Key date in organic calendar moves to the Midlands
The UK’s biggest dedicated organic farming event is to be staged at a Shropshire farm in July, attracting experts and delegates from across the country.
National Organic Cereals 2012: Getting the lowdown on the trials
National Organic Cereals has become a key date in the farming calendar since its launch in 2007 by control body, Organic Farmers & Growers.
It has been held in a different part of the UK every year, but this sixth annual running of the event returns to the county where it was held in its inaugural year, with Shifnal farmers Mark and Liz Lea as hosts on their diversified organic farm, which has cereals, Hereford beef cattle and a commercial green waste compost facility.
With sponsorship from the National Farmers Union, Waitrose, the UK’s largest organic baker, Nicholas and Harris of Salisbury, and other companies and industry bodies, National Organic Cereals 2013 is on course to be bigger than ever this year.
The event will repeat a format that has proved consistently successful with delegates and sponsors, including an extensive farm walk around specially planted trial crops, presentations on practical matters surrounding the sector, a wide array of trade stands, machinery demonstrations and an ever-popular organic sit-down lunch.
The presentation and discussion elements of the day will be led by the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today programme, Charlotte Smith, and will include presentations from experienced specialists on topics including organic agronomy, compost and digestate use, the supply chain and more. Attendees will also be able to take advantage of a moisture meter clinic and be entered for the chance to win a full soil chemistry test, courtesy of Laverstoke Park Laboratories.
Event director, Steven Jacobs, of Organic Farmers & Growers, said: “National Organic Cereals has become a really popular fixture in the organic farming calendar and we’ve made the event bigger and better every year. It’s focused entirely on practical matters and aimed both at current organic farmers and anyone keen to find out more about the sector. The ethos is entirely practical but definitely not preachy!
“Mark and Liz Lea, at Green Acres Farm, are proving to be the perfect hosts as we prepare the demonstration crops and other arrangements and they have a fascinating, diversified, mixed farm which is also a popular destination for local schools to visit.”
Mr Jacobs stressed that demand for tickets to the event habitually outstripped the available places and urged county farmers who were keen to attend to book early. More details and booking forms can be found at http://ofng.me/noc13.
