Warwickshire Rural Hub Arable Group

In response to requests from Rural Hub Members the Hub launched an arable group where farmers can attend workshops and seminars by guest speakers and experts as well as meeting up to learn from each other.

The Group Chairman is Will Hodges.

Events so far have included:

Talk on Benchmarking and Precision Farming
Steve Barras, Supply Chain Manager from HGCA will give a quick talk regarding Benchmarking (Cropbench). Followed by a talk on Precision farming by Ian Beecher-Jones. Ian is a lecturer at South Oxfordshire 14 - 19 Landbased Diploma lecturer. He has precision farming experience through working with HGCA and the Be Precise Campaign. ‘Precision farming - good for the wallet and good for wildlife.’

Visit to Syngenta Warwickshire Demonstration site and BBQ
Syngenta have a number of demonstration and trial sites situated throughout the United Kingdom. The purposes of the sites are to evaluate current and new product performance, demonstrate crop varieties and growing systems. Work currently being undertaken at the Warwickshire site:-

Winter Wheat variety/fungicide plots
Winter .Barley fungicide plots
Black Grass herbicide plots reviewing current product performance and seeing what has worked this season
The Fungicide Grower challenge an opportunity for growers to construct a cereal fungicide programme and monitor performance throughout the season plots replicated and taken to yield
Environmental strips, evaluating the effect of different sown mixtures and on habitat and species

Mike Rigby - Agronomist, Farm Business Consultant and Managing Director of Prophet
Mike is the driving force behind Prophet. A graduate of Newcastle University he combines specialist technical arable expertise with a thorough understanding of farm business management and during his 30 years as an ADAS and TAG crop consultant he has become acutely aware that arable farmers require more than just technical expertise in crop husbandry to be successful. The financial aspects of arable farming are equally important and Mike has spent many years helping growers identify their costs and find ways to reduce them. He has learned from years of experience how difficult the measurement and calculation of costs can be and this understanding has been the driving force behind the creation of the software package, which now comprise Prophet.

Benchmarking Meetings - Arable Group
HGCA have agreed to provide support for some detailed benchmarking meetings. The meeting will use ‘Cropbench’ which is HGCA’s free confidential benchmarking software. HGCA will also provide an experience agricultural facilitator to run a series of meetings to assist with interpreting the data and help the group get some real benefit out of the sessions.

Please could you let us know if you are interested in taking part in the benchmarking group.