Episode 24

Episode 24 From Tanks to Tractors with Jeremy Gibbs and Will Foster

In this episode Chris Biddle talks to two people with fascinating accounts on how ex service personnel find fulfilling careers in agriculture after leaving the services.

After training at Sparsholt Agricultural College in Hampshire and Harper Adams University, Jeremy Gibbs joined John Deere where he worked in both the agricultural and turf machinery divisions based in the UK and Germany. After several roles in training and product management, he left Deere after almost 10 years and two years ago set up Forces Farming which acts a liaison between service personnel leaving the forces and job opportunities in the agricultural sector

Will Foster spent 23 years in Army, most recently as a Technical Trainer on tanks and other armoured vehicles based at the British Army’s Centre for Excellence for fighting vehicles at Bovington Camp in Dorset. On leaving the Forces at the age of 39 he decided to rekindle his childhood passions for toy soldiers and tractors. He met colleagues who told him that agricultural engineering was ‘cool',  and last year he gained a post as a service technician working for leading AGCO dealership, Chandlers Farm Equipment.

Visit Forces Farming website

About the Podcast

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INSIDE AGRI-TURF
The farm and grass machinery business

About your host

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Chris Biddle

Chris is an experienced journalist specialising in the farm and grass machinery market. He has worked for a major tractor manufacturer and been a managing director of a farm and grass machinery dealership in the West Country.
In 1988, he launched trade magazine, Service Dealer followed by TurfPro in 1998, selling both titles to Land Power Publications in 2015.
He was editor of Landwards, the professional journal of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) from 2008 until 2019 and is the recipient of the 2020 IAgrE Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Land-Based industry.
Chris lives in Salisbury with his wife Trish, and is an avid cricket fan and member of the MCC for over 55 years.