A farmer from Cornwall has been selected from over 300 applicants to join the biggest farmer trial ever conducted by the crop protection manufacturer, BASF.

Mike Hambly, who farms 200ha at Westcott Barton, Callington, will join 49 farmers from the UK.

Together they will undertake wheat agronomy trials as part of the Real Results Circle, ending with the gathering of wheat yield data at harvest.

The draw of the initiative has been that the trials will be conducted on growers’ own farms, under local conditions using their own machinery with the assessments being carried out by independent partners ADAS and precision mapping expert, AgSpace.

Mike grew up on the family farm and after gaining a degree in Agriculture at Harper Adams in 1985.

He worked in a number of roles within the arable sector before returning to the farm, which he now runs with his wife.

He has a wealth of technical industry knowledge, built up from some 21 years working in the supply trade, agronomy, and the grain division of Cornwall Farmers.

He is a big supporter of research company, NIABTAG, and is the technical committee chairman for Cornwall, alongside a number of high profile positions within the arable sector.

Notably in 2014, he became chairman of the NFU’s combinable crops board and South West Regional Crops Board.

He was re-elected to the position for another two years in 2016. In March 2017 Mike was also re-elected as Vice Chairman of the European Copa-Cogeca Cereals Working Group for a two-year term and he is Vice Chairman of the European Oilseed Alliance.

When it comes to the farm, Mike’s philosophy is to make the best use of the relatively limited area by maximising output and margins.

Attention to detail across all aspects of the business is key to how he achieves this, whether that is in terms of using the latest crop agronomy, precision GPS applications, or close monitoring of financial performance.

Mike is keen to share ideas with other farmers and use the resources available to help improve the profitability of his own business. He is a keen supporter of the AHDB Monitor Farm programme, and is a member of a local cereals discussion group, through which he has been benchmarking costings for the past three years. He also subscribes to the Farm Business Survey costings.

Paul Haynes, BASF’s agronomy manager for the South West, said: “The BASF Real Results Circle will allow growers like Mike to learn more about their own farm’s capabilities and to be part of a multi-location, multi-farm national trial.”