This week's Young Stock Podcast sees us catch up with County Kildare man David Thornton.

David works for Claas UK, the distributor of all Claas equipment for the Irish and UK markets. He has recently been promoted from his role as product manager for tractors and material handling to being the digital solutions consultant for Claas in the Irish and Scottish markets.

David grew up on a tillage farm and is actively involved on the farm on evenings and weekends. He studied agricultural engineering at Harper Adams University in the UK.

During his studies, he carried out an internship with Claas at their main factory in Harsewinkel, Germany. His role was a function and field test engineer, where he was involved with testing new equipment in the factory and in the fields.

Once completing his studies, he went to work with Claas UK at Saxham, as a training instructor at the firm's academy. With this role, he was responsible for the development and delivery product training for all UK and Ireland dealer sales staff.

David’s current role sees him head up all things technology, supporting dealers to develop their digital business and assisting customers to get the most out of their precision technology such as GPS auto steer systems, isobus, and machine data capture to create yield and prescription maps.

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To get in touch with your opinions and feedback on the podcast you can email youngstock@farmersjournal.ie or leave a WhatsApp voice note at 0868366465.

You can listen to the podcast below.