I live and work on a farm in the Lincolnshire Wolds with my parents.
The farm is mixed, with two-thirds in an arable rotation and the remaining third in grazing.
The grazing is split 50:50 between the sheep and cattle (Hereford suckler herd), with the sheep being my main area of interest and workload.
After leaving school, I headed north to Newcastle University to study agriculture, but was still undecided on the right career path.
I headed off to New Zealand and Australia, once I graduated, for two of our winters, where I worked on a dairy run-off and a cereal and beef farm.
Both countries provided me with such a learning curve to farming and how I would approach challenges we face at home.
Through my own sheep flock, my passion for genetics really grew. A job at Signet Breeding services soon became available and I was lucky enough to get it.
It was fantastic to work for Signet and being on both sides of the service has given me a real insight into the value of the service and work, and the people that work there.
Genetics is my passion. I really do feel it is key to making our farms more resilient, productive and environmentally positive in the future.
The sheep and selective breeding process is fantastic to see.
The beauty of the sheep industry is the control each producer has over their genetics, which has a big impact on the flock's overall performance.
This year we lambed around 550 sheep; 100 lleyn ewe lambs, 100 Hampshire downs and 350 lleyn ewes.
All the sheep are performance recorded, except the lleyn ewe lambs — which are negatively recorded and lambed outside in April and May.
The aim of both flocks is to produce rams that are bred to perform in a commercial setting with high performance of grazing alone.
None of the sheep get any special treatment to allow the best genetics to rise to the top.
To help validate the work we have been doing, we have entered a number of rams into the RamCompare project.
I have been pleased with the results so far, with our rams achieving some great results in the project.
As a farmer, there are always challenges and events out of your control.
I am a big believer in controlling what we can impact which is why I focus on genetics.
I think genetics will be an important part of increasing productivity and profitability and help improve the genetic and health and welfare credentials of our flocks.
