Rural Business School Newsletter - Winter 2016

The Rural Business School

Degree Success Farm Business Data Australian Farming B-Lines Diverse forages

Issue 53 - WINTER 2016

Advice Days:

Duchy - 28th January Bicton - 4th February

Healthy silage means healthy livestock

Editorial

“Perhaps the major worry across the south west... is its reliance on the Basic Payment Scheme.”

With the weakening of the pound and the associated movements in product prices along with a dry autumn, there appears to be a slight change in mood within the industry (page 3) – optimism may be an overstatement of the situation - but at least there seems to be less pessimism as we near the end of 2016.

The uncertainty around ‘Brexit’ reported in our last issue, however, seems to have increased rather than reduced, some five months after the results of the referendum were declared. Perhaps the major worry across the south west agricultural sector, with its smaller farm size and emphasis on livestock production, is its reliance on the Basic Payment Scheme, which contributed 60% of the total farm business income in 2014/15 (page 17).

Although the Chancellor of the Exchequer has promised to cover such payments until 2020, no guarantee is there after this date. Despite the fact that many of our farmer-friendly politicians have expressed an opinion that some form of direct payment should continue post-2020, we know that both major political parties really only agreed to these payments, because of Brussels and the CAP. With the demands of the NHS and social care to be able to look after our ageing population, we can assume where the priorities will lie -remember Boris’s battle-bus slogan!

The second significant worry around Brexit, is agriculture’s reliance on EU labour, which now

Director: Richard Soffe FRAgS page 2 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

constitutes 20% of the agricultural work force, disregarding seasonal labour (the latter could be covered through a new form of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme). The Brexiteers are adamant that EU immigration must be controlled, as this is seen as one of the main concerns of the majority who voted to leave the EU. One of our problems is that in comparison with say doctors and the like, such workers are not seen as highly skilled. The situation in the food processing industry, now our largest manufacturing industry, is even more pronounced, where EU workers comprise over 30% of the labour force.

The third area of concern is trade, the original reason for joining the ‘Common Market’ as it was then known; for instance, over 30% of domestically produced lamb is currently exported to the EU. Should this market be curbed, studies indicate that British lamb is unlikely to be competitive on world markets. Many products sold to countries outside the EU, such as seed potatoes to the Egyptian potato sector, have been arranged through an EU agreementthat is not to say that would be impossible to

continue - but it will need considerable work to allow trade to carry on as before the Brexit announcement.

The worry voiced by many is that agriculture, worth 1% of the UK economy’s Gross Value Added (GVA), could be sacrificed as a pawn in the larger picture.

Even if agriculture and food together represent the largest manufacturing sector in the UK with 6.8% of GVA, it is only half the value of the finance sector (12% of GVA) and dwarfed by the whole of the service sector at 80% of the UK economy.

Recent entrants to the industry (page 15) are emphasising the opportunities opening up through providing added value products, demanded by the consumer and the potential for reducing demand for labour through harnessing all the potential ‘Agritech’ (pages 4, and 19) advances; if true – this would entail unprecedented changes within the south west agriculture if it is all to have a sustainable future…

On behalf of the Rural Business School, we wish you all a Happy Christmas and more Prosperous New Year.

Paul Ward

Contents Industry Comment 3 RBS News 4 News 19-27 SWARM Hub 24 Market Monitor 26 Environmental Advice 30 Diary Dates 35

0845 458 7485

www.ruralbusinessschool.org.uk

ARABLE/BEEF: The autumn has been a good one so far, with many people catching up with drilling; maize harvest is in full swing and potato digging nearly complete and not much mess in fields or on roads. The livestock in the fields are enjoying the weather also, apart from a bit of pneumonia in suckled calves due to a few cold nights and warm days.

On our own farm, we are slightly changing our system and instead of buying 12-week old weaned off calves, we are going back into suckler cows and looking to produce as much as possible off the farm.

On our arable side, although prices have risen slightly in the last few weeks due to the weak pound, the margin is still very minimal. We have grown red clover in our rotation for the first time and after three cuts, we are waiting for the analysis for protein content so it can be mixed with other silages; hopefully it will save buying in expensive soya.

Graham Whiting, Looe.

15-10-16 CQLP DEADWEIGHT REPORT: After such a lovely autumn our thoughts are towards winter housing and working out the most productive feeding regimes for both cattle and sheep. Although

there has been an abundance of grass, the value is limited.

Cattle: Due to changes in abattoir requirements it will be important to supplement grass and silage to meet the new target weights and ages. Specifications are changing weekly as outlets focus on their customer requirements and discourage what they do not need with harsh deductions. It becomes more important to take advice on where to send your stock. The forthcoming changes to pricing on heavier weights will make it uneconomic to send these cattle to some abattoirs. The premium range (Angus/ Hereford) all are subject to more restrictions on maximum or minimum weights in order to achieve a premium. Organic cattle on the other hand have consistently achieved premiums of 50-60p/kg.

Sheep: The main season for selling lambs this year has been steady, with good lambs easily returning around £80 per head most of the time.

Conditions throughout the summer resulted in slower finishing which meant a glut was avoided spreading the levels of slaughtering over the rest of the season. The current sterling exchange rate makes imports of both New Zealand lamb and

Irish beef more expensive in the UK, which leaves home production in a much stronger position.

Also there is good news from the Co-op; from next summer, their stores will only sell British meat, stimulating more demand for both home grown lambs and cattle.

CQLP 03-11-16 DAIRY: Having stopped three times a day milking in mid-October, the cows have settled down to twice a day without too many problems.

Cell counts tend to increase for a short time, milk leakage on to beds and less frequent yard scraping all lead to greater attention to detail required. Reasons for changing were lower than expected yields due to high moisture second cut silage, milk price not increasing fast enough and concern over cow body condition.

Three weeks on and cow condition and yields are improving due to maize silage now in the TMR. The second heifer shed has just been completed with the self-locking yokes already being a great labour saving addition for serving and pregnancy diagnosis, and no doubt will be a godsend come next TB testing in February.

Simon Ward, ST & AL Ward, Wadebridge. 18-11-16

Industry Comments

The state of farming in the south west - your views.

Here we list some of your comments on the current state of agriculture in the westcountry.

“The main season for selling lambs this year has been steady, with good lambs easily returning around £80 per head”.

For more information If you would like to share your views in a future issue, please contact Gemma Eales on 0845 458 7485 or email gc@duchy.ac.uk.

Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 3

RBS News

Healthy Silage Event

By Gemma Eales, Technical Specialist On the 13th September the Bovmycotox project hosted an event for farmers and advisers at Duchy College, looking at healthy silage and bovine mycotoxicosis. The Bovmycotox project is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and is a joint collaboration between academics at the Universities of Bristol and Nottingham, Imperial College London, Rothamsted Research and Duchy College, and industry partners, Mole Valley Farmers, Micron Bio-Systems and AB Vista. The long-term aim of the project is to develop a rapid diagnostic tool for bovine mycotoxicosis.

“At present, mycotoxicosis is phenomenally difficult to diagnose”

Professor Michael Lee of the University of Bristol and Rothamsted Research, who is principal investigator with the project, began the day by introducing its aims.

Mycotoxins are fungal metabolites, most commonly produced from Fusarium and Aspergillus, which are found on cereals and conserved forage.

Traditionally, these were predominantly an issue for monogastric livestock (pigs and poultry), which are fed cereals and grains

and lack the ability to detoxify them. However, it is now understood that mycotoxicosis is responsible for a number of issues in cattle too.

Mycotoxins tend to be detoxified by rumen bacteria and protozoa, but if the pH of the rumen drops (Sub-acute Ruminal Acidosis (SARA)), the microflora are incapable of carrying out the detoxification process.

Prof. Lee went on to explain the aims of the Bovmycotox

project, which include the production of a simple diagnostic test for mycotoxicosis. “At present, mycotoxicosis is phenomenally difficult to diagnose”, said Prof.

Lee. “We want to improve the understanding of the disease and veterinary advice. It is a significant disease, with many impacts, including a drop in yield and dry matter Figure 1: Mycotoxicosis is a significant disease, with many impacts. Image courtesy of Prof. Lee

intake. It can be confused with other ailments, such as SARA and at present the best advice is to add a mycotoxin binder if you see mould in the forage, and hope things improve.

There is therefore a real need to isolate a unique identifier, which can be used to develop a simple diagnostic test”.

Prof. Lee reported that the project was making good progress; it had initially proven difficult to get the Fusarium mould to produce mycotoxins under laboratory conditions, but this was achieved and a metabolite has been identified. Work on developing this into a diagnostic tool is ongoing.

Professor Mike Wilkinson from the University of Nottingham then spoke and explained that healthy silage has low levels of undesirable bacteria (Enterobacteria, Listeria and Clostridia), yeasts and moulds, mycotoxins, nitrate, amines and ammonia and aerobically spoiled material. His talk also included crucial aspects of safety around silos.

An in-depth report on Prof. Wilkinson’s talk will appear in full in the next issue of the Rural Business School Newsletter.

The third speaker of the morning was Liz Mee, Technical Manager from

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Micron Bio-Systems, one of Bovmycotox’s commercial partners.

The talk focussed on pre-harvest mycotoxin production and began with an overview of moulds, which are found everywhere. Mould spores are transported through the air by wind and exist on the surface of the plant and require a specific set of conditions to establish and grow.

She then gave a rundown of the important toxin forming moulds, which include Apergillus, which produces Aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2, Fusarium, which produces (amongst others), deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZON) and fumonisin B1 and B2, Penicillium, which produces ochratoxin A, patulin and citrinin and Claviceps purpurea, which produces ergot alkaloids.

