Council Members
Council Members for Year 2024
Council meetings are held throughout the year. All RABDF members are welcome to contact Council to air their views and, if required, to ask that they to put forward those views at forthcoming Council meetings.
President: Allan Wilkinson
Allan is a dairy farmer's son from North Yorkshire, who joined Midland Bank in the late 1980s, becoming HSBC's Head of Agriculture in 2010. He has been Head of Agrifoods at HSBC UK for the past eight years, covering food chains and systems.
He sits on several industry bodies and is a Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Farmers and a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies
Chairman: Robert Craig
Robert oversees the management of three pasture based dairy units in the north of England covering over 2000ac milking around 1500 cows. Robert stepped off the First Milk board in October 2023 having served the maximum term for a non executive director. Awarded a Nuffiled Scholarship in 2012 Robert maintains a keen interest in sustainable agriculture, inparticular working with The Sustainable Food Trust, based in Bristol.
Treasurer: Jon Brierly
Jon has long experience in finance for the farming industry, following a career with HSBC.
Di Wastenage
Di is a director of a family dairy farming business based in Devon & Cornwall focussed on producing the highest quality fresh milk from forage. The business also manages Bicton Home Farm, part of the Cornwall College Group and as a Council Member for Bicton and Duchy Agricultural College, she is passionate about encouraging the next generation into farming .
A further special area of interest is the untapped potential of women in business and through her role as Patron of Women In Dairy is involved in highlighting the skills, knowledge and experiences that women can bring to the Agricultural Industry for the future.
She also enjoys an active role in the Industry contributing on many topics, from being a member of the DEFRA TB Partnership, through to animal health, clean air strategy and also representing the dairy sector on the RUMA Targets Task Force to create the targets to reduce Antibiotic use in the Dairy Sector.
Di, alongside her husband Peter was awarded the 2015 Farmers Weekly, Dairy Farmer of the Year, and overall Farmer of the Year. The 2014 Devon Dairy Farmer & overall Farmer of the Year and the FWAG Bronzed Otter Trophy for their work with the environment. Then in 2021, Di was awarded the MBE for services to Agriculture.
Mike King
Mike, along with his brother, is a director of the 1,325-acre family-run farming business in South Gloucestershire, whose Kingspool herd consist of 700 pedigree Holsteins.
The herd is high output/welfare, all year-round calving, seasonal grazing, supplying 10 million litres on a premium retail contract, that requires industry-leading welfare and environmental standards. The closed herd uses sexed genomic sires, with replacements entering the herd at an average 23.5 months, bred from the top 25% of the herd. The remainder of the herd are bred to beef to supply a retail-based beef scheme.
Mike sits on AHDB Dairy Board, on the Dairy UK farmers Forum and he is also a board member of M&S Dairy Farmers.
Tim Downes
Tim has run an organic farm for over 15 years milking 300 spring-calving crossbreeds on an American equivalent non-antibiotic contract.
Lyndon Edwards
Lyndon is an experienced organic dairy, beef and arable farmer with more than 40 years’ of experience in the agricultural industry. He holds numerous industry roles and has a passion for sustainable agriculture and successfully developing various initiatives in order to ensure the successful future of the UK agriculture industry. Lyndon has been involved with RABDF in various capacities for numerous years.
Sarah Tomlinson BVM&S MRCVS
Sarah Tomlinson is a farm vet with over 22 years experience in clinical practice, she is now a Veterinary Consultant for Kingshay which is part of the VetPartners family. Sarah is also the Technical Director of the TB Advisory Service (TBAS), a Defra funded project delivering bespoke TB biosecurity advice to livestock keepers across England, through private vets. Throughout her career she has been passionate about improving livestock health and productivity by reducing the risk and impact of endemic disease, including bovine TB, more recently has developed a keen interest in social science especially around human behaviour and achieving change on farm.
Sarah is a member of the Government stakeholder group the bTB Partnership and has been a British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA) board director for 4 years. She is a trustee at RABDF and sits on the National Beef Association board.
Guy Trehane
Guy milks 320 cross-bred cows in a low-input autumn calving herd in a joint venture with a young farmer from Somerset.
William Westacott
William farms with his wife, Carolyn, an 840-acre mixed unit near Sevenoaks, Kent, consisting of 180-cows.
William Whiteford
Willie is an active Dairy Farmer, part of a family farming business, milking a herd of Ayrshires & Blended Ayrshires totaling 400 + followers, calving all year round. Living in near Carlisle in Cumbria, their milk has always gone to Lockerbie Creamery,
Willie has been an RABDF Trustee since 1989, he is still very much passionately and very actively involved in the Association. He is interested in hearing the views of the young generation with a view to create a program that will encourage them to become members of our association and thereby benefit our dairy industry.
He was a representative involved with the merger of Cheese Co Lockerbie with Milk Link, and a representative for the North when Milk Link merged with Arla.
Karen Halton
Karen is a director of the family dairy business milking 530 ProCross cows and selling milk direct to the public from a vending machine. She also contributes to the DEFRA Animal Health & Welfare Pathway Programme and the Cattle Antibiotic Guardian Group.