Getting FRESH insights from those at the heart of influence, July 2024
FRESH AF ‘24 enjoyed a blizzard of interesting perspectives on this month’s 2-day study tour. They vented farm business frustration at poor rural connectivity while at Vodafone UK HQ, wondered at weed management trials and listened carefully to skills and tenacity needed to succeed in business or even change it completely.
FRESH AF ‘24 Tour report – July
Before Vodafone Network Experience Manager Rob Beasley could get too far into his illustrated talk about Vodafone’s investment in UK, he was challenged on rural connectivity problems experienced by AF Members. The frustration of no or poor signal, broken calls and sudden loss of 3G were all expressed.
Network issues
“I really want to know about your issues”, was the response from Rob. “Report your connectivity problems through AF. That enables us to make a case to get a network team on site to do a drive test or engineer with a backpack of monitoring equipment to do a ‘tech walk’ to map the problem.”
He explained there was a ‘tiger team’ at Vodafone to investigate customer complaints and improve coverage as part of a programme to invest £11 billion in network connectivity. “Yes, with hindsight we could have done more before 3G switch off. But the only way to put in more 4G which will be better, is to get rid of 3G.”
Network usage surprise
So how do AF Members use the Vodafone network? There are 1400 farms and rural businesses and 6115 users connected. A pie chart of AF Member application usage is met with surprise. Of what is viewed, Instagram and Facebook combined make up over 20% of use! But is that such a surprise?
Internet of Things (IoT)
Rural and urban alike, internet usage is rising rapidly. Use of devices passing even small amounts of data directly or indirectly to the internet (which is the meaning of IoT) is up too.
Whilst investment globally in development of uses of IoT in agriculture has slowed compared with uses in other businesses and aspects of life, Vodafone reports there has been a recent upswing. The biggest category is connected agri-CCTV systems, and the fastest growing is soil or crop monitoring gadgets.
We heard from a leading UK IoT development company who were keen to impress on the group that the potential to help farming is vast and surprisingly affordable. “The scope is massive. You should be asking what is it worth getting an IoT device to do for you? Apart from tracking assets, what can it sense for you? Alert you to poor/declining operation of equipment. Tell you breakdown is likely? Advise you to order replacements/top-up’s of inputs like fuels? The devices we make for farm businesses are small and cheap. They use Narrow Band Internet of Things, not a problem to connect.”
Staying Fresh late into the evening
After a day connecting with the reality and potential of even greater connectivity, the group were hosted for dinner by Nufarm and given two fresh perspectives on change and how to stay ahead by evening speakers.
Farming entrepreneur Antony Pearce from Buckinghamshire took the group on a whistle stop tour of the history of his farm business diversification and development. Greg Colebrook, Director at Greens, part of the Spearhead family of businesses farming beetroot, potatoes and more in England, Scotland and continental Europe, revealed the enormity of scale and challenge of producing highest quality fresh produce on rented land.
Burning questions to start the day
The FRESH AF ’24 breakfast briefing was about electrical desiccation of crops. Paul Harrison from Cropzone introduced it as “Works like chemistry, without the chemistry.”
He reported that farmers in Germany and in the US are already using it. A large tractor is front loaded with an adjuvant that is sprayed onto the crop and then the boom at the back, currently up to 12 metres wide but will be available in 48 m width for the US market, discharges electricity generated by the PTO to the target plants.
Main advantages obvious to the group were the wide window of use (compared to spraying), herbicide-free, better crop quality and possibly good for soil health too. But there were questions about affordability of the machinery and single adjuvant that had to be used to make the machine operate.
Weeding out problems
The skies were bright above the fields of research work into sustainable management of broad-leaved weeds by NIAB at Lordship Farm, Cambridgeshire.
Weed biologist John Cussans summed up that a lot of what happens in the plots turns out to be “demonstrating that what we think we know is not true!”. From trackside, tramline and plots themselves, John pulled out some of the pernicious and even injurious species of the 31weeds on site – to discuss control. He described how with extremely low input cereals and Stewardship schemes he is seeing more of bromes, thistles and even rosebay willow herb. And how that with over reliance of glyphosate in no-till systems we are “selecting for resistance. There is a significant problem globally with ryegrass. It’s in Spain now and Italy and we are going to have to monitor cereals very carefully in the UK.”