“We want to improve the understanding of the disease and veterinary advice.

It is a significant disease, with many impacts” Moulds produce chemical compounds called metabolites during their lifecycle, and there have been 500 fungal metabolites

identified in animal feed.

However, not all of these are mycotoxins. Some of these metabolites are antibiotics, which are toxic to bacteria; some metabolites are phytotoxins, which are toxic to plants and some are mycotoxins, which are toxic to vertebrate animals.

Micron Bio-Systems carry out the Mycocheck analysis, which detects and quantifies mycotoxins in feeds and samples are studied from across the world. A range of pre-harvest mould growths were outlined in the presentation, starting with Aspergillus. Initial

Professor Michael Lee Aspergillus colonisation and growth require high temperatures of above 25oC and low rainfall and are not usually a major concern for farmers in the UK. Ms Mee then went on to discuss DON and ZON, produced by Fusarium spp, most commonly F. graminearum and F. culmorum. Production arises in environmental conditions that are wet and relatively cooler, between 15 and 25oC. Production occurs during ear emergence and from flowering onwards.

Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 5

Heavy rainfall during the plant’s flowering period is particularly conducive to DON and ZON formation, as well as continual heavy rain throughout its growth. ZON also proliferates where harvest conditions are wet.

Fusarium spp. also produce fumonisin mycotoxins in warm (20-35oC) conditions with low to moderate water availability. As with DON and ZON, they occur around ear emergence and from flowering onwards, but unlike DON and ZON, fumonisins tend to be produced in warmer and drier conditions, especially in tropical and Mediterranean climates.

Their production is stimulated by an increase in temperature rather than an increase in moisture.

A range of other mycotoxin producing species was also then discussed, each requiring a specific set of climatic conditions, with the key message that the weather is always right for mycotoxins! The most common mycotoxins in temperate climes such as the UK are DON and ZON, although fumonisins and T2 can be produced in warm and dry summers.

“It is still difficult to predict and model preharvest contamination levels”, said Ms Mee, “You need to be prepared and analyse for mycotoxins if

you have any concerns”, she cautioned.

Liz Mee went on to stress the importance of accurate sampling techniques when taking silage samples for testing. Mycotoxins are not distributed evenly throughout the clamp; instead they form hotspots. It is therefore important to take nine small sub-samples, which you combine to make one full sample. These nine sub-samples should be taken from the clamp face in a “W” shape, and taken from 15-20cm behind the face (or alternatively take them immediately after a block has been removed).

The sub-samples should be mixed together in a bucket for 20 seconds. A similar approach should be taken with sampling TMR, taking a number of smaller sub-samples

page 6 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

from different areas and combining them. All samples should obviously be carefully labelled.

Figure 2: Current stress challenges on the highyielding dairy cow. Image courtesy of AB Vista.

The speaker concluded her talk by looking at in-feed mycotoxin solutions, which act to “bind” the mycotoxin, either by adsorption or transformation and degradation. Adsorption is usually achieved by the addition of clay minerals, such as bentonites, sepiolites or diatomaceous earth (a porous deposit made up of fossilised algae).

Binding efficiency varies, and adsorption is most efficient at binding aflatoxins, then fumonisins and ergot alkaloids, with DON, ZON and T2 being the least efficiently adsorbed. The use of cheap binders should be avoided, as they

may be contaminated.

Adsorption can also be achieved through the addition of organic binders, such as yeast, which has a 70% binding efficiency for ZON. The best in-feed solution for DON is transformation/ degradation, which is where an enzyme or microbial organism is added, which act to break the mycotoxin down (degrade) into a smaller molecule. This smaller (transformed) molecule is now capable of being bound by, for example, a clay mineral. The approaches are therefore best used in combination.

The final speaker of the morning was Dr JamieLeigh Douglas, Technical Support Manager for AB Vista, another of Bovmycotox’s commercial partners. Dr Douglas’ presentation focussed on why mycotoxins appear to be a fairly recent and growing problem.

She began by looking at the modern dairy cow, which has been undergoing selection for desirable traits since domestication. The milk yield of the modern cow is significantly higher than its ancestors, and with this increase in yield comes a massive increase in energy demand and a need to mobilise body reserves to support this demand.

Cows are ruminants, designed to feed on grass or forage, but in order to meet the energy demands of high yielding dairy cows, their diets now include high-energy concentrates, with relatively little fibrous feed. However, the rumen has not evolved alongside this change in diet and the rumen is built to deal with fibrous food, not concentrates.

The rumen contains a delicate microbiome, which includes a range of microbes, including bacteria, protozoa, fungi and phages, working in synergy to generate the energy required for milk and

meat production. These microbes are important for degrading a variety of feed components and transform plant material into both desirable and undesirable ruminant products.

“The weather is always right for mycotoxins!.”

In addition, a healthy rumen has the ability to defend against mycotoxins, as the rumen microbiota has the ability to biotransform mycotoxins into less toxic or non-toxic metabolites.

However, this works for low-levels of in-feed mycotoxins (the rumen can only deal with low levels) and not all types, with some mycotoxins remaining resistant to rumen breakdown.

hours before recovery.

The acidification of the rumen often occurs when cows are fed a high energy concentratebased diet with relatively little fibre. This reduced rumen pH negatively affects the balance of the rumen microbes, with protozoa and some bacteria particularly affected, thus reducing the cow’s natural defence against mycotoxins.

There also appears to be a shift towards lactate acid producing bacteria, which compounds the acidification of the rumen and the removal of beneficial microbes.

If the acidification of the rumen is prolonged, or there is repeated exposure to SARA, the

rumen wall itself can become damaged, which allows for the easier passage or mycotoxins into the bloodstream.

The effect of SARA is amplified when combined with numerous other stressors the cow may be experiencing simultaneously, such as calving, lameness, mastitis etc., which all have a cumulative negative effect on the cow’s ability to cope with mycotoxin ingestion.

Dr Douglas explained that although mycotoxins are often present in low levels individually, there is an additive effect of different individual mycotoxins, which leads to a Dr Jamie-leigh Douglas

In addition to coping with a high energy diet, the modern dairy cow also has to deal with a number of pressures and stresses, often coping with several challenges at once. These include lameness, overstocking and infections (Figure 2).

Dr Douglas then went on to discuss one of SARA in particular, which occurs when the rumen is below a pH of 5.8 for 3-4 Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 7

Healthy Silage Event Farm Walk

synergistic larger effect, with increased toxicity, i.e. in combination, it is possible for numerous low-level mycotoxins to be more dangerous than high levels of just one mycotoxin.

“Virtually all mycotoxins compromise the immune system in some way, decreasing the resistance to challenge from other diseases”, said Dr Douglas.

“Mycotoxins are hidden thieves and are likely to be responsible for numerous undiagnosed health issues”. Mycotoxins act to reduce animal performance in many areas, and mycotoxicosis can present an animal with numerous symptoms (Figure 3), or just as an animal performing suboptimally. “Mycotoxins kill profit, not animals”, she added. The impact mycotoxins have on the health and performance of the herd, along with the difficulty in diagnosing mycotoxicosis, is testament to the need for

“Mycotoxins are hidden thieves and are likely to be responsible for numerous undiagnosed health issues”

By Gemma Eales, Technical Specialist

On the 13th September 2016 the Bovmycotox project hosted an event for farmers and advisers at Duchy College, looking at healthy silage and bovine mycotoxicosis. Following the morning speaker session (page 4), the group moved out for a farm walk around Duchy College Home Farm, led by Farms Director for the College, James Coumbe.

a simple diagnostic tool, which the Bovmycotox project is hoping to provide.

The importance of a holistic view of herd health was highlighted, with Dr Douglas explaining that if every area of stress on the dairy cow was improved by just 1%, the aggregation of marginal gains would result in a huge improvement in herd health, production and profit. The overwhelming stress mycotoxins place on animals therefore makes them a clear target for improvement.

“The economic impact of lowered productivity, reduced weight gain, reduced feed efficiency and interference in reproduction is

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greater than that of immediate mortality and effective measures for the detoxification of mycotoxins are essential for the improved production and productivity of livestock” Dr Douglas concluded.

Following a question and answer session, the group moved on to a farm walk, led by Farms Director

Figure 3: Mycotoxicosis can present with a range of symptoms, with different mycotoxins having different indicators.

Image courtesy of Micron Bio-Systems. for the College, James Coumbe.

A full report on the farm walk follows this article on page 9.

For more information For more information on the Bovmycotox project, or to see copies of the speakers’ presentations, please visit the project website: www.bovmycotox.co.uk. Look out for a full report on Professor Wilkinson’s presentation in the next edition.

The walk began by looking at the maize, which has this year all been grown under plastic.

Mr Coumbe explained that the College was trialling some early varieties, with a cover crop afterwards, in order to try and reduce soil run-off, which was exacerbated with the later maturing varieties.

A lively debate regarding the difficulties of growing maize and the associated run-off then ensued. It is harder to establish a following crop or cover crop after late maturing maize that grows quickly enough to provide run-off

preventing ground cover.

Prof. Wilkinson suggested that a welltimed undersowing of ryegrass (timed so as to not compete with maize) has been shown to help stabilise the soil.

Strip-tilling, where the area around remains uncultivated was also suggested, and is used in Switzerland to prevent run-off. Other methods to slow down the momentum of water leaving the fields were discussed, including rough cultivated strips, placed closer together where the land is steep, which are repaired in the

winter and checked postharvest and pre-spring, with any new strips added above the old. It was also suggested that if yields are below 9,000 litres and the land you have doesn’t naturally lend itself to growing maize, it might be best to switch from growing maize to wholecrop silage instead.

