Career Profile: Farm assessor

The role of a farm assessor is to capture information from various sources to show how a farmer or grower is meeting welfare, traceability, environmental and quality the standards as set out by the scheme owners.

These include well recognised schemes such as Red Tractor, LEAF and The Soil Association whose logos we see on packaging in our supermarkets.

As a farm assessor, you will be required to plan, conduct and record the delivery of audits that meet customer requirements.

You would be part of a team of assessors who are conducting on-site and remote audits across a range of agricultural and horticultural holdings, although, in general, you would be working on a one-to-one or one-to few-basis. To ensure a high level of service and consistency of audits, new assessors will undertake training via a number of routes, including assessor training academies, industry recognised training – such as the Register of Mobility Scorers course – plus a series of shadow and witness audits, before being ‘signed off’ to undertake audits without supervision. This is to give the assessor the confidence to assess in different scenarios as, although the standards will be the same, the farm situation often differs.

To excel in this role, you will need to be a highly organised self-starter who can arrange and perform audits within required timescales. You should be an excellent communicator to ensure productive relationships between producers, certification bodies and scheme owners.

Assessors may have to speak to producers about concerns around quality, food safety or scheme compliance. You will also need to be skilled in recording and evaluating the key data and information you gather in the format the scheme owner requires and in the agreed timeframe. This aspect of the role requires high levels of IT literacy.

A driving licence is essential as the role will involve travelling to a variety of sites. You may be self-employed for this role or permanently working for one organisation. Some certification bodies will advertise roles while others respond well to speculative applications from well-suited individuals.

This is a rewarding role that could enable you to be a part of ensuring that our natural resources, environment and livestock are protected and valued as part of the food production process. It will also enable the role holder to contribute to the production of safe and traceable food for customers across the UK and beyond.