Empowering Farmers: A Transformative Conference to Enhance Farm Resilience, Biodiversity and Profitability
Carbon Calling CIC is holding its third conference on Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th of August at Sleastonhow, Kirkby Thore, Penrith, CA10 1XL. It will bring a community of farmers and their supporters together to share ideas and discuss their systems and their future plans.
On the Friday, there is an interactive event aimed at advisers, consultants, people working within the supply chain, as well as land agents. It will provide an opportunity to discuss what regenerative, agroecology and biological approaches mean within the UK context, and how they can engage with clients or suppliers to help their businesses become more profitable and focussed. The speakers will be Tim Nicholson (host of the conference) and Paul and Nic Renison (well established regenerative farmers). The event will be facilitated by Liz Genever.
Some people gather on the Friday night to enjoy the bar with local real ales and home-made food, and a wild camping site. Rob Yorke will be leading – ‘Food, booze, and talk’ – a barstool open-mic session on diverse contested rural topics.
The main Saturday conference runs from 9.30 am to 5 pm and kicks off with Rob Yorke, renowned provocateur. He will facilitate a session that will ensure a range of opinions and voices are heard. The conference prides itself on welcoming a wide-range of opinions from hard-core mob grazer through to curious farmers who want to spend less money on inputs.
Allen Willams from Understanding Ag is the headline speaker on Saturday. He will do a presentation in the morning, followed by practical workshops in the afternoon and evening. He is sponsored by Regenerate Outcomes.
In the afternoon, there are a series of interactive workshops, which aim to address common challenges faced by farmers and provide practical solutions through collaborative learning. Tim Nicholson (Cactus Tree Guards) and Pete Leeson (Woodland Trust) will give advice on how to make more of your hedges and trees, and Nikki Yoxall (Pasture for Life) will talk about how to make decisions about stocking rates for grazing systems. There are other sessions on biological farming approaches, carbon credits, agroforestry, renewables and soils.
After the workshops, there is a panel session aimed at bringing the day together. Allen and other speakers from the day will be brought back to the stage to share their insights. After the main conference finishes at 5pm, Allen will run another workshop session for anyone who couldn’t book onto the first one.
There is another opportunity to enjoy the bar and home-made food. The conference offers camping tickets for people who want to stay and enjoy the live music.
On the Sunday, there is a practical problem-solving session where farmers can share skills and experience to help other farmers. e.g. help to think through an infrastructure project, establishment of diverse leys or improved stock performance. It will be designed as a co-creation session and takes inspiration from farm hack approaches. We have never done this before, but it sounds just crazy enough, and the conference provides an opportunity to experiment with some different techniques.
The confirmed sponsors include Regenerative Outcomes, Co-op, Cactus Tree Guards, Woodland Trust, Pasture for Life, Catchment Sensitive Farming, Cumbria Connect, Organic Research Centre, Progressive Farming Company and Agricology. More will be announced in the next couple of weeks.
Tickets are available from here for the Friday session, Saturday conference (plus Sunday), camping and pre-orders for evening meals.
“Carbon Calling conference is a unique event – Liz and Nic have provided a space where farmers can come together and share their successes and failures and inspire each other. They have helped create a community and helped make farming feel exciting and relevant again.”
2023 delegate
Contact Information
Dr Liz Genever, liz@lizgenever.com, 07790 378349
carboncalling.farm