Profile

I grew up on my family farm in rural Perthshire and still live and work on it in my spare time, so I have an understanding of agriculture and farmers that I bring to my job with experience in managing cereal crops, potatoes and oilseed, including practical work like operating tractor and combine harvester.

I am lucky enough to have my own house on the farm, which is great for having friends round for bbq’s. For time not taken up with farming I am a season ticket holder for St Johnstone FC (domestic cup double this year!) and play the bagpipes in Carnoustie pipe band

To summarise, I provide a link between the scientists and the farm team.

I translate the science into a format that our Field Trials Officers can easily apply and put into practice, whether that’s trial layouts, seed or fertiliser rates, or testing different chemicals in different areas. It ensures what’s going on in the fields matches the academic side and ensures all the clever work done by scientists is tested in practice.

I also contribute to the ecological sciences department, where I have input into projects, report writing and data processing from large scale field trials. As well as my wealth of knowledge from my degree in agriculture and professional qualifications, the scientists also benefit from my first-hand farming experience which can help to avoid any practical issues that might have been missed out if it was purely academic input.

With visits and through some projects I am involved in engaging with farmers in support of the science, whether to explain the trials work to interested parties or integrating them into project work for large scale monitoring programmes.