What a weekend at the Lord Mayor's Show!

WOW! What a weekend! Today I attended the annual Lord Mayor's Show through the streets of London representing The Worshipful Company of Farmers, supported by the National Farmers Union and UK based machinery company New Holland. 

Myself and seven other young farmers from around the UK were nominated and selected to represent their region, I was representing Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands. We took to the streets of London to share our pride and passion for UK Agriculture whilst highlighting the message that as farmers, we are 'PROUD TO PRODUCE YOUR FOOD!' We wanted to engage with consumers and inform them of where their food comes from and the importance of buying British produce and 'BACKING BRITISH FARMING!'

We took with us two major pieces of kit from New Holland, A T7 Tractor and a CR 8.80 Combine! (Its not everyday you see a combine Harvester driving through the centre of London!) The CR 8.80 combine was definitely attracting some attention - rightly so! This large scale piece of technologically advanced equipment is capable of harvesting 6 hectares per hour, with 1 hectare alone producing nearly 11,000 loaves of bread!! 

What a day! British farmers taking the 'Proud to Produce' your food message to London @lordmayors_show .... Great team from @NHAG_UKandROI @FarmersCompany & our young farmers made it a day to remember! pic.twitter.com/UnCqm7JKLB

— NationalFarmersUnion (@NFUtweets) November 11, 2017

The next few years are going to be tough for the food and farming industry, with ongoing BREXIT negotiations and facing the reality that by 2050, we will need to feed 9 billion mouths on this Earth! We need to look towards machinery and technological innovation to enhance our food production volume, availability and quality to secure a stable balance and avoid an inevitable global food deficit. 

So as the next generation of farmers, we say 'BRING ON THE CHALLENGE' and we look forward to the 'FUTURE OF BRITISH FARMING!'

By business student Jessica Spencer.