Thursday 12th June, 10am - 3pm
Lackham Campus, Wiltshire College & University Centre, Lackham, SN15 2NY
A Farm of the Future Event, funded by The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and delivered by Innovation for Agriculture.
Join us to hear how you can improve your soil health and recycle nutrients to build on-farm resilience. The day will include a dairy unit and AD plant tour, plus the chance to hear from the renowned Sally Ann Spence on the role of insects in regenerating our soils.
FREE to attend for farmers, this event is a great chance to see and discuss how nature friendly farming can benefit every farming system.
Event includes:
- Dairy unit tour - see the Lackham dairy unit firsthand with Phillip Steans, Farm Manager.
- Modular AD plant demo - see the Biofactory modular small scale AD system in action - slurry management; sustainable energy production and nutrient recycling in one! With Eion Sharkey.
- Soils - hear from Sally-Ann Spence on regenerating soils and watch live soil demonstrations from Innovation for Agriculture.
- Skills - hear from Tess Howe at TIAH on recruiting, training and retaining a skilled farm workforce.
Refreshments and light lunch included.
Event programme
10:00 - Arrival & refreshments
10:30 - Introduction
10:40 - Keynote speaker - Sally-Ann Spence
11:15 - Rotation 1 - Soil demonstrations with Sally-Ann Spence, George Drewett & IfA
12:30 - Tess Howe, TIAH
13:00 - Lunch & networking
14:00 - Rotation 2 - Farm tour of dairy unit & AD system
15:00 - Close & depart
Meet the speakers
Sally-Ann Spence, Entomologist/Farmer, Dung Beetles for Farmers
Sally-Ann is a Fellow of both the Royal Entomological Society and the Linnaean Society and an Honorary Associate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. She is a passionate advocate of sustainability and biodiversity. Her research work with dung beetles and pastureland biodiversity led her to found the UK Dung Beetle Mapping Project accumulating species data. Sally-Ann’s work with the project has seen her surveying field sites all over the UK including many outlying islands enabling her to study a multitude of grazing systems. This practical experience has been translated into many collaborative projects working on sustainable land management plans within the farming community to promote dung beetles as important bio-indicators for soil, pasture and livestock health. Sally-Ann is a founding member of Dung Beetles for Farmers which was formed to continue the awareness of this insect group and highlight their conservation. She also owns and runs an educational research centre ‘Berrycroft Hub’ based on her home farm. Here she keeps PFLA accredited livestock and manages the grassland in a variety of systems.
George Drewett, White Avon Consultancy
George is a partner in WhiteAvon Consultancy and works as a farm management consultant, providing advice on a wide range of topics, including business advice, budgeting, environmental schemes, waste management, farm diversification, planning support and agricultural justifications. George graduated from Reading University with a BSc (Hons) in Agriculture in 2007. He has a passion for agriculture and also farms in his own right which has given him experience of the day to day practicalities of running a farming business. He runs arable and sheep discussion groups providing local farmers the opportunity to hear from speakers within the industry, other benefits include improved marketing and bulk purchasing. In addition to this George has recently set up a cooperative facility to enable farmers to grow crops for a contracted price.
Tess Howe, Head of Partnerships and Policy at The institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH),
Tess is responsible for developing TIAH’s network to support their mission as home of skills, careers and professionalism in agriculture and horticulture. Tess has worked in the agriculture and horticulture industry for more than 20 years, predominantly in livestock but also in the arable and horticultural sectors. After graduating with a degree in Agriculture from the University of Newcastle, Tess’ first industry role was as a trainee manager with a large bacon processor. Her job involved learning about every aspect of the business, including liaising with hauliers and farmers, and ensuring that the animal welfare code was adhered to by all suppliers. Building on her livestock welfare experience, Tess went on to become a Technical Officer with the Humane Slaughter Association, improving the welfare of farmed animals during transport and at slaughter. Tess then took up a post with BPEX (later to become AHDB Pork), where, as Skills Development Manager, she played an instrumental role in the development and delivery of the national pork training strategy. In 2012, Tess progressed into the role of AHDB’s Senior Skills Manager. This demanding role covered all farming sectors and focused on improving industry engagement with skills development activities to support thriving agricultural businesses in a rapidly changing market. In this post, Tess led the pivotal Skills Task Force for the Food & Drink Sector Council’s Agricultural Productivity Working Group. This included development of the strategic case and business plan for a proposed new professional body, which led to the formation of TIAH and her move into her current role. Outside of work, Tess is very much an outdoors person, whether that is pushing herself in ultra-marathons, training her dogs, or walking with her family. Tess is also a voluntary welfare officer with her local women’s football club.
Eion Sharkey – CEO - BioFactory
Founder and CEO of BioFactory, Eoin is a trained Mechanical Engineer from Bath University, and has spun the company out from his Master's project designing waste to energy systems. BioFactory are a design and engineering business, focusing on waste to energy solutions, specialising in the utilisation of Anaerobic Digestion (AD) for small scale dairy systems.
