Contributors

  • andrew Andrew BlakeAndrew Blake graduated from Wye College in 1967 with a degree in agriculture and managed farms for nearly 20 years, starting with hops and top fruit in Kent followed by large scale arable operations in Wiltshire.He then moved on to journalism, initially as machinery correspondent with British Farmer & Stockbreeder, and he was deputy editor of Farmers Weekly’s Arable desk for over 20 years.As a member of the British Guild of Agricultural Journalists he won the Yara Arable Journalists Award in 2005 and 2014; and in 2006 he won the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists’ Star Prize for an article on one farmer’s approach to the single farm payment scheme.Andrew remains a freelance writer, contributing articles to several publications, including Arable Farming and Crop Production Magazine as well as Tillage.
  • martin Martin RickatsonFor the past seven years Martin Rickatson has been working independently as a freelance journalist specialising in farm machinery and agronomy. Prior to this, he spent seven years as deputy editor of the farm machinery monthly Profi International and two years as arable editor and machinery writer with Farming News. He has a practical back ground in arable farming from his family’s farms in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, in addition to working on arable farms in Herts, Beds, Kent and New Zealand, and holds a degree in agricultural business management from Wye College.
  • Derek Casey Derek CaseyDerek Casey graduated with a first class honours degree in Agricultural Science and Engineering Technology from University College Dublin in 2006. Derek, who comes from a farming background in Co Waterford in the south east of Ireland, has been machinery editor of the Irish Independent Farming section since 2012. The Irish Independent is Ireland’s biggest selling daily newspaper, with an average daily circulation of 112,502 copies. Derek has a special interest in new machinery developments capable of enhancing farm safety and reducing the level of accidents and farm fatalities taking place on the family farm. He has judged several farming quality competitions, including the 2015 Farmer of the Year competition held in Dublin.Prior to working for the Irish Independent newspaper, Derek worked as both a machinery correspondent and machinery editor of the Irish Farmers Journal for five years. The Irish Farmers Journal is a well-respected weekly farming title with an average circulation of 75,000 copies.
  • kingMarion King is working for Tillage magazine as news and features editor covering a range of editorial opportunities from farm walks and open days to press launches and key UK agricultural events.

A member of the British Guild of Agricultural Journalists and Chartered Institute of Public Relations for over 20 years, she also provides public relations support for the Institution of Agricultural Engineers.

She has a long career writing in the agricultural sector, having previously worked for Perkins Engines and Caterpillar as Marketing Communications Manager.

 

  • JWsmallerJonathan Wheeler was brought up in a farming community in Somerset and trained as a journalist on weekly newspapers – the Glamorgan Gazette and Port Talbot Guardian – before moving to the Leicester Mercury, one of the biggest evening papers in the country.He became the paper’s Agricultural Correspondent in 1981, writing for both it and its sister paper, the Leicestershire Advertiser, before going freelance and working for all the main farming magazines.After spells as RASE Press Officer and as a director of RDP Ltd, a leading marketing agency, he returned to freelancing again in 2000.Jonathan has won prizes from the Guild of Agricultural Journalists for both writing and photography.