A discussion then followed regarding the advantages and disadvantages of growing maize and wholecrop, in terms of nutrition, environmental impact, finances and operational considerations.

The College Farm is in a high bTB area, and the problem of badgers damaging maize plants was discussed in light of the evidence given earlier in the day regarding increased mycotoxin burdens in ears that had sustained physical damage. A possible solution to mitigate the problem was to look for varieties that didn’t have ears positioned low on the plant.

The tour then moved on to look at the high sugar grassland trials being run as part of the Sustainable Intensification Partnership (SIP) project with Rothamsted Research, which is looking at interventions aimed at delivering sustainability.

Prof. Lee explained that the trial at Duchy College was the dairy element of the beef and sheep trials that had taken place at Rothamsted North Wyke.

The project compared an area of permanent James Coumbe (centre in green cap) discussing the high sugar grasses trial

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pasture with an area that had been reseeded with a high sugar grass monoculture in terms of milk yield and quality from the two systems, with the idea of seeing when the tipping point was for moving from permanent pasture to a reseed and what advantages (if any) there were for a reseed.

The paddocks were grazed for three months and the results showed a slightly higher yield on the permanent pasture, but with a slightly higher fat content on the high sugar grass. Protein and lactose levels were very similar, but the somatic cell count was lower on the high sugar grass.

From the results at present, it was concluded that any benefits of the high sugar grass were not enough to cover the financial cost of a reseed in the first year of establishment.

The tour concluded with a discussion with a talk by Dr Hannah Jones, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Reading and Visiting Research Fellow at the Rural Business School, about the Diverse Forages project. The project is looking at how to extend the grazing season by increasing the diversity of the sward, in particular looking at how to increase the biomass available at the shoulders of the season. Rather than a random mix of species, the project is looking to find the right diverse

For more information The Bovmycotox project is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and is a joint collaboration between academics at the Universities of Bristol and Nottingham, Imperial College London, Rothamsted Research and Duchy College, and industry partners, Mole Valley Farmers, Micron Bio-Systems and AB Vista. The long-term aim of the project is to develop a rapid diagnostic tool for bovine mycotoxicosis.

For more information on the Bovmycotox project, please visit the project website www.bovmycotox. co.uk, call 0845 458 7485 or email rbs@duchy. ac.uk. page 10 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

The farm walk included a lively debate on the difficulties in growing maize in the region mixture for a particular set of conditions. That might include a degree of drought or water tolerance or the inclusion of plants with natural anthelmintic properties.

Each plant species brings a different attribute to the grassland, which may help to reduce rainfall run-off and diffuse pollution.

Duchy College Home Farm is currently trialling four seed mixtures in a replicated and randomised block trial under scientific conditions. In addition, farmers are also trialling the mixtures and growing them in commercial conditions and their experiences and observations will be very important to the project.

Some mixtures have just six species, with the most diverse containing 18 different species.

The project will run for five years and a key element of the trial is the management techniques required to maintain species diversity within the swards, as grazing the sward too low can result in a loss of diversity. An increase in sward diversity has an added benefit for wildlife, with bees in particular benefitting from more foraging opportunities early in the season. (Also see page 24).

More success for Duchy degree students as Ruth Wills wins National Award Ruth Wills from Liskeard, a student on Duchy College’s B Sc (Hons) Rural Business Management course was presented with the 2016 Farm Health Management Award at the Livestock Event at the NEC in Birmingham. Ruth won the category for students studying agriculture at universities and colleges across Britain. The icing on the cake was that Ross Symons, another Duchy College student on the same course from near Truro, was runner-up.

The competition is organised by the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF), to raise the awareness of the importance of proactive farm health planning among younger members of the industry. The entrants had to prepare an essay demonstrating their understanding of proactive health planning. They were asked to identify the barriers to adopting such a strategy and how to overcome those issues to improve health and profitability. Students undertook the task as part of their course and Ruth and Ross were the two chosen to represent the College.

It was judged by a panel of a farmer, vet and John Sumner, Farm Health Planning project manager at the Livestock Event. “The finalists showed a high level of understanding of the issues for consideration and had plenty of ideas for improving the uptake of proactive health planning,” commented John. He was pleased to

see entries from Duchy College, which has not entered the event since winning it in both 2010 and 2011.

“I was thrilled to win the award, and it was totally unexpected”, said Ruth. “Having studied Johne’s disease for my dissertation, it was a subject that really interested me, so I enjoyed creating a Farm Heath Management Plan, including the knowledge I had gained. It was important to me to really get the benefits across of proactive heath planning and management, as it is not just for the farm and farmer, it also benefits the wider economy, making farming more sustainable

John Sumner, chief judge with winner Ruth Wills and runner-up, Ross Symons for the future. For anyone not sure if they should enter, just give it a go! You never know what could become of it.”

Ross said, “I liked that I was able to use my own farm in the essay and that it was entered in a national competition. It gave me a good sense of confidence that my own ideas that are being put into practice are highly regarded by the panel of judges.”

Paul Ward commented, “I was not so surprised that Ruth and Ross did so well, as their essays

were of top quality. This reflects the expertise that the College has built up as a result of running successful knowledge exchange programmes such as ‘Healthy Livestock’ with farm vets and the livestock sector across the south west. Our staff have genuine experience of working to identify and overcome the barriers to the uptake of proactive health planning on farms.

This is illustrated by the fact that the approaches piloted in the south west have now been adopted at national level”.

Dr Jurie Intachat, Programme Manager for the course and the Higher Education Team Lead for Rural Economy at the College, added, “This was an excellent opportunity for students to apply knowledge gained from their studies and develop innovative but realistic solutions. We aim to develop our students’ professional skills and to see that they have achieved this through such competitions is an honour.”

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You can’t be Green if you are in the Red: Talking carbon and climate with Australian farmers

By Becky Willson, Technical Specialist

At the end of last year, I was lucky enough to be awarded a Nuffield scholarship from the Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust. The Trust awards around 20 scholarships a year to people involved in agriculture and gives them an opportunity to research topics connected to farming, food production, and rural sectors through individual study and overseas travel.

Effective Communication My topic is intimately connected to my work both here at the Rural Business School and outside Duchy for the Farm Carbon Cutting Toolkit, a farmer-led organisation which aims to help farmers understand practical ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farms. My study, entitled “Communicating carbon reduction schemes to farmers; busting preconceptions, driving efficiency and profit,” focusses on two main questions, namely: •

•

How do we effectively communicate the benefits to the farm business of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and get farmers interested and engaged in emissions reductions?

What can we learn from other countries about implementing an effective emissions reduction strategy that will inspire

farmers to want to participate?

A fundamental part of a Nuffield scholarship is travel, which gives you the opportunity to step back from your day job, push yourself out of your comfort zone and experience the phenomenon that is global agriculture.

On My Travels One of the places that I was keen to visit was Australia. Australia has had an interesting relationship with carbon economy in the past, having run (and then stopped) a carbon trading scheme. This scheme more recently has become a tool used by politicians to influence voters. As well, it was a blog that I wrote on a project being run by Meat and Livestock Australia called the Farm 300 project that initially inspired my application to Nuffield. So I was keen to go and find out whether, in a country that is proud

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of having minimum government subsidies, they face the same issues that we do in terms of developing efficient, resilient businesses that will produce food, provide environmental benefits and be sustainable in the long term.

During my three and a half weeks in Australia, I had the chance to speak with farmers, project holders, industry, researchers, political activists, farmers unions, government officials, the media, and anyone else who would talk to me. This was fascinating and provided lots of interesting revelations, but also conflicting and often emotive viewpoints, a common occurrence when talking about carbon and climate change.

Costing Carbon The Farm300 project aimed to improve the knowledge and skills of Australian livestock

producers leading to a 10% increase in on-farm productivity and profitability and a 30% decrease in GHG emissions intensity over a two-year period. What initially interested me about this project was the fact that instead of training the farmers, they were training the advisors, and then letting the advisors adapt that knowledge to local conditions that their farmers were facing.

This is based on the theory that there is no universally applicable list of mitigation practices; practices need to be evaluated for individual farm systems and settings. The advisor’s task was to interpret materials and the wider challenge of lowering emissions into regionally adapted programmes that can be used with producers at a local level.

The project was very much focussed on business and really

making the link between productivity and lower GHG emissions. This focus on business was necessary to get farmers interested in the process.

It was business that was the priority for the farmers, and as such the environmental messages had to be communicated in such a way that they could be directly linked to the impact on profitability and productivity. Farmers were given one- to- one coaching as well as the opportunity to benefit from farmer- to- farmer learning through discussion groups that were managed by advisors and the use of benchmarking to document impact. The project was so successful at achieving changes onfarm that the same model is going to be rolled out across other research strands of MLA’s work.

Feeling the effects Another key factor is the vulnerability of agriculture in Australia to its climate. Australia has already seen its average temperatures increase more than 1.5oF (1˚C) over the last century, according to data from CSIRO, Australia’s national scientific agency and the Bureau of Meteorology.

Projections as to what happens next make for frightening reading, with estimates of warming expected to increase by 9 o F (around 6o C) by 2090.

This will test many of the

face managing such a harsh environment and running their businesses on such a big scale. The scale is incredible; the average size of the farms that I visited was 40,000 acres. This environment is tough, it’s dry unforgiving terrain that the cattle and the farming system have to adapt to if they want to survive. nation’s farmers, and even with adaptation there are limits to what farmers can do.

As well as increasing temperatures there are also issues concerning rainfall, with more extreme weather events predicted, with more intense rains and tropical cyclones. In southern Australia, decreasing rainfall and more heat waves and droughts are already affecting farmers.

