Event
Forage Resilience Day at Wastenage Farms
In a time when making the most out of home-grown forage, looking after the soil and reducing costs has never been more important, the Mole Valley Forage & Agronomy team is delighted to be hosting this event, alongside Pete and Di Wastenage, to showcase how connecting forage to nutrition can help develop whole farm system resilience.
The day will start at 10:30am for tea/ coffee on arrival. After which, Lisa and Pete will kick off proceedings with a welcome, before the attendees are allocated a group and a Mole Valley team member chaperone (sheepdog!) to guide them through the day.
From 11am the groups will partake in interactive discussions and practical demonstrations to help get more “bang for your forage buck”. Combining field and yard based “workshops” will provide the opportunity for smaller groups to have more in depth discussions with suppliers, Pete and each other. Farmer-farmer knowledge exchange is key for innovation within the industry and as a co-operative, Mole Valley Farmers has a unique opportunity to bring together like minded farmers to help them learn from each other. To pack the most into the event, 8 “workshops” will be condensed into 2 hours, 15 minutes per speaker, whilst 4 groups of attendees will rotate throughout.
The yard “workshops” will feature talks and displays from Volac Ecosyl, Amcor, Tow & Fert and the Mole Valley Feed & Nutrition Team. Over this hour, discussions on the importance of producing quality forage to optimise livestock potential, will be combined with techniques and practices that can help maximise that forage production, whilst protecting the bottom line.
Meanwhile, the in the field “workshops” will focus on resilience at the start of the forage production journey. Speakers from Germinal, AerWorx, Vaderstad and TerraFarmer will cover how crop species selection, crop establishment techniques and soil management practices can greatly impact the quality and quantity of forage and how this can impact a farm’s ability to overcome challenging conditions and markets.
Whilst there are many uncontrollable factors in agriculture, these talks will highlight how, when and where focusing efforts on “controlling the controllables” will make for a more resilient and future-proof business.
A BBQ lunch at circa 1:30pm, will be followed by a Q&A session from Pete, Lisa and the suppliers. The whole day aims to be finished by 2:45pm – back in time for milking!
Agenda
- 10:30 – Arrival & Welcome Coffee
- 10:45 – Welcome & Introductions
- 11:00 – Technical Sessions: Rotation 1
- 12:00 – Groups swap location
- 12:15 – Technical Sessions: Rotation 2
- 13:15 – End of Technical Sessions
- 13:30 – Lunch (BBQ)
- 14:00 – Open Discussion & Q&A
- 14:30 – Closing Remarks
- 14:45 – Guest Departures
Notes
Technical sessions are split between the yard and the field with 4 groups of attendees rotating through quick fire 15 minute “workshops”.
Yard workshops: Talks from Volac Ecosyl, Amcor, Tow & Fert and the Mole Valley Feed & Nutrition Team.
Field workshops: Displays and discussions with Germinal, AerWorx, Vaderstad and TerraFarmer.
