About
Established in September 2018 Gro-Agri Ltd is a business designed to support Dairy farmers through a whole farm management approach.
A likeminded team who each focus around the nutrition of the dairy cow, complimenting each other by having sets of individual skills to fully support every farm requirement. As a collective we consider the calf, the heifer, the transition cow, and the dairy cow.
A core understanding that a cows health must be paramount first and foremost to then allow the cow to meet their full potential.
Foresight to understand that each farm business is different and has unique business needs and goals, be they profit, sustainability, performance, lifestyle, or a combination of these.
Communication is key to understanding these requirements, only then can the plans of the business be drawn out and worked towards.
Core values
- Integrity
- Dependability
- Customer Commitment
meet the team
Clayton Barber
Clayton comes from a long line of Cheshire Dairy farmers and has enjoyed working with cows all his life. Following his time at Reaseheath studying Dairy Herd Management, he set up and ran his own professional Hoof Care specialist business. Foot and Mouth brought about a career change whereby he started to give nutritional and business advice to his customers.
He then made the full time change and joined a National Ruminant business and quickly became a senior member of the commercial team. In the last few years, he was the Head of northern business operations for another National business whilst also running another business unit in the south of England. He gained great understanding in all commercial aspects of running big business units, whilst also maintaining his on-farm support specialising in Nutrition and maximising farm profitability.
Over 7 years a CowSignals Master trainer (CowSignals, HoofSignals, YoungstockSignals, FertilitySignals).
In 2018 Clayton joined his co-director Tom in setting up their own business Gro-Agri.
Tom Hough
Tom was born on his families Dairy and Sheep farm in Lancashire. He studied BSc Agriculture and Animal Science at Harper Adams between 1994 and 1998, coming away with a 1st Class Honours.
His first role in the industry was as a Dairy Consultant, then spent the next 18 years with some of the largest Ruminant Feed Businesses in the UK, undertaking varying roles from Cattle Specialists, to Regional Technical Manager, through to heading up the Technical departments for 2 of the UK’s leading National Feed companies. He has huge experience in on-farm customer support, milling formulations, product development, laboratory management, UFAS and working as an integral part of a national ruminant business.
Over 7 years a CowSignals Master trainer (CowSignals, HoofSignals, YoungstockSignals, FertilitySignals), he has organised and run over 50 CowSignals courses.
In 2018 Tom joined his co-director Clayton in setting up their own business Gro-Agri.
Rachel Smithyman
Rachel graduated from The University of Nottingham in 2008 with a BSc (Hons) in Animal Science.
Since 2010 Rachel has worked within the Technical Team for 2 of the UK’s leading National Feed companies before joining Gro-Agri in July 2023 as a Technical Analyst. She has an in-depth understanding of ruminant compound formulation, product development and on-farm rationing, with a specialist interest in calf nutrition and youngstock management. Rachel has been a CowSignals Master trainer (CowSignals, HoofSignals, YoungstockSignals & FertilitySignals) since 2013 and became ROMS accredited in September 2023.
Rachel provides helpful insights into how to best use data collected on farm by producing the Gro-Agri ROMS & Body Condition Score Reports, Youngstock Performance Reports and Interherd and Fatty Acid Profile Reports.
Andrew Hill
Andrew has worked with dairy cows for most of his life, and he has been milking cows since the age of 11. After finishing school, he attended Reaseheath college completing a level 2 and 3 apprenticeship in Agriculture, alongside working full time on a dairy farm. Following this Andrew completed a foundation degree in Agriculture and Dairy Herd Management, also at Reaseheath.
In December 2022 Andrew joined Gro-Agri as Herd Manager at Low Farm. Andrew became ROMS accredited in January 2023, he has completed a foot trimming course and is AI trained.
Since the beginning of 2025 Andrew’s focus has moved into the nutrition side of the business and he is working his way through the CowSignals and FAR training modules. Andrew regularly carries out monthly calf weighing and ROMS scoring for Gro-Agri customers.
Mark Thornton
Mark attended Myerscough college where he obtained a National Certificate in Agriculture and followed this with a Dairy Herd Management course at Reaseheath College.
He is a lifelong cow enthusiast with many years experience working with Pedigree Dairy herds culminating in the successful 26 year management of a high profile Cheshire herd.
A change in career direction saw Mark join a leading UK animal feeds business as a Ruminant Nutritional Advisor. Here he gained further specialist nutritional knowledge and this combined with his practical on farm knowledge has led to him becoming a successful and trusted customer advisor .
Preferring a closer more personal approach, January 2024 saw Mark join Gro-Agri in the position of Senior Technical Specialist.
Jonathan Witter
Jon grew up on his family dairy farm in Cheshire, currently milking 200 cows which led him to study at Harper Adams University between 2020 and 2024. This included a placement year where Jon spent 14 months working on a progressive dairy farm in Gloucestershire, milking 300 high yielding Holstein cows, three times a day, averaging 12000 litres.
Prior to graduating from Harper Adams University in 2024 with a BSc Hons in Agriculture with Animal Science; in his final year of studies, Jon was awarded the RABDF Dairy Student of the Year Award 2024. He was the winner of six finalists who were invited to attend the Farmers Club in London to give a speech titled, ‘The UK Dairy Industry in 10 Years Time’ to a panel of four judges.
During the same year, Jon also started his own herd of pedigree Holsteins cows with his sister under the ‘Whitehall’ prefix which he continues to develop alongside working for Gro-Agri after joining the team in January 2025.
Since joining Gro-Agri Jon has become ROMS accredited and has completed the CowSignals course. Jon works closely with Gro-Agri customers providing ROMS scoring and calf weighing services. He has also been providing key information to customers via ration and muck sieving assessments.
Tom Platt
Having been brought up on his family’s dairy farm in cheshire, Tom has always had a keen interest in nutrition and farm business. After completing work experience with a national agricultural feed business, he decided that his career goal was to become a Technical Nutrition Specialist.
Tom joined Gro-Agri at the beginning of May 2025 and became ROMS accredited at the end of that month. He has since completed the Cow Signals course. Tom is currently vice chairman of Middlewich young farmers and particularly enjoys stock judging.
