McCormick Farm Manager of the Year award goes to Oxfordshire estate
07/12/06

Adrian Cannon, who runs farming and other enterprises on the Great Tew Estate at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire has been named McCormick Tractors Farm Manager of the Year in a national awards scheme.

Adrian Cannon (centre) of Great Tew Estate, Oxfordshire, received his Farm Manager of the Year accolade from BBC news reader Fiona Bruce and Jeremy Lamb, UK sales director, McCormick Tractors International Ltd.

In the five years since his appointment as manager, Adrian has transformed what the award judges describe as “a somewhat parochial business” into a leading example of a commercial English estate, fit for 2006 and beyond.

Farming operations have been restructured to reduce costs and improve profitability; staff members have been trained to develop new skills; and alternative sources of income, such as quarrying, a rally enterprise that makes use of poor land and simulated game shoots, have been established to ensure the estate’s commercial viability.

The Farm Manager of the Year award, sponsored by UK-based tractor manufacturer McCormick, is one of a series of national awards that recognise achievers in the agricultural industry and celebrate the success stories of farming in Britain.

“We sponsored the award this year because farming should not be afraid to trumpet its successes,” says McCormick sales director, Jeremy Lamb. “Just as we strive for success in producing tractors that give farmers a performance edge, so many farmers and farm managers work hard and imaginatively to make a successful contribution to the country’s food production and care of the country environment.”

According to the independent judges of the Farm Manager of the Year, Adrian Cannon has shown originality in developing and promoting the estate’s diversification projects while recognising the estate’s environmental responsibility and its role in a village community. His vision makes him an ambassador for the estate and the agricultural industry as a whole, they say.

The awards were presented at a glittering event in London last week hosted by the publishing house Reed Business Information.

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