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Arable Ys staying true to its initial goals Today’s arable farmers are constantly dealing with new technology, compliance and management practices… but that’s nothing new. In fact, as outlined in the quote below, it was the logic behind the formation of FAR’s Arable Ys programme in 2008. WORDS BY ANNA HESLOP, FOUNDATION FOR ARABLE RESEARCH. IMAGES BY ANNIE STUDHOLME OR PROVIDED
“Arable farming is rapidly becoming an information and technology hungry industry in which farmers need to upskill on modern agronomy and management techniques and operation of a complex farming business.” FAR-MPI SFF Application 2008
“The solution was quite simple…setting up a group where the topics, presentations and culture were tailored to that demographic. There was no expectation of technical or agronomic knowledge, and questions were encouraged at all times.”
FAR’s Richard Chynoweth, who was involved in Arable Ys 2008 set up, says a great strength of the programme is that it has stayed true to its initial goals of providing an opportunity for young arable farmers, their partners, workers and the wider arable workforce, to build confidence and improve their arable farming knowledge and abilities.
FAR Communications and Events Manager Anna Heslop says it’s hard to think of an agronomic, agri-economic or farm business topic that has not been covered by Arable Ys over the last 14 years.
“We set up Arable Ys when we realised that over 90% of the people attending FAR field days and events were over the age of 35. We did a bit of asking around and learned that many younger growers found attending these events a bit daunting.
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“We try not to repeat topics too often, but one that definitely comes up every couple of years is crop growth staging. Understanding crop growth stages is an absolute Arable 101. It’s the key to getting agronomic inputs like fungicides, irrigation and closing dates right. “In these workshops FAR provides plants straight from the field, scalpels and magnifying glasses and training guides,
ABOVE: Overseas study tours were a popular Arable
Ys option when such things were possible. Here are some young growers at Cereals 2018 in the UK
and staff work, with groups, through the process of dissecting plants and identifying key stages such as GS 30 stem elongation, GS 31 1st node formed and GS 39 flag leaf emergence.” All farmers like road trips and Arable Ys members are no different. Before COVID appeared on the scene, Arable Ys ran regular national and international trips. There have been two training tours to the UK and Europe, where members have attended the UK Cereals event, visited farms, flour mills, machinery manufacturers and chemical companies, and one to the USA where members learned about everything from grass seed production in Oregon, to cotton,