“Things are changing,” explained one farmer that I spoke to, “the droughts seem longer and the rainfall is all over the place, holding onto water becomes the most important aspect of management.”

Because of this, in Melbourne agricultural scientists are working with the Bureau of Meteorology to help farmers use the latest data to try and predict weather patterns and understand what’s coming and its likely impact on cropping.

Graeme Anderson, a specialist in climate extension for farmers who works for the Department of Agriculture in Melbourne, provides the link between the farmers and the climate modellers, making sure that the scientists understand what the farmers need, and the farmers understand where the models can help and where they can’t. Understanding what is happening with the climate, and adapting your business management to make the most of resources and plan for what’s coming makes good business sense, and has been seen to be a good way to get farmers interested in climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Queensland and the costs of production After visiting producers and projects in the south, I was able to travel up to Queensland and talk to beef producers about the challenges that they

The farmers that I met were all interested in carbon because of the benefits it would bring to their business through improved soil management. The importance of grassland and soil management was discussed on all of the farms, and there had been a definite shift from set stocking to rotational grazing (although what these farmers called grass bore little resemblance to what we have here in the south west). Alongside rotational grazing there was fanatical attention to detail. The cattle were used as a tool to manage their grass, and the grass was managed to improve the soil and ultimately its productive capacity.

A couple of the farmers had stopped referring to themselves as cattle farmers and had now termed themselves soil farmers. One farm had managed to increase the carrying capacity of their farm by seven times just through grazing management.

Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 13

Talking to farmers, I was interested to know how they manage to keep their businesses going through such variability and change in markets and the climate. Business and management plans were based on the worst case scenario planning and as such, anything that came above that was a bonus. They were also based on knowing their costs of production. Most of the cattle produced in Queensland and the Northern Territories are destined for export, and knowing production costs and what the markets were doing meant that the farmers were able to react to market fluctuations quickly, and understand when to get rid of stock or when to build numbers.

It’s all about the soil Another key aspect I was keen to learn more about was soil carbon sequestration and paying farmers from the carbon trading market for sequestering carbon in their soils. Australia (as I mentioned earlier) has had an interesting past with farmers and carbon trading, however they are leading the way in terms of getting payments to farmers for altering management practices to store carbon within soils.

Here in the UK soil carbon is a fairly contentious issue, with scientists for the most part yet to

prove a conclusive link between management practices and an increase in sequestration rate.

The science is pretty conclusive if you convert an arable field into long term grassland (the soil carbon goes up) and the same happens if you convert a grass or arable field into growing trees.

However, where there hasn’t been agreement is on the likely scale of the impact of changing arable or grassland management.

The company involved with these questions in Australia is completely clear on the answers.

“There are two issues,” I was told, “Firstly, farmers are way ahead of the scientists, in terms of what they are doing.”

Farmers here (like some in the UK) are seeing a complete revitalisation of their soils by changing management practices.

“The soils are completely alive, the improvement comes not just in the increase in organic matter content, but also in helping the biology in

page 14 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

The fertile Tablelands the soil do what it was put there to do.” Secondly, the issue is that we aren’t measuring to the correct depth. “Most research stops measuring at 30cm, but the changes happen much deeper than that.

We need to be measuring down to 1m or 1.5 metres to see the impact.”

Certainly the rest of the world’s focus will be on Australia over the next five years, and on those farmers who are pioneering the system.

All of the farmers who are involved understand the wider benefits that building soil carbon has.

An Australian research organisation worked out that the carbon price is AUD$12 a tonne (around £7.20), but the value in terms of the wider ecosystem services of that carbon is more like AUD$200 a tonne (around £120).

On reflection So what did I come away from the trip with? I am

in awe of the scale and variation of global food production and blown away by the passion and enthusiasm of farmers producing food in challenging climatic conditions that regularly experience extreme weather events that wipe out crops. It was refreshing to see projects that were dealing with environmental issues, but coming at it from the point of view of business efficiencies.

As one farmer told me “You can’t be green if you are in the red.” But what was also refreshing was that despite a focus on productivity and business, there was still room for environmental management, and a deep passion to leave the farm in a better state that they had received it, without Government financial incentives.

What was also interesting was the need for integration all the way up the chain. Climate change is the biggest environmental and societal challenge facing us today, and as such we need everyone, farmers, policy makers, consumers, scientists, and industry working together to develop solutions that work for farmers and deliver solutions for everyone.

Thank you to AHDB Beef and Lamb for generously sponsoring my Nuffield experience.

Degree success – what are they doing now?

The success of our 2016 graduates was celebrated at the Degree Awards ceremony at Truro Cathedral on 19th November. This was an excellent chance to find out what they are doing now…

Left: Douglas Little & Rose Disney (1st & 2nd left front, B Sc Agriculture & Food), Lynne Maud, Emma Pethick, Ryan Renfree, Michael Szczesniak, Faith Ogilvie, Gemma Hearn, Ross Symons, Ruth Wills

B Sc (Hons) Rural Business Management Faith Ogilvie: “Since completing my exams and coursework in the early summer, I started working as a seasonal sales assistant within the Marketing team at Riverford Organic Farmers. Six months on, I now have the role as an Events coordinator for the company.

Studying a Rural Business Management degree at Duchy College has abled me to grow confidence in both my own ability and potential. It has opened many doors to which my peers are impressed by the diverse knowledge and background that my degree has given

me. Duchy College is fundamentally built on its students and in my view more importantly, the lectures and teachers within the College. It has been a pleasure to have the opportunity to study here and I thank the people who supported me through my degree and even today.”

Lynne Maud: “I have enrolled on a Food and Nutrition Masters

and am studying parttime through distance learning. This is allowing me time to build my Health & Wellbeing consultancy business. I really enjoyed my three years at Duchy and the skills I gained on the RBM BSc. have been invaluable to me. Very many thanks for all your help and inspiration.”

Ross Symons: “I finished my time at Duchy at the beginning of June with the last exam. Since then I haven’t really had time to catch my breath! I have become a partner in our business, joined a discussion group, hired an apprentice, calved 100+ cows in nine weeks, laid a new silage pit, completed maize harvest, changed our heat detection system, had two TB tests, hired another apprentice Left: Oli Lee, Fd Sc Agriculture

and started breeding our Autumn-calved cows as we look to change our genetics in the herd.

The business has certainly changed a lot in the past 12 months - spending 2 days off-farm attending college gave me chance to assess what we were doing and how it could be improved to stand us better in the future. The other thing completing the course has given me is something the farming sector has been in short supply of the last 18 months - confidence. I have grown up through milk quotas, BSE, FMD, TB as well as low prices and controversy surrounding subsidies. Throughout all this though, I have never seen the industry as low as it has been recently. With a fresh dawn approaching on the horizon with Brexit looming, fresh ideas are needed. Attending Duchy has given me the confidence needed to turn my ideas for the

Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 15

Farm Business Incomes

business into reality.”

By the FBS Team, Defra and National Statistics

Ryan Renfree: “Since completing my Honours degree in Rural Business Management I have been helping to run the family dairy farm. Studying for the degree has extended my knowledge in the sector and will help to move the business forward in the future.”

Emma Pethick: “I will be volunteering in the new year aiming for environmental education with a slant on pollution and recycling.”

B Sc (Hons) Agriculture & Food Dave Northcott: “I am continuing with the job Dr Jurie Intachat (Course Manager) & Phoebe Atkinson, Fd Sc Estate and Farm Enterprise Management.

The Rural Business School (RBS) holds the research contract to undertake the Defra Farm Business Survey (FBS) for the south west region. The RBS also processes and validates Defra Farm Business Survey information for the whole of England and Wales nationally and is responsible for supplying the EU with the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) information for all of England, as well as the Welsh Office. The FBS is the largest and most extensive business survey of farms in England and since it began in 1936, it has become the most authoritative source of information on the economics of farm businesses in England.

I started when I started my degree as a ruminant nutritionist for Three Counties Feeds. The degree I did set me up for this job and progressed well with my career choice through the three years. The degree has given me the foundation knowledge and skills which were appropriate for the REAL world.”

Fd Sc Agriculture Oli Lee: “I believe in challenging the norms and I want to create a progressive farming system that is both viable and sustainable.

I am working with an experienced team to help with the marketing and branding design of my new start-up company. I will be selling milk direct to the consumer. Watch this space!”

Rachel Abrahall: “The farm tenancy application with the Duchy of Cornwall was an excellent exercise and I am now ‘topping-up’ my studies with the B Sc in Rural Business Management, which I can do while continuing to work”.

Laura Sharland: “Since graduating, I have obtained a job as a farm assessor for SAI Global.

My Fd Sc in Agriculture helped me to get this job.”

page 16 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

Laura Sharland, Jo Vincent (Tutor), Rachel Abrahall & Camilla Waterer, Fd Sc Agriculture.

Camilla Waterer: “I have since been working on the family’s diversified farming business and have my interviews coming up to join the RAF as a pilot.”

Fd Sc Estate and Farm Enterprise Management Phoebe Atkinson: “I am now enjoying studying the Rural Business Management at Duchy College to achieve my B Sc degree”.

For more information on courses please contact us on 08456 050 455, uni@duchy. ac.uk or www.duchy. ac.uk

This information serves to inform agricultural and environmental policy decision making. The FBS is designed to serve the needs of farmers, government, government partners, farming and land management interest groups, and researchers.

including the 2015 Basic Payment (which is included within total farm output and therefore contributes to Farm Business Income).

These results replace the forecast estimates published on 28 January 2016. All figures are for March/February years.

Farm Business Income by type of farm in England, 2015/16

A more detailed analysis of the results will be published on 15 December 2016 in Farm Accounts in England see https://www.gov.uk/ government/collections/ farm-business-survey.

