The NFU has announced the 12 participants in its 2026/27 Poultry Industry Programme (PIP), which aims to develop leadership skills and strengthen knowledge of the poultry supply chain among the next generation of industry leaders.
Run in partnership with feed company ForFarmers, the programme offers a series of visits and training events covering different aspects of poultry meat and egg production, alongside opportunities to build professional networks and develop skills to support and advocate for the sector.
The new cohort includes producers, farm managers and professionals working across broiler production, egg production, hatcheries, feed and producer support.
The participants are David Tunks, who manages nine farms across Lincolnshire for the Applied Group; Ed Lanning, farm manager at Devonshire Poultry; Fred Liddell, an account manager at ForFarmers; and Graham Hill, poultry manager at Whittern Farms on the Herefordshire-Welsh borders.
They are joined by Hollie Brownbridge, producer support specialist at Chippendale Foods; Jack Wreathall, a seasonal turkey producer from the South East; Jolene Duggan, whose family farm combines a laying unit with beef and sheep enterprises; and Michael Hook, a management trainee at P D Hook Hatcheries in Oxfordshire.
The remaining participants are Molly Piggott, regional performance production manager at Noble Foods, who works with 35 farms across Wales and the West Midlands; Sam Douthwaite, head poultryman at Daylesford Organic; Stuart Laws, estate director at the broiler enterprise Uphouse Farm in Norfolk; and Yorkshire free-range egg producer William Bradley.
The programme begins with an introduction to the PIP and media training at NFU headquarters on 4-5 November, followed by visits to Westminster and KFC in December.
Further events will cover leadership and negotiation training, a retailer visit and Farmers for Schools training, and a trip to Brussels, including the British Agricultural Bureau and Hubbard Breeders.
Participants will also take part in supply chain visits covering broiler production in Oxfordshire, feed and egg production in Yorkshire, including ForFarmers and Chippendale Foods/Myton Food Group, and seasonal poultry production in East Anglia, including a visit to Kelly Turkeys.
Running since 2012, the programme has offered development opportunities to more than 80 young people in the poultry sector. Several alumni have gone on to join the NFU’s national Poultry Board, including its chair, Will Raw.
Ryan Dakin, PIP chair and NFU Poultry Board member for the North, said the programme had opened his eyes to the wider industry when he was a first-time poultry farmer taking his family farm in a new direction. He highlighted the networking opportunities and contacts with like-minded people it had provided.
The programme is aimed at people aged 20-40 who are active in the poultry sector in England or Wales and are members of, or employed by a member of, the NFU or NFU Cymru.
Applications for the 2026/27 cohort have closed. Those interested in future programmes can register their interest by emailing nfupoultry@nfu.org.uk.