Lawrence Powell from Nufarm took the group on a tour of a matrix of weed problems and products applied. He also warned that fresh approaches are needed. “As farmers we are very good at playing the season that we’ve had rather than the one we’re in. We’ve got to get better. What we’re doing here – and having gone through many cycles of trying to solve problems – is to pause, step back. Then use a fresh approach with all the tools we’ve got.”
With that, FRESH AF ’24 disbanded until the next time they will be learning together when the group heads for France.
FRESH AF lifts off! Euston Estate, March 2024
We believe it’s crucial that fresher decision-makers in farming connect to our AF value(s) of collaborative, cooperative purchasing as well as great deals.
That’s why younger AF colleagues came up with the idea of FRESH AF (funded by our kind sponsors) which includes a year-long programme of visits to inspiring places, people and businesses leading their field.
Fifty fresh agri-professionals, who represent lots of types of AF Member businesses and those who advise and guide them, had heard the call and joined us to kick off FRESH AF at Euston Estate, which has been an AF Member since 2007.
The FRESH AF line up of Members, supporters and sponsors in the grounds of Euston Hall
Getting a professional boost
With warmth from logs burning in the huge fireplace in the estate’s old kitchen, AF Member Tom Martin set the scene. He referenced multiple challenges faced by farming today, particularly this season, and how the number of skills needed for best decision-making have grown. He enthused about the need to stay ‘fresh’.
AF Member farmer Tom Martin outlines how a fresh approach is needed to take his farming business forward
Next up the group went on a two-hour trailer tour. The aim was to analyse the Euston approach to minimising risk, diversifying the income stream and collaborating as a team – together and with outside specialists – to make positive change happen.
Non-stop learning
Farm Manager Matthew Hawthorne introduced key specialists at each stop of the tour.
Euston enthusiasm for renewable energy generation was clear.
The AD plant, fed 20% rye & 80% maize, exports gas to grid at a rate of 600 m2 per hour. (This is what a 3-bed semi-detached family home uses in a year!) The bi-product liquid and solid digestate is used on the estate’s sugar beet and maize.
Two hundred acres of sun-tracking solar panels on former marginal veg/potato land on two sites produce 49 megawatts of electricity. The financial return is the land rental plus a bonus.
Before we went to another new income stream, we paused at the Lime Pit, which dates from 1863, and has an impressive cliff face 40 m deep where this valuable soil amendment was extracted until 1973.
The next scene was regimented lines of young trees in the 192 ha carbon tree plantation. The species is Paulownia, a non-native tree originating in Asia but growing particularly well in Germany. To get each fast-growing whip to the straight shape and target girth of 35 cm, side shoots are taken off each winter. When they reach six feet in height they are allowed to branch. At three years old the tap root reaches a depth of up to 2 metres. As the carbon sequestered has to stay locked in, the coppiced wood can only be sold as timber. The timber harvest will happen by coppicing every 10 years in the 80-year life of each tree.
Also featured on the tour were the veg fields, the flock of breeding ewes and the prize-winning herd Red Poll cattle, currently calving. We also heard how the estate sugar beet is grown partly by the farm and partly by British Sugar itself.
Digesting the FRESH AF opportunity
Back in the embrace of the estate kitchen, and with local burgers and Euston estate venison sausages in hand, the group reflected on what they had heard, seen and learned.
The consensus expressed by the day’s AF Members, AF supporters and sponsors was that it was good to be amongst a group of like-minded and ambitious professionals. Also, how discussing current challenges in farming and options to cope is essential as well as refreshing and useful professionally.
There are just 3 days left to apply to be part of FRESH AF 2024. There are only 20 places and all the signs are that competition will be brisk.
The Fresh AF Programme is 100% funded by the kind donations of our sponsors, including the following:
