Betodlaren – introduction

Writing for the the industry magazine ‘Betodlaren’ (the beet grower) will be a big part of my work at NBR. My first article was a bit of a gimme: it’s an introduction of myself. Here is a translation of it:

William is new at NBR

NBR has been awarded a grant from the industry doctor program LivsID together with SLU Alnarp. William English begins his doctoral education in June this year. He is 36 years old and lives in Malmö together with his wife and 2.5 year old daughter.

As a researcher at NBR, my main focus will be field storage. The main project I’ll be working with is a 5 year project on methods to reduce sugar loss in clamps and manage storage based risks. I will investigate, among others, how cover type, beet size, beet physical properties, and harvest method impact sugar loss. This work will be conducted in conjunction with SLU and the plan is to complete in the spring of 2023. Otherwise, I’ll be working with the integration of remote sensing into our research program and assisting my colleagues in the post-harvest peak.

My background

I grew up on a typical ‘sheep-wheat’ farm in Victoria, Australia, with agriculture part of everything professional I’ve done since. After completing my bachelors in agricultural science and commerce, I have mainly worked as an economist along-side agronomists as both an adviser and researcher. When I moved to Sweden in 2009, and after a period back as a student, I managed to find my way back to production agriculture. I spent a number of years at SLU, including working with the Lönnstorp research farm including the management and analysis of a lot of data. At the end of the 2017 season, I started to work at Hushållningssällskapet with the field research team, which is where I came in contact with NBR.

The future as a doctoral candidate

When you grow up on a farm in southern Australia, you don’t know what a sugar beet is. When you spend even the short amount of time with Hushållningsällskapet Skåne’s fältförsk team that I did, you get very familiar with them. What I’ve been most drawn to at NBR is how well embedded and responsive they are to the needs of the Swedish sugar beet farmers. To know there is a whole industry supporting you and wanting to hear about your research is really exciting.