Forecasts of income by farm type for the year ending February 2017 and covering the 2016 harvest will be published in February 2017.

Data on farm business incomes are used to monitor and evaluate Government and EU policies and to inform wider research into the economic performance, productivity and competitiveness of the agricultural industry.

The data are provided to the EU as part of the FADN and are widely used by the industry for benchmarking.

This release provides survey results of Farm Business Income for 2015/16 covering the 2015 harvest and

Key results •

In 2015/16, average Farm Business Income fell across all farm types except general cropping, horticulture and grazing livestock farms in the Less Favoured Area (LFA).

•

On cereal farms,

lower prices for key commodities such as wheat, barley and oilseed rape drove the fall in incomes.

On general cropping farms these price falls were mitigated by improved yields and prices for potatoes.

•

•

On dairy farms, the lower average income reflects the full impact of lower milk prices which started to fall in March 2014.

The average farmgate milk price was 25% lower in 2015/16 compared to the previous 12 months.

On lowland grazing livestock farms, lower incomes were driven by a reduced output from cattle and sheep. On LFA grazing livestock farms, higher output from cattle together with an increase in the Basic Payment driven by higher payment rates for moorland and SDA land compared to the Single Payment, led to a higher average

income.

•

On specialist pig farms, increased throughput was offset by higher costs and lower prices for pig meat. Average incomes on specialist poultry farms fell due to a reduced output for both eggs and poultry meat.

•

Across all farm types the Basic Payment was around 5 percent lower than the Single Payment of 2014/15 due to a change in the exchange rate.

Estimates have been made for some farms where full payment details are not yet available.

South West agriculture In June 2016, Defra have estimated that the Total Income from Farming in the South West fell by 38% (£247 million) for 2015 to £398 million, as compared to 2014. If you compare this reduction to the average of the previous four years then the fall is still over 30%.

Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 17

This fall is largely driven by the reduction in the value of milk. (Figure 1, page 20).

Milk production, at £844 million, is by far the largest contributor to the total value of output in this region and is £215 million lower than the value in 2014. The production of cattle reared for meat contributed £400 million, cereals contributed £284 million while vegetables and horticultural products contributed £219 million and poultry

page 18 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

contributed around £196 million. (Figure 2).

In 2013 South West agriculture employed 2.27% of the workforce and the area farmed in the South West region was 1.8 million hectares, about half of which was permanent grass.

Cereals accounted for 19%. In 2014 South West agriculture contributed 1.20% to the economy.

Figure 2: Total income from farming for the south west

News Breeding a scrapie-resistant sheep flock | Dick Vet News Issue 30 Research at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Institute has led to selective sheep breeding programmes providing sheep producers with scrapie-resistant flocks. Scrapie is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of sheep and goats. It is a notifiable disease with considerable economic impact. Research has shown a strong link between prion protein genotype and scrapie susceptibility in sheep and has allowed the identification of genotypes of sheep susceptible to scrapie and resistant to scrapie. Similar work is now being carried out in goats.

Britain’s wrong turn | New Scientist, 2 July 2016 Many scientists believed that spelling out the evidence and scoring factual points would win the referendum for Remain; in fact the Leave campaign won through pushing emotional buttons, which may have been ‘irrational and vague’, in the view of academics but they need to learn to utilise the emotional language of the victors. Mike Galsworthy, programme director of Scientists for EU, commented how science is the future of the UK’s economy and is an unequivocal success story of the EU. The result of the referendum ejects the UK from the driving seat on the EU’s colossal science engine and leaves its relationship with the science programme in limbo. This uncertainty will have a negative impact on investment, hiring and probably the inclusion of UK scientists in research consortia that are currently shaping up. Polls showed 80-90% support for Remain within the science community, but scientists must now pick up the pieces.

Visit the new RBR website

Doubts about the promised bounty of genetically modified crops | New York Times, 29 October 2016

Rural Business Research (RBR), of which the RBS is part, is the consortium of specialist university and college research units which undertake the FBS. These research units have exceptional local and national knowledge and expertise about farming.

RBR turns research

The controversy over genetically modified (GM) crops has long focussed on largely unsubstantiated fears that they are unsafe to eat. Yields in Europe, which has largely rejected GM crops and in the USA and Canada were compared. The study indicated that GM has neither increased crop yields nor led to an overall reduction in pesticide use. As the major crops in the USA like maize, cotton and soya have been converted to GM, herbicide use has actually increased by 21%, although insecticide and fungicide has fallen by 33%.

In France, however, the latter has fallen by 65% and

findings into practical business management accounts and data that inform government of the true economic situation facing farmers and rural businesses.

Visit www. ruralbusinessresearch. co.uk to find out more.

Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 19

Princess Anne awards prizes to winning Duchy College students

Figure 1: South West Output (£ millions)

For more information

Following their tremendous achievement of winning the prestigious ‘Three Counties Agricultural Society’s Strategy Competition’, students on our BSc (Hons) Rural Business Management (RBM) and BSc (Hons) Agriculture and Food (Agrifood) courses were presented with their prizes by Princess Anne at the Opening of the Royal Three Counties Show 2016.

Visit www.ruralbusinessresearch.co.uk

As reported previously, this was a national initiative where students faced tough competition from eight other universities and colleges. The winning team of Daniel Halford, Douglas Little, Ryan Renfree, Ross Symons and Michal Szczesniak was represented by Daniel and Douglas (Ross was due to come, but his relief milker let him down on the day!). The Runnerup team of Rose Disney, page 20 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

Gemma Hearn, Lynne Maud and Emma Pethick all went to receive their cheques.

For more information on courses please contact us on 08456 050 455, uni@duchy. ac.uk or www.duchy. ac.uk

News continued from page 19 herbicide use by 36%. The increase in herbicide use has been caused by the proliferation of glyphosateresistant weeds. Similar patterns have been shown comparing other crops between the two continents such as oilseed rape and sugar beet.

EU mulls maggots | New Scientist, 30 April 2016 Researchers at the UK’s Fera Science have found that housefly larval meal could substitute between 20 and 50% of conventional diets in salmon, pigs and chicken to achieve similar growth rates. They have called for a review of the EU ban on feeding insects to animals bred for human consumption. More research on safety would be needed before the ban is lifted.

Farming has made GMOs for millennia | New Scientist, 12 March 2016 The Max Planck Institute in Germany claims that we have been creating and eating GMOs for millennia through the ancient practice of grafting. Grafting involves transplanting a section of one plant on to another so the two parts fuse and continue to grow. Farmers and growers have been doing this for thousands of years. In 2009, it was shown that cells on either side can exchange chloroplasts, which are responsible for photosynthesis and have their own small genome. More recent work at Rutgers University in the USA has shown that both cell nuclei and mitochondria can also fuse with their respective counterparts. Genome swapping only takes place close to the graft, but shoots often grow from this region and can give rise to new plants with mixed genomes. This blurs the boundaries between manmade and natural genetic engineering. The findings will allow plant breeders to create new plants and modify traits in ways that were not previously possible.

No cardiovascular disease risk associated with high animal protein/fat intake | Farming futures, 3 November 2016 The mean consumption of 62 food items from the FAOSTAT database (1993–2008) was compared with the actual statistics of five cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk indicators in 42 European countries by researchers at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. Their results did not support the association between CVDs and saturated fat, which is still contained in official dietary guidelines. Instead, they agreed with data Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 21

Pioneering trial on feeding sprouted grains at Duchy College

By Emily Harris and Paul Ward

Results from a pioneering trial with laying hens carried out by student Emily Harris at Duchy College appear to confirm anecdotal claims that sprouted grains can reduce the costs of egg production in hens.

Emily carried out the research project as part of her course to understand how to carry out a trial and analyse the results.

Duchy College’s Rural Business School (RBS) was originally approached by local company, New Generation Biogas Ltd (NGB), who are producing the sprouted grains for the trial. They wanted to trial their product in comparison to a standard diet for laying poultry.

Emily says, ”There are claims that sprouting grain can increase its digestibility, making nutrients more easily absorbed, improving a chicken’s health and improving the eggs laid. Sprouting grain is also inexpensive and can be sprouted all year round. So, the purpose of this research was to find out the effects of sprouting techniques on egg production by comparing whether the number of eggs laid, the weight of the eggs, net feed consumed and the weight of the chickens increase or decrease due to being fed on sprouted

barley grain.”

Within the research there were 48 hens at point of lay which were then divided into six groups of eight hens.

The hens were weighed beforehand to make sure each group weight equal average weights.

They were also kept in identical conditions being housed outside within grassed paddocks which made the ventilation, environmental temperature and the amount of light per day the same for each group of chickens. There

page 22 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

were two phases to this experiment; in Phase I, 3x8 of the hens (Group A, C and E) were on the control feed (un-sprouted grain) and 3x8 of the hens (Group B, D and F) were on the trial feed (sprouted barley grain).

During Phase 2, all the chickens were fed on 50/50 sprouted and unsprouted grain.

Both Phase 1 and 2 were each conducted over a six-week period. The eggs laid were collected and counted and the net feed consumed was calculated every day for each coop.

The investigation looked into claims that sprouting grains can increase digestibilty

Once a week 12 eggs were randomly selected from each coop and the yolk, albumen and total egg weight weighed.

The results of Phase 1 showed that there was a significant difference in the weight of the yolk and albumen with the trial yolk and albumen weight being significantly less compared to the control group. Likewise there is

a significant difference in the number of eggs laid per chicken and the number of eggs laid per chicken on the sprouted grain was significantly less compared to the control group.

