IAgrM: National Farm Management conference, London, 23 Nov

This year’s event is aptly themed UK World Class Farming, World Class Food. The mix of topics and speakers have been carefully chosen by conference organiser, the Institute of Agricultural Management (IAgrM) at a time when new policy structure and vital trade agreements are being discussed and developed to ensure our industry remains profitable and sustainable.

Following a welcome note from IAgrM chairman, John Giles, the conference will break in to two main sessions:

Making the most by producing the best
· AHDB chief executive, Jane King
· Centre of Agricultural Informatics and Metrics of Sustainability, agri tech strategy director, Richard Tiffin
· Lowther Estates’ director of farming and commercial events, Richard Price
· German farmer and co-op farm manager, Ekkehard Herrmann

How world class are we now and where we need to be for the future
· Soil Association chief executive and organic farmer, Helen Browning
· AB Connect’s business development director, Martin Dyke
· Promar International agri food business consultant, Neil Adams
· Delamere Dairy managing director, Ed Salt
· E Holroyd & Sons production and technical manager, Lindsay Oldroyd Hulme
· Barclays Agriculture head of agriculture, Mark Suthern

 

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A series of event topics and themes will follow in the lead up to the event

The first is by Richard Tiffin

UK World Class Farming, World Class Food
National Farm Management Conference
London, Wednesday 23 November


Making the most out of data to produce the best

A new data platform is being developed by the Agrimetrics - an Agritech Centre of Excellence founded by the University of Reading, Rothamsted Research and NIAB, to help farmers produce food more efficiently and to better respond to food consumers changing needs. Prof Richard Tiffin, Director of Science at Agrimetrics will be discussing the initiative in detail at the conference. Here’s a summary.


“The food system is facing unprecedented challenges as a result of demographic and climate change. At the same time, in some cases, the system’s foundations - its primary producers are under increasing economic pressure.

“Many of these challenges can be characterised as being able to better meet the demands of consumers for more, increasingly healthy food.

“However, the growing complexity of the food system means that it is often hard for farmers to understand the demands of the ultimate consumer as well as making the system more vulnerable to unexpected shocks.

“Agrimetrics is building a data platform that will make it easier to access and use data. In this way data can become the currency which enhances knowledge of the system we are all part of. Farmers can be reconnected to consumers, they’ll be able to better meet their needs and procure a larger share of the value in food.”

 

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UK World Class Farming, World Class Food
National Farm Management Conference
London, Wednesday 23 November

Collecting data is nowadays amongst our everyday tasks, however do we have the tools to hand to fully exploit its potential and in turn improve our farming businesses? AB Agri’s Martin Dyke and John McCurdy will be exploring pipeline developments.

UK Agri food supply chains will need to improve their performance to simply stand still in the defence of their existing markets, never mind breaking through into new International markets, in the face of increasing competitive threats from other EU and non EU countries.
Connecting UK supply chains from origination, supplier, producer, processor to consumer will help unlock duplicated and non-value adding costs whilst helping target innovation investment.
Leveraging data and technology can accelerate the alignment and the connections between individual parts of the supply chain and help realise these benefits. However, a threat is being posed by the blind pursuit of Big Data with no real vision for how this might be practically used and applied on farm.
AB Agri is a unique community of leading agricultural businesses operating across the entire agri-food supply chain. Our focus is on sustainable food security, safety and efficiency delivered by driving the use of technology and metrics across supply chains.
We passionately believe far more attention should be given to the interpretation of data to create real insight; the use of this insight to enable smarter decision making and perhaps most importantly, the application and implementation of appropriate actions taken on farm.
The bottom line - if it’s too time consuming or complicated it won’t get used; there needs to be some alignment in the supply chain between the value delivered by these technologies and the cost of implementation.
• For further information and to book a conference place call IAgrM on 01275 843825, [email protected], www.iagrm.org.uk

 

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UK World Class Farming, World Class Food
National Farm Management Conference
London, Wednesday 23 November


Barclays head of agriculture, Mark Suthern opens up the previewing

How world class are we now and where we need to be for the future
“Preparing ourselves for the future we need to ensure we focus on people, technology, soil and water management. We also need to widen our understanding on the implications of the UN sustainable development goals and how they may impact future farming methodologies.

