Harper Forum: October 19, Nick Shorter from Velcourt

On Thursday 19th October at Harper Forum we welcomed Nick Shorter, Southern farms director at Velcourt, Europe’s leading farming company.

He spoke about “Challenges of the 21st century farm manager”. During the talk he outlined the opportunities, challenges and expectations of graduates coming into farming as well as the background to the business.

Velcourt manages more than 50,000 hectares from Northumberland to Devon and farms by the principles of: Co-operation, Financial Discipline and Technical Innovation. He also gave details about farming’s biggest challenges such as Brexit and the volatility of prices in the market.

Velcourt offer scholarships of £4,500 per academic year for arable, dairy and management with the aim of recruiting and developing the best at an early stage and for the scholars join the management team.

This week, Thursday 26^th October we have Alison Teare from the Chartered Institute of Marketing who will be talking about social media opportunities in the world of Agriculture.

It will be held in the Regional Food Academy at 7PM and all staff and students are welcome!

Follow us on Facebook for more details.

By Peter Whittaker