Derek
Knight
England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative
I originate from Montrose, Angus, Scotland and spent every holiday on farms in this area, famed for seed potatoes and soft fruit. I studied Agriculture at Aberdeen University graduating in 1974. For three years, I worked as a Farm Manager in East Lothian on a horticultural unit growing a wide range of vegetables, and two years in Aberdeenshire looking after a pig fattening unit producing 22,000 pigs to bacon each year.
From 1978 to 1984, I managed a cereal farm and potato storage enterprise in Lincolnshire, after which I returned to college to undertake a Postgraduate Diploma in Farm Business Organisation & Management. In 1987, I joined ADAS at Beverley to provide crop and business advice to farmers in the East Riding of Yorkshire. I developed a large portfolio of clients and was involved with the agronomy for ADAS High Mowthorpe, where I also developed an interest in organic production.
In 2004, I joined the Rural Development Service as a Project Based Schemes adviser dealing with applications for farm diversification. Since 2006, I have been working as Catchment Sensitive Farming Officer for the East Riding of Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire. This predominately arable area has a large pig and poultry sector and my previous experience enables me to persuade farmers of the environmental and financial benefits for their businesses of good manure practices.
