47), I can see why the industry hasn’t been attractive in the past, but there are so many great careers in food production, whether that’s using modern production techniques like no-till and controlled traffic farming or working in the food processing industry, further up the chain. Our industry has a valuable role to play in future and we need new blood to help us to conquer the challenges of producing more food while impacting less on the environment.’

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