The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board has appointed four new members to the HGCA Board. Robert Lasseter, Paul Temple, George Lawrie and Charles Matts will take their posts on April 1, 2013. They replace outgoing grower board members Arthur Hill, Rad Thomas, Stewart Vernon and Colin West.
Jonathan Tipples, HGCA chairman, said: “I am delighted to welcome Paul, Robert, George and Charles onto the Board and look forward to working with them in the future. It was a very difficult selection process due to the high calibre of applicants, which is testament to the value the industry places on our work.”
Robert Lasseter farms 160 hectares in Dorset, running a four-year rotation of winter wheat, spring barley, winter barley and oilseed rape as well as breeding Freedom Food finished pigs. He is a Nuffield scholar and is actively involved with the National Farmers Union, where he currently sits on the national crops board and has previously served as regional board chairman and on the governance board. He is a non-executive director at Wessex Grain.
Paul Temple farms 312 hectares in partnership on the East Yorkshire Wolds, producing cereals for seed, oilseed rape, vegetables and beef. The farm has participated in the GM Field Scale Evaluation trials and is part of the Higher Level Stewardship scheme. Paul is a past vice president for the National Farmers Union, chairman of the COPA COGECA Cereals, Oilseeds & Protein Group and founder of the European Biotech Forum. He currently sits on the National Non Food Crops Centre Board.
George Lawrie grows spring barley for seed in partnership with his brother on their family farm in Kinross, Perthshire. He has worked extensively with the NFU Scotland, where he is treasurer, past chair of the Land Use and Environment Committee and also represents NFU Scotland on HGCA’s Research and Knowledge Transfer Committee. He is chairman of Scottish Agronomy, a co-op based in East Scotland that provides trials and advice to members, who farm around 50,000 hectares of cereals and potatoes.
Charles Matts farms in a family partnership on 630 acres in Northamptonshire, mainly growing arable crops alongside sheep on a permanent pasture. He is managing director of the Brixworth Farming Company, a farm management company responsible for 6,500 acres of combinable crops and founder of the Joint Venture Farming Group. Charles is Chairman of the NFU Mutual Midlands Regional Advisory Board and a member of the Agricultural Land Tribunal.
