Agrovista has added to its agronomy team in south Lincolnshire with the appointment of experienced agronomist Harry Pitcher.

After growing up on a typical south Lincolnshire silt land farm growing veg and arable crops, alongside a herd of pedigree Limousin cattle, Harry studied farm management and agronomy at Newcastle University.

It led him into a job in farm management, but, having taken BASIS and FACTS qualifications, he realised that much of the technical decision making around growing crops laid with the agronomists he was employing.

“The variety of crops and situations they were seeing drew me to wanting to take a full-time role in agronomy,” Harry explains.

“I joined Frontier Agriculture in 2016 and never looked back.”

He switched to working for Agrovista in April, after being attracted by the firm’s focus on agronomy. Covering an area from Bourne to Wisbech, Harry helps farmers with agronomy advice on sugar beet, potatoes, cereals and other combinable crops.

“I like that Agrovista is a company that revolves around agronomy, rather than being pulled in lots of different directions,” Harry says. “As an agronomist you really want to work in an environment where the deliveries, warehouse space and support staff are all built around servicing agronomy advice, and that’s exactly what Agrovista provides.”

It also includes excellent technical support from the business, with small and large plot trials results, and the outstanding Lamport AgX trials site. “The support is much more than ‘here’s data from one trial, now go and sell a product’,” he stresses. “There’s a wide range of trials over a variety of different conditions that helps you know how, where and why to use a product.”

He’s also been impressed in his first few months by the direction set by the management team. “They really understand what farmers want and need and so steer the business in that direction. There doesn’t seem to be any micromanaging, which successful agronomists rarely need, which makes for a happy team,” Harry says.

“When everybody in the company speaks highly of working for the company, it’s hugely motivational.”

Agrovista commercial director Jon Tanner has been delighted by how Harry has seamlessly fitted in at Agrovista. “It’s a challenging time for arable farmers, and they look to agronomists like Harry to help them navigate a way through.

“Harry’s focus on doing just that is one of the reasons we were pleased he decided to move to Agrovista as we expand our business in Lincolnshire.”