Arable, beef and sheep farmer, Chris Parker becomes NFU county chairman in Leicestershire, Northants and Rutland this week. He takes over from Ros Turner, from Stonesby, Melton Mowbray, after the NFU’s annual conference on Tuesday and Wednesday, 15 and 16 February, in Birmingham.
Chris, who farms around 1,000 acres at Weston by Welland, near Market Harborough, produces beef, sheep, wheat, oilseed rape, barley and forage maize. 600 acres of the farm are down to permanent grass. Home Farm is also part of the Higher Level Environmental Stewardship (HLS) Scheme, preserving the ancient ridge and furrow grassland on the farm and providing many and varied habitats for farmland flora and fauna.
During his two years as chairman, Chris wants to inspire people to get involved in NFU work to make it more relevant to their businesses and to have their say in shaping farming’s future.
"The outlook for world food production and the likely speed of population growth has made agricultural policy and farming much more relevant and important for everyone," states Chris. "Agriculture has been in the backwaters of both domestic and world politics for 20 years, but with a greater awareness of the need to produce more food and with an injection of investment, especially in research and development, farming will become a dynamic contributor to the UK economy.
"Society has changed so that many people now have little or no connection with the countryside or food production and there’s definitely a generation gap in the agricultural workforce. Younger people from many walks of life have a brilliant opportunity to take our industry forward. Some will not have thought of a career in the industry, but there are good opportunities to work in our countryside and within farming to ensure that we can meet the challenges of producing food for our growing world population, whilst at the same time, not harming the landscape and natural assets that farming strives to preserve."
Chris has been involved with NFU at a local, regional and national level for many years. He is a past Market Harborough branch chairman, delegate to NFU’s national livestock committee and is currently a member of the regional livestock board. He becomes a delegate to NFU’s national Council, together with Caldecott, Rutland farmer, Andrew Brown.
