David Baker Farms was established as a contract farming business 30 years ago by David Baker. It was incorporated as a limited company in 2005. David’s son, Matthew, joined the business in 1997 having completed an Honours degree in Agriculture with Crop Science from Harper Adams University College. Shortly after he studied for a BASIS qualification to enable all agronomy work to be undertaken in-house. Matthew now has day to day responsibility for running the business.
The business was established to undertake whole farm contract arrangements for local landowners. Farms currently under contract stretch from Ringsfield in the east to Diss in the west, mainly along the Waveney Valley.
Many of these contracts have been held for more than 25 years. During this time the business has worked closely alongside the landowners to establish Countryside Stewardship and latterly Entry Level and Higher Level Schemes. One off contract operations are also undertaken on a further 200 hectares annually.
The business has always been profitable, and even with the low commodity prices of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s it remained so, and delivered a financial return to its landowners.
Our workforce is extremely loyal, dedicated to the job in hand and well trained. They total 5 in number. Three of whom have been with the business for over 20 years each.
David Baker Farms was formed in 1980 soon after large farming insurance companies abandoned agriculture as part of their investment portfolio, and as land prices fell private investors were able to invest into land and achieve a return from their investment.
To this day David Baker Farms continues to farm all the farms which formed part of its founding in 1980.
David Baker Farms is run by David and Matthew Baker as Directors, and is backed up four long serving full time employees who have a combined total of years served in excess of 175 years on the land, and two part time office and accounts staff.
Temporary staff during the busy harvest period, are also long serving and we are very grateful to them for coming back year after year, ensuring we meet all our drilling deadlines in good time.
Matthew, David’s son, joined the business in 1997 having completed an Honours degree in Agriculture with Crop Science from Harper Adams University College. Shortly after he studied for a BASIS qualification to enable all agronomy work to be undertaken in-house. Matthew now has day to day responsibility for running the business.
Becky joined the family business in 2011 after having a career change to fit into family life. Previously a Chartered Quantity Surveyor Becky now works in the farm office, doing the books etc, working alongside Matthew.
Cathryn joined the company during 2013 and works closely with Becky as book-keeper and administrator for the business. She deals with all our farming clients and is a willing member of the team.
Bimbo has been with the business for nearly 30 years. He is our foreman and experienced with all farming activities. He is a combine operator and ploughman.
Stuart has worked for the company for over 20 years. He is a highly skilled spray operator, drill-man and combine operator.
David has been with us for over 10 years. He is our lorry driver and we are able to deliver most of our produce with our own lorry.
We are fully Red Tractor assured.
David Baker Farms has been a contract farming business since 1981. The business was established to undertake whole farm contracting agreements for local land owners and one off contract operations for other farmers when required. Many of these contracts have been held for more than 30 years.
During that time the business has continued to work well with its landowners to ensure high returns are achieved consistently. This is through the use of modern machinery to allow the optimum timing of cultivations, application of products and harvesting. To this end a modern machinery fleet is kept up to date to minimise downtime during the increasingly intense harvest period.