Claydon Drills has appointed James Owen as territory manager for the North of England and Scotland.

Reporting to Rob Dunk, Claydon’s sales manager, he will be working with the company’s dealers to look after existing and potential customers in an area north of a line from the River Humber to Rochdale, in Lancashire.

James began his career in 2001 and his interests in machinery and technology took him, in 2014, to become area sales manager for SoilEssentials, the Angus-based precision farming solutions business. Latterly, James spent three years working for Agco dealer, Peacock and Binnington, before moving to John Deere's RBM Agriculture, in East Yorkshire, subsequently acquired by Ripon Farm Services.

“I am delighted to be working for Claydon Drills, which is a well-respected family-owned business that is recognised as the leader in strip seeding technology,” he said. “I am looking forward to working with and supporting all our dealers and customers in the area and already in my first few weeks with the company have been involved with a number of well-attended, socially-distanced working demonstrations.

"These were held in conjunction with two of our dealers, Rickerby, which sells and supports Claydon products in the North-east/North-west of England and South of Scotland, together with Robert D Webster which represents us in East Yorkshire, parts of South Yorkshire, and North Lincolnshire.

“Farmers are looking for ways to reduce production costs without compromising yields and the Claydon Opti-Till system enables them to achieve that. Many are now seriously considering moving on from traditional plough-based and min-till methods to a much more time, cost, and resource-efficient system which significantly benefits soil structure and health," he said.

Rob Dunk added: “James will help to increase our representation throughout the UK at a time when interest in Claydon products has never been greater because of increasing legislative, economic and climate-related challenges facing the farming industry.”