Film showcases career as farm business administrator

Behind – or at the heart of – every successful farm business there’s a career as a farm business administrator (FBA). East Anglian FBA Jenny Pine wanted a film to showcase the work: invoices sent, farm bills settled, wages paid, records kept and business decisions based on accurate records. It’s a brilliant job: challenging, interesting, satisfying and worthwhile. There are many openings for people wanting to start or resume their career.

East meets West and takes the film to Wales

Our film showcasing the career as farm business administrator has been released. Firstly it was shown to a very important audience: hundreds of FBA’s from all over UK at the IAgSA (Institute of Agricultural Secretaries and Administrators) national conference in Wales.

Office to Office

Alison Cranmer is Farm Business Administrator for Hardingham Farms, Norfolk, and other businesses.

The career as rural or farm business administrator takes many forms. We went to meet Tracey Abell at work in Suffolk. She works where cows are milked and dairy products are sold direct through vending machines at Fen Farm Dairy. We went to meet Alison Cranmer at Hardingham Farms as tractors and trailers were shuttling to the harvest. We went to the heart of Bury St Edmunds to meet Hannah Stevenson at Wilson Wraight where farm business plans are hatched, refined and driven to fruition.

The film was financed by the Norfolk IAgSA branch, the Chadacre Trust and the Felix Cobbold Trust.

Step inside a farm office and you will find a powerhouse of decision-making and record-keeping. It’s been a pleasure to meet and film the much-admired, highly-valued and deeply professional women each with a satisfying career as farm business administrator. And to feel how they are at the beating heart of business on UK farms.