Poul Hovesen has been named the 2014 Farmers Weekly Farmer of the Year. He received the award, as well as the Arable Farmer of the Year prize, from Liz Truss, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, at the Farmers Weekly Awards Night on 2 October.
 

 
Mr Hovesen (pictured) manages more than 5,000 hectares of high-yielding crops in Norfolk and Poland for Salle Farms and the Holkham Estate, with the guiding principles of building a sustainable farming strategy and using modern farming technology.
 
Mr Hovesen managed farms in his home country of Denmark before moving to the UK in 1987 to take over the role of farms and estate manager at Salle Farms, near Reepham.
 
Since then, the estate has doubled in size to 2,000 hectares as well as acquiring a further 900 hectares in Poland under his management. He is also farming director of 3,000 hectares of cropping at Holkham Estate.
 
The judges’ citation read: “Poul Hovesen is an inspiring leader for farming in so many ways. He’s developing his own young team to run every farming operation so that he can deliver the highest standards. His business insight, environment awareness and uptake of science are delivering a genuinely sustainable operation on a vast scale. His modest, but authoritative, character is influencing farming, and the wider industry, for the good of everyone.”
 
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