Yara UK welcomes Jon Gooden as Head of Crop Nutrition Services, the company's retail business segment which sells its portfolio of products direct to farm customers. As part of his role, Jon will be overseeing a team of Farm Account Managers who provide agronomic crop nutrition expertise, supporting growers to maximise yield potentials by consulting on their full nutritional needs.

Jon brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the role, having gained practical experience of working on-farm in his early career. He then moved into commercial roles in his mid-20s which focused on recycling products to land and their important role in increasing Organic matter levels to support soil health. This gave Jon a strong grounding in soil nutrition and health, and sustainable crop production which he carried into his most recent role, working as National Sales Manager for SOYL, a leading precision farming business. 

For the last 12 and a half years, Jon worked with farmers throughout the South East, enabling them to enhance yields, reducing costs and making their business more sustainable and resilient. He believes in taking a consultancy approach with farm customers, which he will bring to Yara. "It's being that direct link at the farm gate that excites me most, and being a key trusted partner to our customers, because we're all aligned to the same goal. My ambition is to enable the team to have the right skills and technical competencies so that we are able to help our customers with the challenges that come along," he says. 

As someone who's always had a keen interest in soil nutrition and how to grow profitable crops sustainably, accepting a role at Yara was a natural choice. "Yara is leading the way in responsible fertiliser production. They have over 100 years of knowledge and science that underpins everything they do, and they know where they want to get to in terms of driving sustainable performance for growers. There's a belief that they can make a real difference, and it's exciting to be a part of it," he adds.