Who is Ceres Rural?
Ceres Rural is a leading rural consultancy providing smart business solutions to progressive farmers, landowners and the rural economy, guided by science, and truly independent advice. They have offices in Saffron Walden, Oxford and Norwich, from which they service a large proportion of the South, South East and East of England.
What kind of work does Ceres Rural do?
Ceres Rural offers its clients a full scope of experience-led farming consultancy, technical support and business management. Their independent advice and services are delivered by qualified professionals, who are experts in tailoring unique solutions in line with clients’ specific requirements and means.
Who works for Ceres Rural?
Ceres Rural is run and managed by nine ambitious and distinguished consultants, who are each a Partner in the business. Alongside the Partners are a team of highly skilled Associate Partners, Farming Consultants and support staff.
Ceres Rural employs individuals of all levels, including graduates and entry level starters. Where required, training is offered to employees in order to ensure they personally develop the specific skillset they need to enhance their career and value to the business.
Ceres Rural is an equal employer and is proactively seeking to increase the number of women working in agriculture. Ceres Rural is also committed to encouraging diversity within the business, and the industry more broadly.
Meet some of their team
Charlie Ireland – Managing Partner
Charlie has 20 years of experience providing leading farm management and consultancy advice to clients across the West and South East of England. He specialises in farm management and strategic planning. Implementing the plans is the exciting part of the job, making a real difference to the future of a business.
Charlie is a registered agricultural valuer, qualified agronomist ICM & BETA and has been a local board member of the GWCT. Charlie advises a number of high profile and high net worth clients, including Jeremy Clarkson.
He loves spending time with his family and will soon struggle to come to terms with the fact his sons are faster, stronger and hit a cricket ball further than he can!
Jock Willmott – Partner
Jock is a specialist in crop management, agronomic technical direction, arable benchmarking and machinery restructuring. With extensive experience of growing arable crops across East Anglia, Jock’s passion is achieving high yielding crops for his clients.
Jock graduated from Harper Adams with an honors degree in Land and Farm Management. He is BASIS & FACTS qualified and a member of the Association of Independent Crop Consultants.
In 2022, Jock was named Arable Advisor of the Year at the Farmers Weekly Awards, a prestigious accolade that recognises his position as a leader in our rural industry and a talented agronomist and farming consultant.
Alice Andrews – Associate Partner
Alice is a qualified farming consultant providing farm management advice with a keen focus on agronomy and crop management. Her client base covers Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire encompassing a great variety of farms in terms of size, enterprise type and soil characteristics.
Alice studied Biological Science as an undergraduate at the University of Leeds, focusing on plant breeding and crop genetics. She then completed a Master's degree in Sustainable Agriculture at Harper Adams University before starting work as an agronomist. Her interest in the sustainability of farming has developed into a real passion for regenerative agriculture, in particular its practical implementation on UK farms. She is increasingly involved with clients enhancing soil health in order to facilitate the reduction of artificial inputs in both arable and mixed systems.
When not at work, Alice still likes to be outside as much as possible. She enjoys long-distance running, horse riding and exploring the UK countryside with her agronomy assistant, (yellow labrador) Buddy.
Ben Bates – Associate
Ben studied Economics at the University of York for his bachelor’s degree, before working within the pharmaceutical industry as a health economist at the start of his career. Having been brought up on the family farm in Cambridgeshire, agriculture has always been a passion of Ben’s and he quickly completed his BASIS foundation course in Agriculture and undertook a more active role on the farm.
Ben has now completed his BASIS qualification in Crop Protection and is heading onto FACTS and CAAV qualifications. Ben majors in benchmarking, as well as stewardship and grant schemes.
In his spare time, Ben is a keen sportsman who can often be found plying his trade at Shelford Rugby Club during the winter months, and at the village green playing cricket before harvest!
Katie Crawford – Farming Consultant
Katie recently joined the Norwich team, working with a range of clients across Norfolk and Suffolk. She has a keen interest in the natural environment and enjoys combining her interests in regenerative farming systems with her advisory role.
Katie graduated from the University of York in 2020 with an Honours degree in Environmental Science. Since then Katie has specialised in Environmental Stewardship, including the preparation and management of applications and agreements. She has recently obtained her BASIS foundation award in Agronomy and her BETA Conservation Management Environmental Specialism certificate, and looks forward to completing her BASIS and FACTS qualifications.
Outside of work Katie enjoys being outdoors as much as possible, often following her father round the family farm. Most weekends she can be found on a hockey pitch over winter, or on a beach in the summer.
Charlotte Button – Office Manager/PA
Charlotte has happily spent her whole career within the farming industry and is thoroughly enjoying the challenge of keeping the Ceres team in line!
She enjoys being the first point of contact for our clients, with a passion for farming and helping Ceres Rural to deliver a first class service.
She is a countryside and fresh air enthusiast and can be found at the beach in any weather with her two daughters. However, when it comes to running, it’s a strictly fair-weather policy!