Phase 2 results also showed a significant difference in the weight of the yolk and albumen, Phase 2 group A,C,E yolk and albumen weight was significantly higher than Phase 1 control group and Phase 2 group B,D,F yolk and albumen weight was significantly higher than Phase 1 trial group.

Overall sprouted grain has an effect on chickens laying production as feeding chickens a diet of only sprouted barley grain shows a significant decrease in the total egg weight, yolk weight, albumen weight and number of eggs laid. However, feeding chickens a diet of half sprouted barley grain and half commercial feed showed a significant increase in the total egg weight, yolk weight, albumen weight and number of eggs laid compared to a diet of only sprouted grain or only commercial feed.

Liz Bowles, Farming Director of the Soil Association, who coordinated the work with the College and NGB stated, “There is considerable anecdotal

evidence that sprouted grains can be part of a diet for poultry, which would allow for an overall reduction in the concentrate requirement for a given level of egg production. No research has been done in the UK to confirm this view, so Emily’s project was real cutting edge work.”

News continued from page 21 accumulated from recent studies that link CVD risk with the high glycaemic index/load of carbohydratebased diets. In the absence of any scientific evidence connecting saturated fat with CVDs, these findings show that current dietary recommendations regarding CVDs should be seriously reconsidered.

No more animal magic | New Scientist, 2 July 2016 More than a thousand vets have signed a petition asking the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons to intervene in the practice of homeopathy, carried out by a small number of vets. Such practices have no grounding in science and have no effect beyond placebo -rather odd when animals do not experience a placebo effect, because they are unaware that they are being treated. The danger is where substituting effective and appropriate treatment with homeopathy occurs, which could have a devastating effect on say a dairy farm where homeopathic treatments fail to treat a mastitis outbreak.

Student Emily Harris “The Rural Business School is keen to see its widespread network of industry linkages utilised to ensure that our degree students are involved in real case study project work, which not only enables students to acquire research skills but allows them to provide new knowledge to the industry in return,” stated Paul Ward, Project Manager with the RBS.

For more information on courses please contact us on 08456 050 455, uni@duchy. ac.uk or www.duchy. ac.uk

Pesticides kill off honey bee sperm | New Scientist 6 August 2016 Researchers at Bern University have found that neonicotinoid pesticides cut honeybee’s live sperm count by some 40%. They cannot be sure that this is the main reason behind the decline in bee populations in North America and Europe over the past 15 years, because many other factors play a part.

Rain breeds more rain over ploughed land | New Scientist, 4 May 2016 On ploughed fields, rain flings up millions of microscopic organic particles – the remains of dead plants and animals. Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the USA have concluded that this rainfall–induced haze may help to seed clouds and generate more rain. Analysis of airborne dust above Oklahoma’s Southern Great Plains found tiny particles containing carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. Once rainfall starts to puddle, it dissolves organic matter from the soil and subsequent raindrops splash and create air bubbles, which rise upwards and burst and the organic matter dries to from the dust particles. This effect may need to be taken account in the development of climate models.

Rat killing race | New Scientist, 30 July 2016 New Zealand prime Minister John Key vowed to rid the Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 23

SWARM hub

Functional biodiverse forage mixtures

By Dr Hannah Jones, Visiting Research Fellow

The productivity of grasslands is central to the profitability of the British livestock sector. Can improvements be made to forage productivity, soil fertility and in sustaining landscape value for biodiversity?

In the workshop held at Duchy College earlier in the year at the start of the BBSRC SARIC funded biodiverse forage project, the potential for improving productivity of grass was recognised. We were not just talking about total biomass production, but also having forage of good quality for the longest possible season under varying growing conditions.

in the south west, and introductions of novel mixtures need to be justified economically.

The main issue is the cost of seed, but the effectiveness of reseeding compared to stitching in seed was discussed.

Paul Cotterel of Cotswold Seeds discussed the necessity of removing up to 50% of the existing sward to allow for effective establishment of over seeded species.

relatively cheap-seeded species such as sainfoin, chicory and birdsfoot trefoil can be another weapon against the helminths. These species contain condensed tannins which interfere with the lifecycle of the worms in the animals’ guts, and over the longer term have potential to justify the investment in the lower total biomass but antihelminthic forage species.

Forage mixtures combining different species of grass, legumes and herbs can make the supply of forage more stable; the detrimental effects of sudden shifts in weather patterns and pockets of relatively infertile soil can be buffered by the right combinations of species in a mixture. And may improve competition against weeds including the pernicious dock and creeping thistle.

The challenge of prophylactic wormer resistance in livestock systems continues to threaten returns, particularly for lamb, and the integration of

Forage mixtures need to yield with sufficient quality for five years,

Ryegrass and white clover remain the king and queen of forage page 24 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

One of the mixes being trialled on a farm site

and it can be alarming to see how each year the community of plants in your field changes.

However, this changing dynamic is to be expected, and is in fact desirable as changes in soil fertility from legumes in particular can lead to increased dominance of species that cannot fix their own nitrogen.

Some species such as red clover classically die back after two years, but other species can increase their dominance in the following years.

species within the sward and is the best option to avoid selective grazing in multi-species swards.

Once a minimum target sward height is reached, animals should be moved to a fresh area of pasture allowing the grazed area to re- grow. It was clear from our discussion that the novel mixtures we include must not be too complex; there is no place for fussy management requirements on most farms today and thus the sward mixtures must be robust.

Forage mixtures have the potential to deliver for five years, but the relative contribution of species each year will vary. Published research as far afield as the US and Australia has demonstrated time and again there is no predicting which species will increase or decrease over the lifetime of the ley. Each year, field and management varies on each farm, all of which impact on competitiveness of species in your ley.

Grassland can include species with improved rooting depths which is clearly desirable for improved soil biomass accumulation, drainage, aeration and for increased availability of micronutrients for livestock. On the balance sheet, such rewards are long term, up to 15 years, but remain difficult to quantify. However, the farmers who contributed to our workshop all demonstrated their longsightedness in discussing the scope of improving soil quality with mixtures.

However, maintaining the potential diversity of a mixture can be particularly challenging with livestock cherry picking throughout the field. Managed intensive rotational grazing involves the use of a high stocking density for short periods and encourages grazing of all

In summary, the environment, grazing and other management such as fertilisation can all act to reduce species diversity in forage mixtures. In a diverse mixture, there is currently Continued on page 27...

News continued from page 23 country of rats, stoats and possums by 2050, pledging NZ$28 million over the next four years. The aim is to save the 28 million native birds killed each year by the introduced vermin.

Researchers uncover ‘switch’ that triggers plant flowering | Crop Biotech Update, 10 August 2016 Scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC) have uncovered a previously unknown step in the process of vernalisation, which links an important gene responsible for flowering time to the proteins that regulate it. Previous research showed that flowering is suppressed by the FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) gene.

In cold temperatures, proteins around which the gene is wrapped are progressively modified and this shuts off gene expression, eventually enabling the plant to switch from the ‘growing’ stage to the ‘flowering’ stage. Regulators involved in shutting off the FLC gene have been established, but how these regulators identify their correct targets is not known yet. The new research studied a population of mutated plants, and found one that failed to correctly respond to cold. When they tracked down where the mutation occurred, they found it to be a single base pair change within the FLC gene. Further experiments successfully identified how the protein VAL1 recognizes the DNA sequence within the FLC gene. In the plant which failed to correctly respond to cold, the mutation prevented that recognition, so FLC could not be shut off.

Resistance is futile – MRSA superbug fuelled by antibiotics | New Scientist, 19 March, 2016 The so-called superbug, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, is resistant to a number of widely used antibiotics. Newly discovered chemical compounds can make MRSA bacteria vulnerable to antibiotics they normally resist, restoring the old drugs’ former powers. MRSA is resistant to beta-lactams, the most widely used class of antibiotics.

The drugs work by targeting peptidoglycans in the cell wall of the bacterium. MRSA protects itself by soaking up the drug and preventing it from working. Work at Merck Research in the USA has shown that the newly discovered compounds attack a different part of the bug’s cell wall, when combined with the antibiotic. This should enable current antibiotics to be salvaged and used until new ones are developed.

Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 25

Market Monitor

Is all-year round calving really the best option?

By Chris Gooderham, lead analyst, AHDB Dairy

DairyCo provides a brief overview of the latest economic developments in the dairy industry and also highlights recent research and projects undertaken by DairyCo that may interest dairy farmers and students in the south west.

“AHDB data suggests milk prices received by block-calving herds have been little different to all-year round systems.”

The British dairy industry could cut its costs by an estimated £3.5m per week with a different approach to milk production and, in particular, calving patterns, according to AHDB analysis. That is equivalent to 1.5ppl across all the milk in the country.

The AHDB Dairy 2015/16 Farmer Intentions Survey (FIS) shows more than 80% of farms are calving all-year round (AYR), but is AYR really the best option for the British dairy industry, and what might alternatives deliver?

AHDB data suggests milk prices received by blockcalving herds have been little different to all-year round systems. However, over the last 5 years, on average, AYR herds have achieved a full economic net margin of just 0.8ppl.

By comparison, autumn systems achieved 2.1ppl, with spring-calving herds returning 3.5ppl, on average. Typical costs for the different systems suggest there could be significant savings at individual farm level by switching away from AYR. In general, milk buyers are looking for a relatively flat milk production profile, and this has been achieved by incentivising individual farmers to keep milk production flat.

AHDB analysis suggests

page 26 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

that the same overall milk production profile can be achieved by combining milk from autumn-calving herds with milk from spring-calving herds.

Evidence suggests that this would also lead to an increase in the overall level of milk solids delivered in the milk.

