Blue-sky thinking and tech breakthroughs to help farms tackle climate, economic and environmental challenges will be discussed across East Anglia next month.
Agri-Tech Week 2022 is a series of events organised by Agri-TechE, a membership organisation bringing together innovative farmers, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs.
One of the many farmer members who are seeking ways to build the resilience and productivity of food production is Rosie Begg, of Gorgate Fruit Farms near Dereham.
Climate change is a key challenge to her blackcurrant business. Following wet weather and worries about fungal disease in 2021, the farm had to contend with 2022's record-breaking heat and drought.
“The sun just cooked the blackcurrants," she said. "We were standing in a field that we had hand-planted and weeded for two years – and 80pc of the crop was on the floor.
“These climatic variations and impacts and extremes are becoming very obvious, and we need to start doing something now to try to reverse these impacts.”
Mrs Begg has set up a number of trials to challenge traditional practices and to determine what the key factors are that make a difference.
“We left ten rows of blackcurrants untreated and compared them to the rows that had the conventional regime of fertilisers and sprays," she said.
"We also reduced fertiliser use by 30pc. We didn’t see any difference in performance, but it was an unusual year and just one season. Going forward we want to work with different researchers to measure the difference so we will have evidence.”
She has also started a soil microbiology course and is keen to see how a plant in a natural system uses healthy soil to fight off pests and diseases. “The wild blackberries have done really well this year,” she added.
The farm is a partner in the Wendling Beck Environment Project, which aims to monetarise ecosystem services on marginal land of high ecological value. It is working with UEA researchers to look at how regenerative practices can build soil carbon.
John Barrett, a director of the Sentry farming company who farms near Bungay, is chairman of the Agri-TechE Stakeholder Committee.
He said smarter use of resources and land is essential to be profitable, especially as the EU's land-based subsidies under the Basic Payment Scheme are being withdrawn.
“There is huge volatility in the market, with costs going up significantly – you only need to see how much the price of a combine harvester has increased, by £75,000 in a year - it’s simple supply and demand economics," he said.
“The future lies in creating an agricultural system that is working with the environment as well as making a return to stakeholders in order to carry on investing in their futures.
"Improving the technology for decision support will help us to manage these variables.”
As an example, he highlighted the need to know what is happening to nitrogen in farm crops - an increasingly expensive fertiliser, which can often leach into watercourses.
“What I need to know is how much the plant needs and a means to determine that from a distance, so I can apply it where and when it’s required in order to minimise waste,” he said.
Meanwhile, many progressive farm businesses are using internet-enabled sensors to monitor everything from livestock health to soil moisture content - and are looking for better ways to model the output to provide useable insights.
This will be discussed at Agri-Tech Week's flagship REAP conference, being held on November 8 in Cambridgeshire.
The conference theme of "Making Sense of Agriculture" is looking at new ways of digitising farming systems – combining field data and remote imaging with information about climate, economic conditions and market requirements to create models that can accelerate the adoption of beneficial practices.
Agri-TechE director Dr Belinda Clarke said: “Several of our farming and research members are investigating the potential of digital twins – virtual models of real-world systems.
"We are seeing these models being developed for open field systems by salad growers and livestock producers, in vertical farms and even vineyards. These are industry-changing developments."
Agri-Tech Week 2022 events
Monday, November 7
Norwich Research Park: "Field Applications and Opportunities Using Genetic Technologies". Researchers will discuss novel breeding technologies aimed at developing crops which are more resilient to drought and disease.
Tuesday, November 8
Agri-TechE, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire: REAP Conference 2022: "Making Sense of Agriculture". The conference will explore technology which combines economic data with inputs from agri-environmental sensors in a "digital twin" which can enable producers to model potential scenarios, reducing risk and increasing reward.
Wednesday, November 9
AM: Rothamsted Research, Hertfordshire: "Data in Agriculture". Rothamsted is creating a digital twin using livestock farm data collated over the last ten years.
PM: Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association: "From Grass to Glass: Robots Make Milking Easier". A chance to see a robotic dairy in action. Mark Barnes is a third generation Norfolk dairy farmer with a herd of 180 Holstein cows at Tharston. He has recently invested in three DeLaval milking robots - which also automatically collate individualised data for each cow.
Thursday, November 10
AM: Cranfield University and CHAP, Bedford: "Scaling of Agricultural Innovation".
PM: ADAS, Chatteris: "Innovation in Post-Harvest Management of Fresh Produce". Cooling cannot completely eliminate post-harvest loss, but what other approaches are available and could digitisation of the supply chain increase productivity and profitability in the sector?
Friday, November 11
AM: NIAB, Cambridge: "Farming Resilience – How can greater crop diversity contribute on-farm in the face of climate change?" This event will explore perennial versus annual crops, novel and mainstream horticultural crops and improving seed performance.
PM: University of Essex, Colchester: "Sensors and Robotics For Soil Health and Soft Fruits". Fruit picking is a skilled job, requiring speed, gentle handling and knowledge of ripeness levels. This event discusses the progress in soft robotics and machine vision.
For more information and bookings see agri-tech-e.co.uk/agri-tech-week
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