Staffordshire NFU group secretary Ray Neild is retiring after 30 years in his “dream job”.

It was in December 1981 when after rejecting the first batch of the 60 applicants for the post of group secretary for Stone and Eccleshall NFU, farmer John Hooley and other committee members made a major
decision.

They appointed a newly married Cheshire farmer’s son and past export manager for Mil Loaders into a role that Raymond Neild has played with skill and distinction ever since.

He is now to retire and leave the job to his successor Gary Ford who he has been alongside since last year. Ray and his wife Ann, who is almost as well known to two generations of NFU members as he is, will seek to spend more time with their family and their beloved motor caravan.

“Its been my dream job”, he told the hundreds who had come to the Staffordshire County Showground to say farewell.

The NFU was a very different organisation in the 80s said Graham Clay the Staffordshire Farm Tenants committee chairman, with maybe nine committee reports at a well attended branch meeting.

But though some have weakened in the years since, his NFU branches are still strong,-the NFU president himself came off the cuff to speak to Stone and Eccleshall members last year.

“If fact he was the only group secretary to increase his membership the year that I came back to this region” said David Collier the regional director who handed over to him a rare honorary life membership of the NFU.

“He is someone who has worked closely with bodies like the Staffordshire YFC, and the Staffordshire and Birmingham Agricultural Society, and he has always left his mark,” he said.

Ray is not disappearing from the farming scene as he has agreed to take up the challenging role as honorary chairman of the Rural Support Network.