TKMR - Key Persons
Ben farms with his father at Avebury, near Marlborough on a 1000-acre mixed unit, comprising of arable & finishing 100 Aberdeen Angus and Hereford cattle and sheep. In addition, 1000 acres are contract farmed and rented under four different agreements. Before returning to the farm, Ben worked as an Agricultural Business Consultant for Savills in Salisbury.
Brian has been a member of TKMR since the early days, attending the first ever meeting at Basingstoke. His farming career started at 16 when he left school and went to work for Richard Porter at South Wanborough for 18mths. Then he went to work for Elliott Drainage for 12mths. After this he worked on the family farm and started doing some contracting as well. This grew to being a reasonable size business doing most operations. We stopped foraging in 1995.
Farming in house is the main business now rather than contracting. He still runs a muck spreader hire business with 3 K Two rear delivery spreaders. The farming business is spread over three farms and one rented piece of land they recently took on. They are all arable cropping. The old meadows of permanent pasture are all made into hay for the equine trade. Arable acreage is around 400 acres.
When I started DRC contracting 21 years ago it was a bit daunting as I had always been employed from the age of fifteen one of the first people I talked to was Michael who quickly convinced me to join The Thames and Kennet Machinery Ring, at first it was just the odd job but as the years went by I found more and more work even some whole farm work but I still enjoy the odd phone call from the ring asking can you just?. We nearly always find a way to do some of the oddball jobs like ten miles of pipeline bund spraying or together with Johnny Cantlay a thousand miles of pavement spraying! That one request made us scratch our heads. However we coped, I wouldn't want to work without the supportive staff at the Ring behind me now as it is an important part of my spraying business now.
Camilla graduated from the Royal Agricultural College with a degree in Property Agency and Marketing and went straight into Estate Agency. She has worked for a few agents over the last 10 years, the latest being Humberts, which she left in 2013, to have a baby. She is married to Andrew West, who is an agricultural farm contractor and have two sons. She joined TKMR in 2015 to help with the administration on a part time basis. Outside the Ring she enjoys cookery, sport and travelling and is involved with Shefford Young Farmers sitting on the Advisory Committee & Berkshire RABI.
Derek comes from three generations of farmers who farmed in Fawley, Nr Henley-on-Thames for over one hundred years. On leaving school at fifteen years of age, Derek was employed by the owners of Fawley Estate as a trainee caring for a herd of pedigree Aberdeen Angus cattle. Derek soon learned that this was not the route for him & moved onto operating farm machinery. By the time he left, some twenty years later, he was farm manager. In 1995 Derek started his own business DRC Contracting & began crop spraying and spreading across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire. Derek has been a ring member for the past twenty two years.
Geoff has been a Machinery Ring member for some twenty-five years & a Director since 2004. After a career change in his twenties, Geoff worked his way through tractor driving, farm & estate management & then farming in partnership, before starting his own company in 1999. For the next twenty years, he operated a contract farming business, cropping up to 4000 acres for nine landowners across North Hampshire & into Berkshire, on a mixture of Farm Business Tenancies, contract arrangements & stubble to stubble agreements. Geoff ‘retired' in 2019, selling all his equipment. He now has a part time job ‘just' looking after a couple of thousand acres for a non-resident landowner & mentoring a recently recruited farm manager. He was the founding Chairman & remains a Director of Hampshire Training Providers. He & Sheila have two daughters, and currently three grandchildren.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director / J H Landscapes Ltd
Whitlow Agricultural Contractors has been a member of The Thames and Kennet Machinery Ring for 20 years now. We have been more of a supplier to the Ring than a demander. Jobs can be very varied at times. We spent four months working at Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport when it was being built. Moving trailers and building equipment around the site. We run a Muck Spreader Hire business and the Ring do hire our spreaders for demanders. The Fuel ordering service offered by the Ring is excellent. One phone call to the office and the job is done. The Machinery holds a Farming Conference once a year with complimentary place for each Member including a supper. This is very well organised and they have good knowledgeable speakers on things that are relevant and topical with regards to farming practices.
Kevin lives in Oxfordshire with his partner Louise. He attended Berkshire College of Agriculture where he studied agriculture. Over 15 years ago Kevin established Pasture Care which he owns and manages. Pasture Care was originally established to look after the needs of the small equestrian establishment and despite expansion into other areas, this still forms a valuable part of the business. The business has progressed naturally into agriculture, which has now become the mainstay of the business. Whole farm contracting is something he is very passionate about, but he also offers general contracting services including drilling, tree shearing, hedge cutting and hay making, to make but a few. Outside work Kevin enjoys shooting.
Stephen is a fourth generation tenant farmer and farms 1,300 acres of rented, contracted and owned land near Henley. A beef finishing enterprise is run alongside the main arable business. Before returning home to join the family partnership in 2009, he worked as a farm manager for the Co-op Farms in Yorkshire. Stephen joined the Board of Directors in 2014, continuing a long family involvement with TKMR and he is keen to create further opportunities for our members.
Job Titles:
- Director / D & S Thompson Contracting Ltd