Roll up, roll up! Join Agricology and AUC at Groundswell 2024
Groundswell is just around the corner and this year is going to be bigger (and hopefully better!) than ever. Together with the Agricultural Universities Council (AUC) we’re sponsoring ‘The Study’ session venue, where we will be putting on what promises to be a veritable agri emporium of science, education and farming, with a varied and stimulating range of talk over the two days. We’ll also have the Agricology stand at the venue (to be found at PF A9, What3Words ///across.uses.total). Please do drop by, say hello, and hear about the exciting things we’ve got in the pipeline for the year ahead.
On Wednesday evening at ‘The Study’ there will be a drinks reception running from 6:30pm, please come and join us, grab a free drink, and get a chance to schmooze with some of your fellow agricultural pioneers 😉…
This year we’ve put together a range of 25-minute technical sessions on various practical topics, working with several of our partners and some inspiring farmers. Come and join us, find out more about projects we’re working on, learn about practices that might be suitable for adoption on your farm, and hear about farmers successes and challenges related to these sustainable practices.
Here’s what you need to know:
Wednesday 26/6/24 11:15 @ ‘The Study’ – 25 min Technical Session
Working together with ADAS and presenting information as part of theOper8 project join us for Managing Blackgrass in Arable Rotations, where you’ll hear from dream team Lynn Tatnell, Garth Clark and Stephen Moss. Find out about the fundamentals of why blackgrass is proving to be such a problem, and hear how integrated weed management and alternative weeding approaches are being used to reduce the impact of blackgrass.
Wednesday 26/6/24 13:15 @ ‘The Study’ – 25 min Technical Session
Cover Cropping – Successes & Failures – This session is being organised by the Allerton project, come along and learn all about cover crops and intercrops, with 400ha farmer Tom Jewers, 2022 Nuffield Scholar Toby Simpson, and Technical Manager Jim Egan from Kings.
Wednesday 26/6/24 3:15 PM @ ‘The Study’ – 25 min Technical Session
Our very own Matt Smee will be joining forces with Matt England from the Fring Estate to talk about Living Mulches: The Future for Arable. Hear how farmers are tackling the challenges of setting up living mulch systems on their farms, learn about the elements you’ll need to consider to establish living mulches, and find out what on-farm research is telling us about the impacts these systems have on soil health, weed populations, yield and beneficial insect populations.
Thursday 27/6/24 09:00 @ ‘The Study.’ – 55 min Panel Session
Start day two with Revenue & Resilience: Stacking Environmental Practices & Payment Schemes. Together with the Allerton project we’ve put together a panel who will be exploring where farmers are stacking ecological practices, environmental payment schemes and private finance. Tom Knowles, Matt Clegg and Digby Sowerby will explain how you can make the most of payment opportunities and adopt them at different scales to create positive impacts on the environment and improve the resilience of your farm.
Thursday 27/6/24 10:15 @ ‘The Study.’ – 25 min Technical Session
Join Agricology farmer profile star Tim May and Oliver Chedgey in discussion as they talk about Mobile Dairy: Making it Work. Find out how mobile dairy operations have been integrated on to the Kingsclere Estate. Learn about the practicalities of running a mobile dairy, and what this means for the health of the farm and for animal welfare.
Thursday 27/6/24 12:15 @ ‘The Study.’ 25 min Technical Session
Return of the Golden Hoof must (arguably!) be the best titled session at Groundswell this year. Arranged in partnership with the National Sheep Association, join us for this applied session to hear about the practicalities of introducing sheep into your business. From infrastructure to grazing agreements, there’s an array of practical information you’ll need to ponder if you want to benefit from the return of the golden hoof.
Thursday 27/6/24 14:15 @ ‘The Study.’ 25 min Technical Session
Last but by no means least on our programme of sessions is Feed the Soil – Innovations in Composting for Soil & Crop Health. Join soil scientist and ORC’s Head of Research Dr Julia Cooper and the hugely knowledgeable Tom Knowles who will provide practical advice into how Johnson-Su, hot composting and vermicomposting techniques can be adopted, and explain what science and research is telling us about the effects that different composting systems can have on soil health.
Our partners in The Study, the AUC, will also be running these two fabulous sessions:
Wednesday 26th June @ ‘The Study 5.30 – 6.25pm – Rethinking Agricultural Education
What should you learn if you study agriculture? UK universities teaching agriculture have teamed up for the first time to map what they cover in their courses and develop new shared modules. Hear what they found, how the curriculum is changing, and share your views and experiences. Speaking Prof. Tom Macmillan, Dr Kay Crouch (project leads) and Liz Lawrenson from Landex.
Thursday 27th June @ ‘The Study 11.00 – 12.00pm – Regenerative Research Priorities
Where would research effort and science investment best help regenerative farming? Hear about the findings from two recent reviews on agricultural research; a stocktake of farmers’ top priorities from across all sectors gathered by the NFU and Centre for Effective Innovation in Agriculture, and an independent assessment of the evidence on regenerative agriculture by ORC, NIAB and Agritech-E. What did they find? What are your own priorities? Chaired by Prof. Tom Macmillan, with Dr Julia Copper (ORC) and Liz Stockdale (NiAB).
So if you want a chance to discuss your ideas, experiments and challenges with scientists, to debate and shape the future of agricultural education, and meet farmers, researchers and lecturers from across the UK, make sure you get yourself to The Study. It’s going to be a busy couple of days, with lots of collaborations, knowledge sharing and good conversations to be had. Don’t fear if you’re not able to make it though, we’ll be uploading as many sessions as we can to the Agricology website through July and August.
See you soon! The Agricology team
Associated Agricology Partner Organisation(s):
Author:
Published date:
20th June 2024Related farming theme :
Key Farming Practices:
- Biological & cultural weed management
- Companion crops
- Cover crops
- Encouraging beneficial insects
- Mechanical weeding
- Mixed farming
- Mulching
- Organic fertilisers
Organisation(s):
- Agricology
- Agricultural Universities Council UK (AUC)
Related articles