If we assume the 80% of farms currently on AYR all switched, with half becoming autumn and half spring, and apply our five-year average cost saving to those farms, we could achieve a saving of £3.5m per week. With margins on farm still under significant pressure despite the recent upturn in dairy markets, a cost saving of this magnitude would go a long way to offering protection to the industry.

The challenge to milk buyers is, can you design a seasonality scheme to encourage this, rather than AYR? For farmers, don’t just focus on the bold seasonal incentives,

Continued from page 25 little scope for predicting exactly which species will dominate. Although some species are more competitive than others, the sward speciation will depend upon the particular combination of factors on your field at that time. In addition, dominance will evolve over time. A good mixture will include some redundancy; some species will not yield well, but other species will be driving the biomass output for you.

A number of farmers who took part in the workshop will be part of the research project to

Chris Gooderham look at the full economic position of each system.

Then pick the one that best suits you and your farm.

This article is one of the #Decisions4Dairy Cost of Production series. Read the full articles at dairy. ahdb.org.uk/cop and for more information on #Decisions4Dairy – an industry-wide initiative to support farmers in challenging times so they can become more robust for the longer term – visit dairy.ahdb.org.uk/ d4d or contact Rachael. chamberlayne@ahdb.org. uk

evaluate diverse species mixtures on their farm with their management.

The mixtures that have been created following the workshop and are now being trialled on farm (i) are for resilience of forage production; (ii) are capable of yielding for at least five years; (iii) contain enough species to provide some redundancy across the environmental range; (iv) can be mob grazed; (v) include antihelminthic species; (vi) include deep rooting species and finally (vii) have intrinsically improved value for maintenance or increased biodiversity on farm.

For more information If you are interested in this project and would like to find out more please do contact Chris Reynolds (c.k.reynolds@reading.ac.uk) or Hannah Jones (h.e.jones@reading.ac.uk)

A better future for our countryside Leaving the European Union will be one of the most defining events for farming and our environment in living memory, and provides an unprecedented opportunity to revitalise our countryside in a way that balances the needs of everyone, for generations to come.

Read the joint report from the RSPB, the National Trust, the WWF and the wildlife Trusts here: http://tinyurl.com/jc8rmpm

News continued from page 25 The new genetic lottery | New Scientist, 30 July 2016 Gene editing is moving fast, especially using the ‘CRISPR’ technique, which allows genes to be precision-edited with relative ease. There are dangers ahead as the science may be outpacing public consent, as CRISPR has hardly registered in public debate. An international expert panel is working on a comprehensive review of gene editing and its wider implication and is due to report later this year.

Two thirds of public would back growing GM crops | The Times, 5 November 2016 Public opinion has swung behind genetically modified crops for the first time after decades of opposition according to a survey of 2,000 people. Two thirds of respondents said that they would support GM as long as it did not harm public health or the environment – a significant softening of opinion over the past two years. This is just as Rothamsted Research and its partners are requesting to trial the promising GM Cadenza wheat outdoors, which has shown a 40% yield increase in greenhouse trials.

UK secures historic UN Declaration on AMR | Department for International Development (DFID), September 2016 The DFID Secretary of State addressed the UN General Assembly GA meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). It is estimated that by 2050, AMR could be responsible for an extra 10 million premature deaths a year, more than cancer now. The meeting unanimously adopted a political declaration, which commits all 193 signatory countries to: •

Develop surveillance and regulatory systems for humans and animals.

•

Encourage innovative ways to develop new antibiotics, and improve rapid diagnostics.

•

Awareness-raising activities to educate health professionals and the public.

The Secretary of State said that the UK will lead the way in the efforts needed to tackle this worldwide health threat and that Britain will support the global work needed to prevent the rise of drug resistant diseases. As highlighted by an Independent Review, the resistance is a global problem which must be tackled through coordinated international action.

Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 27

Using MAM for success in heifer rearing

By AHDB Dairy

Over the past 12 months, AHDB Dairy has been travelling from Land’s End to Aberdeen as part of their Calf to Calving initiative. The ultimate aim is to improve the performance of the nation’s replacement heifers. “During this time, we have encountered several different, but successful ways of rearing replacement heifers,” says AHDB Dairy’s Andy Dodd, “but the one thing that the successful farms have in common is attention to detail.”

In measuring success, we are looking for the animal to achieve specific targets during its lifetime. These targets, in turn, provide us with a means of planning for achievement through correct nutritional management. The first step is for farms to lay out their targets as shown in Table 1.

From Table 1 below, you will notice that a lot of the management of the replacement heifer revolves around measuring and, more specifically, weighing, but there is little point in weighing if action is not Table 1: Key events and targets for successful heifer rearing

taken. This is where MAM comes in, monitor, act and measure.

Monitor: We have set targets, but how do we know they are being achieved? Ideally, animals should be weighed on a monthly basis to check performance. Monitoring the feed being offered is also critical; forages should be analysed every month and feed should be offered based on weight and not buckets or area.

Act: What if something is not right, e.g. the animal is not on target? We then need to act. This can be a process mapping exercise, checking feed and health to see if

there are issues here. We recommend monthly weighing and forage testing so that early and effective changes can be made.

Measure: How do we know if changes made have been effective? A typical example here would be weaning; a follow-up weighing at three months will help determine whether or not the weaning was a success.

Without a doubt, using the MAM approach requires a higher level of input into the management of your replacement heifers, but, look at the costs of poor management, £2.87/

animal for each day older than a 24-month calving age, reduced longevity in the herd and a higher replacement rate. Can you afford not to pay attention?

AHDB Dairy’s Calf to Calving (C2C) initiative builds upon research which shows that achieving first calving by 24 months of age can significantly reduce your rearing costs. Learn from fellow farmers at one of the many open meetings being held.

Find your nearest meeting at dairy.ahdb. org.uk/events. Access our supporting calf rearing resources at dairy.ahdb.org.uk/ calves.

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page 28 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 29

Environmental Advice

B-Lines: putting the Buzz back into the countryside

By Andrew Whitehouse, South West Manager, Buglife

Imagine trying to travel around Britain without our road and rail network.

Or imagine if nine out of every ten miles of road just didn’t exist – life would be impossible!

“Over 97% (an area the size of Wales) of all flower-rich grasslands have been lost in Britain since the 1930s”

Well for much of our wildlife this is the reality - confined to tiny fragments of habitat and unable to move through the countryside. Our wildlife needs this ability to disperse, to colonise new sites, to prevent inbreeding, and to respond to pressure such as changes to habitat or to climate change. It has been predicted that 40-70% of species could go extinct if action is not taken to enable species to move through the landscape.

Pollinators in peril Our bees, butterflies, hoverflies and other pollinating insects have suffered badly over the last fifty or so years. They are faced with a perfect storm of pressures which have all led to their decline, these include: a loss of wildflowerrich natural and seminatural habitats through the intensification of farming, increased use of pesticides, the loss of habitats to development and the unpredictable

page 30 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

and extreme weather resulting from climate change. As a result half of the UK’s 27 bumblebee species are in decline, two-thirds of our moths and over 70% of our butterflies are in longterm decline.

The greatest pressure comes from habitat loss; over 97% (an area the size of Wales) of all flower-rich grasslands have been lost in Britain since the 1930s.

This has reduced pollen and nectar sources and lead to a serious decline in the wildlife depending on wildflower-rich

habitat.

In Devon and Cornwall, we have seen a decline in many pollinators, both common and rare. This reduces nature’s capacity to provide essential pollination services and can result in local extinctions. In 2013, Buglife’s South West Bees Report revealed that eight of Cornwall’s bee species had gone extinct, and six species had been lost from Devon.

Species lost from both Long-horned mining bee.

Photo by Stephan Falk

counties included the Large garden bumblebee (Bombus ruderatus), Red-shanked carder bee (Bombus ruderarius) and the Broken-banded carder bee (Bombus soroensis).

But all is not lost, and the two counties still support nationally important populations of some of our rarest bees, including the only UK population of the Six-banded nomad bee (Nomada sexfasciata) on the South Devon coast, and good numbers of the Long-horned mining bee (Eucera longicornis) in both counties.

B-Lines – a plan to help our native insect pollinators In response to the declines in bees and other pollinating insects the Government’s National Pollinator Strategy was published in 2014; it sets out a 10 year plan to help pollinating insects survive and thrive across England. The Strategy outlines actions to support and protect the many pollinating insects which contribute to our food production and maintain a healthy and diverse environment.

The Strategy looks to everyone to work together to help our pollinators.

B-Lines are already showing the way in

demonstrating how a joined-up approach can help conserve our native insect pollinators. B-Lines are a network of flowerrich pathways across our countryside, towns and cities, which link together the best of our existing wildlife areas to benefit pollinators, other wildlife and people.

What are B-Lines?

B-Lines are an imaginative and beautiful solution to the problem of the loss of flowers and pollinators. The B-Lines are a series of ‘insect pathways’ along which, with the help of farmers and landowners, we are restoring and creating a series of wildflower-rich habitat stepping stones.

They link existing wildlife areas together, creating a network, like a railway, that will weave across the British landscape. This will provide large areas of brand new habitat benefiting bees and butterflies, but also a host of other wildlife.

The Benefits of B-Lines B-Lines bring a range of benefits to wildlife, people and agriculture.

These include: •

Helping conserve our native pollinators and a range of other wildlife.

•

Helping our wildlife respond to climate change by providing those links and enabling species to

move through our countryside.

•

Increasing the number of insect pollinators, protecting and enhancing those essential pollination services which benefit agriculture and provide an economic value.

•

Improving people’s access to nature.

•

Giving opportunities for everyone to contribute to something great creating the B-Lines network.

Making B-Lines B-Lines aims to create and restore at least 150,000 hectares of flower-rich habitat across

An example of a pollen and nectar mix B-line.

