About The Maize Growers Association

Michael Jarmuz

Michael Jarmuz is Chairman of the MGA alongside his role of Feedstock Development Lead with Future Biogas LTD.
A qualified agronomist, Michael has advised growers across Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and
Nottinghamshire across a range of crops but has always had a strong interest in maize.
 

Michael’s role with Future Biogas sees him working with a large number of new and existing maize growers predominantly across the East of...????

John Morgan

John Morgan is the founder and co-director of independent agricultural/environmental consultants
Creedy Associates Ltd being based in the south west of England.

John has been very involved with
the MGA for many years most recently as head of the MGA office team. John continues to work with farm and other businesses with a focus on financial and environmentally sustainable agriculture.

Key interests include forage, nutrient and financial management. Alongside his agricultural interests John
is a non-exec director of Plymouth Argyle Football club.

Michael Christensen

Michael farms with his brother Neil at Steanbow Farms in Pilton, Somerset. The mixed farm specialises in poultry, dairy and arable. Broiler chickens are sold through Avara with twelve sheds
over three sites.

Steanbow Farms also host the South West Dairy Centre (AgriTech Ltd) at Beardhill Farm and have a service contract which integrates 3 Lely Robots with 200 Holstein cows, on a Sainsburys contract.

Arable cropping is in rotation with grass, maize and wheat to feed to the livestock on farm and a developing enterprise selling forage. Diversification involves commercial rentals, Glastonbury Festival and new to the business, Holt Farm Camping.

Jon Myhill

Jon is the Technical Lead for the Maize Growers Association and

Head of Feedstock and Digestate Management at BioWatt. He has extensive experience

optimising maize production, nutrient management, and soil health. Jon is passionate about sustainable agriculture and is committed to providing practical solutions that benefit farmers and the environment.

Graeme Cock

I have been involved with the Maize Growers Association since xxx and been on the council for many
years. It has been a brilliant organisation to be involved with. Graeme's farming business with his wife Fiona, son Peter, daughter Beverley, and her fiancé Nathan is based in the South Hams, Devon.
The dairy herd is a split block system producing circa 5 million litres of milk annually, which is sold through the farmer-owned business, and European based cooperative, Arla. The other enterprises include rearing of all the replacement youngstock for the dairy unit. All the beef calves from the
dairy enterprise are reared alongside the heifers and taken through to finishing, some of which are reared as young bulls. The arable area grows forage maize for the dairy herd, fodder beet which is
grazed during outwintering with all classes of livestock including dry cows, in-calf heifers and some of the beef animals. Cereals are mainly winter barley with some winter wheat and spring barley.
Herbal leys are being introduced on most grassland areas. If we consistently grow maize responsibly, as an industry, it has a very exciting, meaningful and powerful future, both for forage and grain
production.

Kate Baker

I have been working for the MGA for the last 3 and a half years. I started one day a week to help with the admin, that quickly became 3 days a week. 2 years ago, I became the full-time operations
manager for the MGA.I run the MGA office from Devon but go all over the country for different events and to help promote the MGA. Before this I was a retail manager for the National Trust for 7
years.

Neil Groom

MGA Council Member and Technical Director for Grainseed Ltd, Neil Groom will review aspects of the MGA research programme. Neil’s experience and

knowledge gained from his time heading up the maize work at NIAB and subsequently for Grainseed Ltd is considerable and practical.

John Tingey

I am growing around 500ha of maize annually in North West Gloucestershire (mostly for animal feed) on a mixture of rented and share cropped land and that on which I provide agronomy and
spraying services. My particular interest is in research to provide MGA members with independent technical advice on cost effective maize growing. I have a long association with farmer funded trial
organisations having been a former Chairman of the Cirencester NIABTAG Centre and Rothamsted Research Association.

Ellie Sweetman-Roberts

Ellie Roberts has a background in mixed farming and agricultural education. Ellie is Niab's Forage Crop Specialist, overseeing the maize and other forage crops national variety list trial programmes along with forage systems research. Ellie's areas of interest include soil-crop-animal interactions and
the economic and environmental sustainability of UK livestock systems.

Stephen Temple

From a North Norfolk family farm. B.Sc Agriculture (Reading), M.Sc Agricultural Engineering (Newcastle).
Worked for 2 years at the Scottish Institute for Agricultural Engineering, then two years teaching Agricultural Engineering at the University of Malawi. I had a year break back at the farm where I built a new farm workshop, then back to the University of Malawi for 7 years. From there I went to the Tobacco Research Authority of Malawi for 4 years, instrumenting tobacco barns in order to reduce the fuelwood consumption. Then to the south of Malawi for 9 years at the Tea Research Foundation, helping to build a research tea factory then doing research in tea drying ending up with a Ph.D from Wageningen on Control of Fluidized Bed Tea Drying. Back to the farm, I developed and manufactured the Barn Owl grainstore monitoring system, and made energy efficiency improvements. When my father died in 2005 I became a farmer. I put in a biogas plant in 2009, was awarded Farmers Weekly Green Energy Farmer in 2010 which resulted in being invited to speak at the MGA Conference in 2011, and the following year being invited onto Council. After first visiting Groundswell in 2019 we went fully direct drill/strip till and full cover crops.