About The Maize Growers Association

Michael Jarmuz

Michael Jarmuz is Chairman of the MGA alongside his role of Feedstock Development Lead with Future Biogas LTD. 
A qualified agronomist, Michael has advised growers across Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire across a range of crops but has always had a strong interest in maize.
Michael’s role with Future Biogas sees him working with a large number of new and existing maize growers predominantly across the East of England.

Will Oliver

Will Oliver, Arable and Poultry farmer from Leicestershire. Will is our Vice Chairman. And also sits on the NFU Combinable Crops Board. Will is our “Grain Maize” representative. Utilising the crop as an effective break crops. Working alongside SFI, Will is making the most out of cover crops, companion cropping, hoeing to ensure maize is grown sustainably and improving soil Health at the same time.
As one of our youngest members Will is a very passionate grower and hopefully will be involved with the MGA for years to come.

Kate Baker

Kate is operations manager for the MGA and has been working for the organisation for the last 3 and a half years. Kate’s role involves not only running the MGA office but also attending and organising events and helping to run trial sites. Kate is based in Devon where the MGA office is located.

Neil Groom

MGA Council Member and Technical Director for Grainseed Ltd, Neil Groom will review aspects of the MGA research programme. Neil’s experience and

knowledge gained from his time heading up the maize work at NIAB and subsequently for Grainseed Ltd is considerable and practical.

Jon Myhill

Jon is the Technical Lead for the Maize Growers Association. He has extensive experience optimising maize production, nutrient management, and soil health. Jon is passionate about sustainable agriculture and is committed to providing practical solutions that benefit farmers and the environment.

John Morgan

John Morgan is the founder and co-director of independent agricultural/environmental consultants Creedy Associates Ltd being based in the south west of England. John has been very involved with the MGA for many years most recently as head of the MGA office team. John continues to work with farm and other businesses with a focus on financial and environmentally sustainable agriculture. Key interests include forage, nutrient and financial management. Alongside his agricultural interests John is a non-exec director of Plymouth Argyle Football club.

Michael Christensen

Michael farms with his brother Neil at Steanbow Farms in Pilton, Somerset. The mixed farm specialises in poultry, dairy and arable.  Steanbow Farms also host the South West Dairy Centre (AgriTech Ltd) at Beardhill Farm and have a service contract which integrates 3 Lely Robots with 200 Holstein cows, on a Sainsburys contract. Arable cropping is in rotation with grass, maize and wheat to feed to the livestock on farm and a developing enterprise selling forage. Diversification involves commercial rentals, Glastonbury Festival and new to the business, Holt Farm Camping.

Graeme Cock

Graeme has been involved with the Maize Growers Association for many years. He feels it is a brilliant organisation to be involved with. Graeme's farming business with his family  and is based in the South Hams, Devon. The dairy herd is a split block system producing circa 5 million litres of milk annually, which is sold through the farmer-owned business, and European based cooperative, Arla. The other enterprises include rearing of all the replacement youngstock for the dairy unit. The arable area grows forage maize for the dairy herd. If we consistently grow maize responsibly, as an industry, it has a very exciting, meaningful and powerful future, both for forage and grain production.

John Tingey

John grows around 500ha of maize annually in North West Gloucestershire on a mixture of rented and share cropped land, that on which he provides agronomy and spraying services. His particular interest is in research to provide MGA members with independent technical advice on cost effective maize growing. He has a long association with farmer funded trial organisations has been a former Chairman of the Cirencester NIABTAG Centre and Rothamsted Research Association.

Ellie Sweetman-Roberts

Ellie Robert's has a background in mixed farming and agricultural education. Ellie is NIAB's Forage Crop Specialist, overseeing the maize and other forage crops national variety list trial programmes along with forage systems research. Ellie's areas of interest include soil-crop-animal interactions and the economic and environmental sustainability of UK livestock systems.

Stephen Temple

Stephen is from a North Norfolk family farm.He has a B.Sc Agriculture (Reading), M.Sc Agricultural Engineering (Newcastle). When his father died in 2005 Stephen became a farmer. He put in a biogas plant in 2009, was awarded Farmers Weekly Green Energy Farmer in 2010 which resulted in being invited to speak at the MGA Conference in 2011, and the following year being invited onto Council. After first visiting Groundswell in 2019 the farm went fully direct drill/strip till and full cover crops.

John Jackson

John Jackson is farms manager for Severn Trent Water Ltd.He is charged with managing 3 main arable farms equating to 4500 acres. He is also the manager an energy crop AD plant at Stoke Bardolph for Severn Trent Green Power Ltd.- that uses 89,000 tonnes of feedstock made up of maize silage, whole crop Rye silage and cereals. John has gained great knowledge of converting silages, especially maize, into energy in the form of electricity and upgraded gas direct into the local grid. John has been the MGA chairman 2 separate occasions.