David "The Smart Grower" Renner is the author of a book about extending the life of a crop dryer by utilizing a waste product of sugar beet production (the tops). This follows a family theme as his great grandfather was a pioneer in New Zealand where he transformed native forest to sheep production, which involved among other things, making soap from animal fat! Let’s explain, a lazy solution looks for the least arduous route to a goal, this rather curious choice, when combined with a smart approach leads to best the solution in the circumstances. Why go to effort to remove the grass from a lawn when a modern lawn mower can mulch the cuttings and return them back to the soil? When at Nottingham University, where he studied Agronomy, Animal Production and Management and Economics he organised the National Students Agricultural Conference on “ In Search of Cheap Feeding Stuffs”. His formative years were as a Partner on a East Midlands traditional mixed farm of about 1000 acres. This necessitated being able to make decisions on the fly, but also how to continue to blend traditional building methods with modern technologies.