“That’s despite the fact predicting the future for the agricultural sector is really rather difficult! Who could have predicted the Chinese economic slowdown, the Russian invasion of Crimea, the reduction in oil prices, Brexit and their impact on both current and future agricultural strategies

“The result of the referendum will obviously have implications for UK agriculture, however at the current time the policy makers have yet to decide the industry’s operating structure post EU exit.

“Despite this uncertainty, the government’s welcome pledge to pay farmers the equivalent of their EU support cheques until 2020 provides valuable breathing space for businesses to closely examine their balance sheets and prepare for what lies ahead.

“Barclays has been supporting clients for over 325 years, throughout that time we have seen many periods of change and uncertainty. The sector’s resilience has been demonstrated time and time again - individual businesses will make decisions on core production, diversification and adding value in just the same way as they always have

 

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Blog for IAgrM web, F, T, LinkedIn




UK World Class Farming, World Class Food
National Farm Management Conference
London, Wednesday 23 November

Promar International agri food business consultant, Neil Adams previews his paper reporting on findings from a study amongst dairy producers on leadership and emotional intelligence.

There’s more to managing a successful dairy business than monitoring cash flows, planning the breeding strategy and winter feeding regime.

Interpersonal sensitivity, personal flexibility and emotional resilience are equally important according to a recent Promar study of 65 producers in England and Wales that focused on leadership and leader capabilities within their dairy farming businesses and the influence of their emotional intelligence.

It concluded that those with the highest level of emotional and social competence made £739 profit per cow compared with £366 for the average and those in the lowest group, £117.

Those more likely to run more profitable farms were farmers with staff or family teams who had a people oriented personal style combined with a decisive command role.

In addition, they
• tended to be more highly aware of their emotions, strengths and limitations required to lead high performing teams
• were more likely to have trusted advisers whose purpose was to act as a sounding board
• took a longer term perspective on their business plans being clear about their goals over five to 15 years
• paid attention to their own well-being
• were more optimistic and likely to trust people, see others as reliable and honest and believe what others said
• were more likely to be tolerant of others mistakes

If you think you are already emotionally and socially competent – you have motivation, self-awareness, persistence and conscientiousness, then all well and good. If not, then I’ll be discussing ‘how to' at the conference.

For further information and to book a conference place call IAgrM on 01275 843825, [email protected], www.iagrm.org

 

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UK World Class Farming, World Class Food
National Farm Management Conference
London, Wednesday 23 November


Lowther Estates’ director of farming and commercial events, Richard Price previews his paper.

The future isn't what it used to be! We as an industry are all aware of the changes, challenges and opportunities ahead of us as our industry enters into different times and I for one think that we must look at how we structure, staff and recruit, to ensure a streamlined and profitable business.

Agriculture has got to be attractive to recruit the best young people into our industry, who may have previously looked elsewhere. Adopting technology, knowledge transfer and wide angle thinking is crucial.

My mantra is that 'people work for people' and it's important that we look at what staff regard as important, and what we are wanting from staff. We have a lean but very able team of four people on the 3,700 acres I manage in Cumbria. The weather is volatile and challenging so attention to detail and staff management is crucial.

There are a lot of factors that affect farming that we cannot change, but professional management of staff is something we can do.

There are positive times ahead; it will be different, but with strong attention to detail and focus on management of the basics including costs of production, we can make a difference.

 

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UK World Class Farming, World Class Food
National Farm Management Conference
London, Wednesday 23 November

Keynote speaker, AHDB chief executive, Jane King says: “UK agriculture and horticulture faces enormous challenges and opportunities if it is to grow, become more competitive and sustainable. In the short term, there are the uncertainties with Brexit over the future of international trade, agricultural support and labour. Market volatility will remain a constant and there are seismic changes going on with consumer trends too. Add to the mix the fact that total factor productivity has stagnated in comparison to our competitors and we have a significant amount to grapple with as an industry.”
Jane King joined AHDB (Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board) as CEO 18 months ago and since then has led a transformation of the organisation to deliver greater efficiency and improved value for money for levy-payers across six sectors.

She will talk about AHDB’s role in inspiring change in the industry and in helping farmers and growers to succeed in a rapidly changing world through its independent, evidence based market intelligence, research and knowledge exchange. AHDB is ambitious for agriculture and has four strategic priorities going forward. Jane will explain what these are and describe how the levy boards intend to make a difference and, together with other stakeholders, help our industry realise its world class potential.

• For further information and to book a conference place call IAgrM on 01275 843825, [email protected], www.iagrm.org.uk