Photo by Tracy Adams/ Cranborne Chase AONB the UK. Making this happen will take time and will need farmers, land owners, wildlife organisations, businesses, local authorities and communities to work together to create flowerrich grassland in the best locations.

B-Lines have been mapped across a significant area of England, and are extending into Scotland and Wales. Along with conservation partners, land managers, businesses and local authorities, we are

Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 31

helping to fill the mapped areas with restored and new wildflower-rich areas.

You can see how the B-Lines are developing on our interactive map on the Buglife website www. buglife.org.uk.

Our website also has guidance on creation and restoration of wildflower-rich grassland, and advice for farmers on how the Countryside Stewardship Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package can most effectively help pollinating insects.

In the south west we are working with Avon Wildlife Trust on our West of England B-Lines

Classified Ads

Large garden bumblebee.

Photo by Stephen Falk. project, which to date has created or restored around over 150 hectares of wildflower-rich habitat along the B-Lines network.

In South Devon, we have worked with South Devon AONB, Devon Wildlife Trust, FWAG South West and others to map B-Lines that will connect South Devon’s best wildlife sites from the west to the east, and from the north to the south, linking Dartmoor to the coast, and linking our towns and urban areas to the countryside.

Over the next few

Duchy College Stoke Climsland and Rosewarne 11th March 2017, 10am-12pm Please call 0845 6050 455 for more information

The views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily represent the views of the Rural Business School, Duchy College or The Cornwall College Group.

will continue to work with others to create the B-Lines network on the ground.

years we plan to map opportunities for creating B-Lines across the rest of the South West, and

For more information If you would like to know more about B-Lines or get involved in the project please get in touch – email southwest@buglife.org.uk.

Beekeeping Courses

Beekeeping Theory for Beginners

“I really enjoyed the leadership course I attended at Launceston Business Space as it made me think about different ways I could get my team to prioritise tasks and motivate them.

I would definitely recommend the course to others.”

Karen Merrifield Kernow Veterinary Group

This programme of one day Leadership workshops has been developed in close collaboration with our training practices and covers the essential skills and personal qualities that will produce highly effective leaders. They are particularly suitable for practice managers and head nurses, clinical coaches and veterinary surgeons moving into practice management.

Launceston Business Space

Wed 11th January 2017

£99

This workshop is designed to develop the key people management skills you need to be an effective team leader. Key areas include enhancing effectiveness and performance of your team, plus the achievement of objectives and results.

Getting the Most From Your Team Launceston Business Space

Wed 1st February 2017

£99

Gain an understanding on how to overcome barriers to communication and increase your knowledge of how to motivate, manage and lead your team and individuals to meet objectives and deliver results.

Coaching & Mentoring Skills Launceston Business Space

Wed 8th March 2017

£99

Learn how to support and develop your team’s skills, and improve motivation to achieve their full potential.

Discover how to use goal setting tools, personal action plans, feedback methods and working with individual learning styles.

Employment Law in a Day Launceston Business Space

Wed 12th April 2017

£99

Learn how employment law impacts the recruitment process, and how to deal with formal and informal disciplinaries and grievances using practical examples alongside ACAS guidelines.

Tutorial Day

Launceston Business Space (to be arranged)

page 32 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

Bicton College - 4th February 2017, 10am-12pm

You can now claim Dairy Pro CPD points through The Rural Business School. Please contact BASIS to claim your Dairy Pro CPD points.

Being a Team Leader

T: 0330 123 4784 E: enquiries@duchy.ac.uk W: www.duchy.ac.uk

Duchy College Stoke Climsland and Rosewarne 28th January 2017, 10am-12pm

Cheques payable to ‘Duchy College’.

We reserve the right to refuse submissions. Advertisers are liable in law not to mis-represent any offerings for sale, under the Business Advertisement Disclosure Order. We accept no responsibility for the contents of these advertisements.

Leadership Development Programme for Veterinary Practices Discover practical and straightforward ways to lead, organise and motivate in order to achieve outstanding performance, through a collection of one day Leadership workshops with Duchy College.

Advice Days

Something to sell? Looking to buy?

Advertise in the The Rural Business School and reach over 11,000 readers!

Land, stock, machinery, goods, services etc.

Charges: 50p per word plus £5.00 for a photo.

Call 0845 458 7485 to place your advertisement or e-mail gc@duchy.ac.uk

£195

A ten week classroom based evening course covering the essential knowledge for managing your own bees. This course will cover hives, frames, setting up an apiary, bee inspection, swarms and how to manage them, bee health, queens, honey production and processing.

Starting Wednesday 25th January 2017 for 10 weeks

Introduction to Beekeeping

7pm - 9pm

£110 per person

Would you like an insight into the benefits and viability of keeping honey bees? A one day course will give you insight into the benefits and viability of setting up an apiary. This is for you if you are new to beekeeping or are considering keeping bees. The day will cover the theory giving a basic understanding of honey bees and caring for them. There will be a practical session at the apiary.

Saturday 8th April 2017

Beekeeping for Beginners

9.30am - 4pm

£60 per person

A three day course combining theory and practical sessions providing all the information and hands-on experience to give you the confidence to be a beekeeper. You will cover : setting up an apiary, bees, hives, and frames. Queens, swarm control, honey production and processing.

Saturdays 22nd & 29th April and 6th May 2017

Next Steps in Beekeeping

9.30am - 4pm

£165 per person

A two day course which will mostly be practical sessions with some theory although this is weather dependant. Ideal for developing beekeepers and those interested in starting simple queen rearing. A good opportunity to expand your knowledge and experience.

Saturdays 3rd & 17th June 2017

9.30am - 4pm

£125 per person

Agrifood Building, Duchy College, Stoke Climsland, Cornwall PL17 8PB Booking is essential

To secure your place at these events please email rbs@duchy.ac.uk, call 0845 458 7485 Duchy College, Rural Business School, Stoke Climsland, Callington, Cornwall, PL17 8PB.

If you choose to enrol on the (optional) ILM Level 3 Award in Leadership and Management you will be invited to this tutorial day where you will receive all the information you need about the award, the assessment and learning resources.

Each one day workshop costs just £99. The additional, optional ILM qualification is £195.

0169MM0816

Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 33

Diary Dates Course title

Date/Time

Venue

County

Practical woodland management

08-09/12/16 9.30am-4pm

TBC

Cornwall £125

RBS

Safe use of pesticides – Grandfather rights – PA2

08/12/16 9am5pm

DCS

Cornwall £200

RBS

NPTC Level 2 Award – 10-13/12/16 Telehandler 9am-5pm

DCS

Cornwall £380

RBS

Tractor maintenance for beginners

14/01/17 10am4pm

DCS

Cornwall £60

RBS

Tractor maintenance for juniors

14/01/17 10am4pm

DCS

Cornwall £60

RBS

This course consists of one day of training, mainly classroom based and takes the form of a powerpoint presentation which covers PA1. There will also be a practical demonstration of PA2. You will then have an on-farm assessment to enable you to gain the required City and Guilds/NPTC Level 2 Award in the Safe Use of Pesticides, replacing Grandfather rights.

21st Challenge of Rural Leadership course

22/01/1704/02/17 8.30am-10pm

Dartington Devon Hall, Totnes, TQ9 6EL

Beekeeping theory for 25/01/17 7pmbeginners 10pm

DCS

Cornwall £95

RBS

8th December, 2016 Price: £200

Tractor PTO training

04/02/17 10am3pm

DCS

Cornwall £85

RBS

NPTC Level 2 Telehandler

Junior tractor driving

DCS

Cornwall £155

RBS

If you use a Rough Terrain Forklift as part of your work or employment, you should hold a certificate of competency to testify to a high standard of training and safety in operation. At the culmination of this training and assessment you will be in receipt of an industry recognised qualification.

13-14/02/17 9am-4pm

Introduction to cheese making

27/02/17 9am5pm

DCS

Cornwall £90

RBS

10-12 December, 2016 (including assessment) Price: £380

Introduction to beekeeping

08/04/17 9.30am-4pm

DCS

Cornwall £60

RBS

Tractor Maintenance for Beginners

Beekeeping for beginners

22/04/1706/05/17 9.30am-4pm

DCS

Cornwall £165

RBS

Next steps in beekeeping

03-17/06/17 9.30am-4pm

DCS

Cornwall £125

RBS

Short Courses at Duchy College Practical Woodland Management A two-day practical course focussing on the knowledge and techniques needed to manage woodland. This will include maintenance of established woodland and also new planting. You will also look at wildlife monitoring and environmental factors.

8-9th December, 2016 Price: £125

Safe Use of Pesticides - Grandfather Rights, PA2

This one day course will look at the basic maintenance and workshop skills you require to look after your tractor at home. An introductory course for those with little or no agricultural machinery experience, you will learn about machinery maintenance in our state-of-the-art workshops at Stoke Climsland.

Agriculture general

Resource Management

page 34 | The Rural Business School | Winter 2016

Register interest for 2018

Contact

RBS

For more information

14th January, 2017 Price: £60

For more information about these courses or to enrol, telephone 0845 458 7485 or email rbs@duchy.ac.uk alternatively you can visit our website at www.ruralbusinessschool.org.uk

Cost

Dairy

Machinery

Beef

Pets

Sheep

CPD

Poultry

Countryside

Arable/Crop Production

Rural Crafts

Please call 0845 458 7485 or email rbs@duchy.ac.uk for more information.

Our full list of events is available at: www.ruralbusinessschool.org.uk DCR - Duchy College Rosewarne DCS - Duchy College Stoke Climsland BIC - Bicton College Winter 2016 | The Rural Business School | page 35

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