Farm manager of the year and skilled in the art of delegation

Tour offers EAS members an insight into large-scale farming Norfolk style

Farming tours might appear to be all about seeing crops and livestock in another part of the country, but in fact they are much more about meeting interesting people.

That was certainly the case recently when the Edinburgh Agricultural Society (EAS) travelled to Norfolk and in particular to Salle Estate near Cromer to meet Poul Hovesen, this year’s Farmers Weekly Farmer of the Year.

Superficially it was easy to see why he had won the award. The 2,000-hectare all-arable farm is nothing short of immaculate in terms of crops, buildings, hedges and roads.

The fascinating aspect, however, was Poul’s attitude to running the business and his skilful use of the art of delegation.

A cheerful Dane, he first came to work at Salle (pronounced “Saul”) with present owner Sir John White in 1991 and has since become not only farms manager but estates manager also.

The White family, whose fortune came from a chain of chemists’ shops, have owned Salle and its magnificent Georgian mansion since 1890.

Although Sir John was away from home it is clear that he has devotion to the place and its traditions. He obviously also has built up a close rapport with his manager and that is no doubt hugely beneficial.

It was, however, Poul’s nurturing of his management team that impressed the EAS visitors. He took care to introduce his second-in-command, crops manager James Beamish, and allow him plenty of scope to explain what he was doing.

The impression was that although Poul was in charge, he had confidence that his staff knew what they were doing and had “bought-in” to the farming philosophy.

The same approach was beginning to pay dividends on another 900ha run under the Salle Farms Co banner in Poland.

Poul explained that this had been a difficult enterprise to manage. He had tried an English manager who had farming ability but did not speak Polish. Then he tried a Pole who struggled with the farming.

Eventually the young Polish lady who was keeping the farm accounts said to Poul: “I think I could do the job.”

He had a hunch that maybe she could and since then she has run the operation exactly according to Poul’s instructions, reporting back regularly to Norfolk by phone.

This deft approach to delegation is now being brought into play on an even bigger scale at Holkham Hall, another of Norfolk’s great farming estates.

Part of a much larger holding including 4,000 hectares of coastal nature reserve and various tourism enterprises based around the hall itself, the farming enterprise totals 3,000 hectares. The land is an amalgam of seven farms belonging to individual members of the Earl of Leicester’s family.

Each farm had been run individually until 1996 when the management of the farming operations was brought together under the Holkham Farming Company banner.

Holkham is a place with an honourable history, being the home of the Norfolk four-course rotation as devised by John Coke, the first Earl of Leicester.

Now though it is a modern agribusiness and the directors, having seen what Poul was achieving at Salle, asked his employer if he could be made available for two days each week to act as farm’s director at Holkham.

The sheer size would frighten most people but it was clear that three years on Poul was already using the same blend of delegation, encouragement and trust to build up a competent management team.

Attention to detail is his watchword with particular attention paid to avoiding soil damage.

He said: “Land should not be left compacted for a minute more than necessary. A poorly established crop sometimes succeeds but a well established one never fails.”

He made it all sound deceptively simple.

Poul Hovesen, centre, and his wife Alison with Edinburgh Agricultural Society members on the steps of Salle Hall.