Job Description

The Bartholomews Placement Year is a varied journey with time in each of the key areas of our business offering one exceptional student the opportunity to gain valuable insight and working knowledge of the agricultural food industry and to compliment your academic studies.





You will learn about the sustainable low carbon farming initiatives we are developing with our growers leading to net zero cereal production, incorporating new technologies as an industry leader in this field. Gain hands-on practical experience at our operational sites and spend time in each of our key departments, cumulating in your contribution to our Trails and Research programme shadowing with our Agronomy team who will help support you with your university project work.



Our long-term goal is to find an exceptional scholar to return to join us permanently after graduation to develop into a future arable Agronomist or to join us as an Arable Specialist in another of our key departments.

1. Seed Plant Operations:

From Starting to September



The start of your journey at Bartholomews you will gain hands-on production experience in our purpose-built seed plant at our Chichester plant where you will be involved with the processing and preparation of arable seed crops and seed certification process. We will provide training so that you are able to drive a counterbalance fork-lift truck. You will also learn about the other different inputs we store and supply to our farmer customers from Chichester.

2. Key Department Placements

October to March



The next segment of the placement will be Interchangeable and rotating assignments spent across a 6-month period in the key departments and areas of our business.

Seed Desk & Laboratory

In the Laboratory you will learn about the process to produce certified crops, germination tests and quality testing on cereal crops. There will be testing to complete for our field trials and trials preparation work for our upcoming spring and fertilizer trials.



On the seed desk, your work will help towards our annual marketing campaigns, producing marketing and promotional materials for our range of environmental mixtures, maize, grass and game-cover crops. You may also be helping on the desk to take and process customers' orders.

Grain Desk & Shoreham Silo Services at Shoreham Port

Learn about the essential work for our grain marketing team helping with daily administration on the desk and providing telephone cover for the team. You will learn more about our grain storage facility at Shoreham Port, a key part of our infrastructure where are able to store up to 42,000 tonnes of finished crops in our silos ready for export to international markets. There will be up to a week spent at Shoreham Silo Services to assist with the silo's operations, learning about grain storage techniques and helping with ship loading.

Crop Protection

Learn about methods and practice to protect crops and learn more about the challenges our growers face. Shadowing our Crop Protection Manager and team you will take an active role on the desk, helping on the phone and email to handle customer enquiries, arrange deliveries and co-ordinating with our transport team in Churchill Freight Services.

Fertiliser Desk & Ultimate Fertilizers at Southampton Docks:

Assisting on the desk and shadowing the fertiliser traders who are interacting with international markets to source materials for production at our site at Southampton Docks. You will gain understanding of nutrients and the market leading carbon reducing solutions we supply.



At our Fertilizer terminal in Southampton docks, we also have a deep-water berth where we import quality raw materials to manufacture our own nutrient blends. These are tailored to meet our customers nutrient management plans ensuring fields are in optimal condition. You will help at the site in Southampton for a period of up to 2 weeks to understand how we make and distribute our blends.

3. Sustainable, Low Carbon Management Schemes and Net Zero Cereal Production:

Following Fertiliser Placement



The way cereal crops are grown is changing; processors, brands and retailers need low carbon crops to match their ambitions to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2030. Bartholomews is committed to programs which enable and support our growers to demonstrate proof of regenerative and environmental compliance encouraging sustainable farming practice.



During this segment of your placement, you will be partnered with one of our Agronomists to learn more about our latest sustainable farming initiatives including our Agronomy packages incorporating the Xarvio Field Manager platform designed by BASF, its implementation and benefits for our growers. The benefits of our exclusive range of Impact Zero Fertilizers, produced with green electricity from solar farms and featuring nitrification inhibitors to raise Nitrogen Use Efficiency.

4. Delivery of Crop Protection Chemicals

April / May



Delivering chemicals directly to our customers farms you will be out and about in a company van representing the business, liaising directly with our customers and coordinating with our transport team in Churchill Freight Services.

5. Crop Production & Technical Research

May to July



Contribute to our extensive Trials and Open Days helping with the preparation work at our trials sites ready for our summer events in July where we will demonstrate to our farmer customers how our trials have performed.



Shadowing with the Agronomy team you will be out in the field during this period, helping us with practical aspects like soil sampling and all aspects of crop research with mentoring from our Technical Director and Lead Agronomist to help you with your chosen assessment project.



You will also be able to attend third party trials and events, for example BASF Crop Protection Trials with our Agronomy Team and meet industry partners to learn about the latest developments in crop research and new and emerging technologies. Your efforts will contribute to sharing our research data and engaging with our customers at our extensive Open Day events, the most important dates in our annual calendar will complete your full journey with us before we wish you well with your continued University studies.