Harper Adams Forum autumn term report

Posted 15 December 2014

By Harper Adams Forum Reporter, Emily Jones.

The Harper Adams Forum has seen a great, successful first term. During the summer, Angharad Gwillim, Grace Munro-Henworth and I, Emily Jones, took over the role of the Forum's executive committee.

Firstly, we would like to thank Anglia Farmers for their kind sponsorship of the forum for the 2014-2015 academic year. This support has helped us to be able to organise the speakers for each week.

We hope that this short report will give you an overview of the events that have been held this term.

At the beginning of September, we welcomed Kate Jones from the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI). Kate is the regional manager for RABI and gave an interesting talk on the work that RABI does for UK farming.

Following this, we were fortunate to host Adam Henson’s Farm Park Manager, Kate Lord, an ex-REALM student of Harper Adams University. Kate spoke about Agri-tourism as a diversification opportunity which was highly relevant to business-related courses. This forum attracted a large number of students, almost filling the lecture theatre!

The Forum then played host to double Paralympic gold medallist and world champion archer, Danielle Brown. Danielle spoke about self-belief and the key to living a successful life.

Bill Young, Head of Commercial Operations at NSF agriculture came to speak to us about his journey from Harper Adams to his current job position. It was inspiring to hear the steps which he took to achieve a great job with NSF. Bill also spoke about the student placement which is offered at NSF and took a range of questions regarding his talk.

Next, we welcomed Bob Stevenson, a highly respected national pig expert. Bob qualified in 1966 and has large responsibilities such as President of the Pig Veterinary Society, Consultant to the British Pig Association and President of the Welsh Pig Society. Bob spoke from a wealth of experience which was enjoyed by many, including lecturers.

Following Bob, Lynette Smale from Holstein UK came to talk to us about the assessment of the value of Holstein UK in tomorrow's dairy industry - taking look at the progression of the Holstein breed and benefits for profit driven dairy farmers. This forum was attended by a large number of dairy farmers who are concerned about the current state of the industry.

We then welcomed Craig Morgan from Agrovista to the Forum. Craig spoke about the current UK Black Grass situation with his topic entitled ‘recent advances in cover crops for grass weed control’. This was an interesting forum with many students interested in the arable sector attending.

Most recently, Phillip Dolbear from the HGCA gave a talk on the HGCA, innovation and the investment made in research. Phillip leads much of the business improvement work at HGCA and was very informative for our audience.

We would like to thank all that have attended the Forum this term; our speakers have been pleased with the attendance. We would also like to thank the speakers who have given up their time to talk to us, we really appreciate it. We hope to see you next term when we will have more interesting guests visiting the Forum.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!