Charles Abel • Membership
Industry experts join Committee Industry experts Sue Bullock and Sarah Cowlrick are newly elected members of The Farmers Club’s General Committee. Charles Abel introduces them
“The importance of the diversified business means Nigel now checks the exchange rate every morning, rather than the weather!” “It is fabulous to have a safe haven in central London – warm, comfortable and relaxing, and a focal point for intellectual debate of the key agricultural issues of the day.”
TWO new committee members joined the General Committee of The Farmers Club in January – Sarah Cowlrick from Hampshire, who sits on the newly re-named Marketing & Communications Committee, and Sue Bullock from Worcestershire, who serves on the House Committee.
Worcestershire farmer Sue Bullock brings extensive business experience, especially in rural insurance, and an involvement in Welsh hill farming.
Her career in insurance started in 1987 as assistant NFU Group Secretary/ NFU Mutual agent in Wantage. After marrying Nigel in 1989 she moved to Frizzell Countryside, insurance brokers for the CLA and HTA, in Malvern.
Worcestershire’s Sue Bullock Sue arrives with a deep knowledge of insurance, specialising in farms, estates and rural businesses, and is married to Nigel, who runs an arable farm and machinery business near Malvern.
Following a 10 year career break to raise two daughters she joined the NFU office in Pershore, becoming a partner in 2014. “The work is varied and fascinating with the broad range of services now offered by the NFU Mutual to the agricultural industry and wider market.”
She grew up on a mixed farm on the Penrhyn Estate in North Wales. “As a child I can remember the great excitement when all the local farmers grouped together to gather the thousands of sheep from the open mountain for lambing and shearing.”
Husband Nigel’s 400 acre arable farm has been in the family for 500 years, initially rented from the Foley Estate, until Nigel’s great grandmother, Emma Bullock, bought the farm as a sitting tenant. “Quite an achievement at a time when women didn’t have the vote.”
“My sisters and I still jointly own and rent out some hill land in North Wales, mainly for mountain sheep, but occasionally wild Carneddau Welsh Mountain ponies stray onto the land. Henry Vlll ordered the destruction of feral ponies that weren’t strong enough to carry knights in armour – fortunately the harsh terrain and unforgiving elements deterred his henchmen and the wild ponies have survived.”
It employed 12 staff in 1910, but the dairy is now gone and all the work is done by one man, plus an occasional contractor. Bullock Tillage, established in 2013 to sell slug pellet applicators and small seeders, now designs a comprehensive range of bespoke arable cultivation equipment, mainly manufactured in Europe.
Sue studied General Agriculture at Harper Adams followed by Advanced Farm Management at The Royal Agricultural College Cirencester. “When I arrived at Cirencester it was the fifth intake of girls, so there were just about enough to make up a ladies hockey team! Now even the Vice-Chancellor is female – Professor Joanna Price.”
08 • The Farmers Club Spring 2020
Under 30s role In 1986 Sue joined the Farmers Club Under 30s – for the farm walks and London social base – and recalls the help of senior members while an Under 30s Committee member. “The late Jim Blanchard, former Club Chairman, helped organise a farm walk in Oxfordshire and Mark and Sue Hudson (now Sir and Lady) helped us organise a farm walk in North Wales. Hugh and Fiona Fell (current
