Velcourt started it’s farming operations in 1967 farming land which belonged to other Landowners.

We stated at the beginning that land ownership and the farming operation on that land were two distinct activities with totally different objectives. Many Landowners were beginning to realise that profitable farming required specialist skills and expertise. Velcourt set out to supply the skills and the necessary expertise to people and institutions that wished to own land without taking the risks inherent in farming themselves.

From the outset Velcourt took its reward from a share of the profit it generated from the farming operation creating a genuine Partnership between the land owner and itself. As operator, providing the labour, the skills and in many cases the working capital necessary for a successful farming business.

With eyes and ears wide open, we made it our business to travel far and wide to find the most appropriate science based ideas.

By the mid 70’s we had established our own technical department capable of sifting ideas and turning them into practical crop growing programs. For example:

• A 4.2 tonne/ha average wheat yield in 1974 was transformed into a 10 tonne average within 4 years. The key lay in disciplined and very carefully thought out crop growing programs for every crop grown, allied to attention to the detail of every part of the crop growing operation.

In 1975 we created a forum to disseminate the developing expertise to others in the industry.  In that year we held in conjunction with BASF, the first of our “Conservation through Profitable Farming” farm based exhibitions, attended by many hundreds of farmers who flocked to Knotting Green Farm in Bedfordshire. This concept survives to the present day with major exhibits at the annual “Cereals” events.

The Technical department is now recognised by many organisations throughout agriculture, including DEFRA, and is used by them to research the application of new techniques.

We pioneered the development of crop growing programmes which brought together plant nutrition, disease control and plant growth regulation. These and many other developments have been the key to increasing yield over the past 30 years and, for example, we were primarily responsible for bringing tramlining of crops, to the UK, greatly improving the precision of application of pesticides and fertilisers.

In addition we pioneered the development of crop growing programs which brought together Plant Nutrition, disease control and plant growth regulation. This has been the key to increasing yield over the past 30 years.

All of this would not have been possible without the right people. Velcourt has always been a peoples company. Looking after people is a high priority. The turnover in staff is very low and we are proud to know that our training scheme and training programs have become the industry standard.

Over the years we have developed systems and programs in technology and financial control which have enabled us to bring real commercial organisation to an industry otherwise renowned for its lack of controls.