The Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s latest intake of Pathfinders are embarking on their development journeys as part our Goodall Agri-Development Pathway.
This fully-funded training programme supports the development of farming’s next generation.
It helps young people to develop their skills and experience, improve their performance and prepare for enhanced responsibilities as their career in agriculture evolves.
Scroll down this page to read introductions to our 2026 Pathfinders.
For more details about the Pathway, please click on the button below.
Introducing our 2026 Pathfinders
Tim Clappison runs the family farm in Hull. Having started it back up from scratch in 2018, he is looking for new ways to progress and expand his farming and contracting business.
Tim believes that meeting and learning from others in a positive environment can propel a business forward and open doors to new opportunities.
Emma Lawson works on farm at home in Sedgefield, County Durham, comprising of a 200-acre arable and sheep enterprise. Emma is also self-employed, working on a dairy farm feeding calves and doing contract tractor work, as well as contract shepherding during busy periods of the sheep calendar.
Emma is looking forward to learning new skills that will stand her in good stead for running the farm at home in future and to refreshing skills she learnt at university and put them into better practice.
Matthew Dobson, from Tadcaster, is a soil sampler for regenerative consultancy and soil sampling company, Terra Farmer, and works alongside his father on the farm on weekends.
Matthew is looking forward to building up his knowledge, industry contacts and broadening his understanding of what is involved in working efficiently as part of a team.
Tristan Else, from Scarborough, works on his family’s dairy farm, carrying out day-to-day duties and managing the staff who work on the farm.
Tristan has joined the Pathway to gain more knowledge about business management and the financial side of running a company.
Ben Graham is a farm foreman on a large scale mixed farm and a partner in his family’s mixed farm in Helmsley.
Ben is looking to the Pathway to develop his skills in business management, HR and man-management.
Alicia Martin works for Frontier agriculture as an environmental crops advisor and procurement lead of environmental seed and lends a hand on the family farm at home in Great Ayton, which is a mixed farm of arable, sheep and beef cattle.
She is also a member of the Future Farmers of Yorkshire Management Board.
Peter Newton is a first-generation farmer in Holmfirth who is keen to further hone his cattle health and management skills and to make new connections in the industry.
Caroline Rhodes works on the family farm in Barnsley which grows winter milling wheat for Warburtons, as well as winter beans and spring barley and beans, and has a flock of 37 ewes of mixed breeds, whose lambs are finished on cover crops. She also works in the café at Holmfirth livestock market.
Caroline is particularly looking forward to honing her people management and farm administration skills during her time on the Pathway.
Megan Schofield from Skipton works on the family farm and at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority as a Farming In Protected Landscapes Officer.
Megan is seeking to grow her confidence to navigate running a farm as a young female, and to pursue multiple income streams on the farm.
Jonny Slack is a first generation dairy farmer in Penrith, Cumbria, where he milks 540 cows on a rented farm in the Eden valley in partnership with another local farmer.
Jonny is looking to bolster his skills as he steps further into the financial side of the business.
Elizabeth Spencer from Rotherham works on her family’s mixed farm with her father and uncle. Alongside arable, they have a commercial flock of sheep and a pedigree flock of Dutch Spotted sheep.
With no formal farm specific training, Elizabeth is looking to the Pathway to develop her farming knowledge and to help shape her future farming decisions.
Amanda Watson is a livestock farmer who specialises in managing beef finishing cattle, store sheep and a lambing flock on her partner’s family farm in Harrogate. She also works on her family’s upland, hill farm, helping to run suckler cows and sheep alongside her brothers.
Amanda is a member of the NFU’s National Livestock Board and feels that the Pathway will support her in working effectively with family and colleagues in the pursuit of shared goals.
Why is it called the Goodall Agri-Development Pathway?
The Yorkshire Agricultural Society is grateful to the late-Mary Goodall, who kindly bequeathed a legacy to the Society to further its charitable aims to support young people in the agricultural industry.
The result of this kind gift is the Goodall Agri-Development Pathway: Her Legacy, Your Future.
