Farmer’s daughter Hollie Hunter has returned to her Suffolk roots to take up a post as trainee agronomist with Agrovista’s East Anglia team.
Miss Hunter graduated from Harper Adams University in 2021, obtaining a first-class honours degree in agriculture with crop management. The four-year course included 12 months’ work placement with Corteva Agriscience, where Hollie spent eight months in sales and marketing and four months in the trials team. Since leaving Harper Adams, Hollie has received the Royal Society of Biology’s (RSB) Top Student Award 2021.
The family farm is a mix of arable, Christmas poultry and pigs, but Hollie’s university years confirmed her ambition to become an agronomist. She joined Agrovista in September 2021 and has been shadowing senior agronomists, walking crops and embarking on setting up new business in her Norfolk/Suffolk border area, where she will provide advice on a range of crops.
“I’ve always enjoyed the arable side of farming,” said Miss Hunter. “During my work placement I met people from several different agronomy companies. I thought Agrovista seemed like a really friendly and knowledgeable team with a strong training programme. So, I approached them whilst in my last term at Harper Adams and was lucky enough to be taken on.
“It is an exciting time to be entering the industry,” she added. “There are going to be a lot of changes and young people will be needed to help drive that change.
Need for more support than ever
“Farmers will need more support than ever, so good advice that offers good value for money will be paramount. Hopefully I’ll be able to offer that support and demonstrate that I have a good understanding of what is going on in the agricultural industry.
“I love the aspect of being outside and learning on the job, whether with senior colleagues who have years of experience or with recently qualified colleagues who are really good at embracing new technology and ways of doing things.
Miss Hunter is currently training for a BASIS qualification which will be a major part of her becoming a qualified agronomist in the near future.
“Every customer I have met so far has been incredibly enthusiastic about young people coming into the industry, and this fills me with confidence for the future.”
Linda Sheppard, area sales manager for the South East who is mentoring Hollie, said: “I am proud to be working with Hollie to see her progress. She has made a positive impression on both colleagues and farmers since she started with us.
“Her hard work and enthusiasm for agronomy will take her far in her career, and she gives us much confidence in the next generation of agronomists within Agrovista.”
