TAKING CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

After almost a year of being NFU Student & Young Farmer Ambassadors, the group met in real life for the fi rst time to fi nd out about the environmental practices that will help them to protect UK farming in the future. Huw Hopkins reports.

It took long enough! After this cohort of Student & Young Farmer Ambassador Programme was appointed last year, they spent much of their experience behind computer screens.

Appearances on BBC television, radio and in magazines and newspapers meant the ambassadors kept up the profi le of the NFU throughout the year, and their social media activity has helped members keep an eye on their activity. But nothing beats in-person learning, and the ambassadors had the chance to do that at the Allerton Project at Loddington near Leicester.

Joe Stanley invited the group on site for his fi rst task after taking over from former NFU Environment Forum Chair Phil Jarvis.

“It was great to have the ambassadors here,” said Joe. “I’m enthusiastic that we need to support passionate young people in agriculture.

“The Allerton Project has an educational remit to pass on the knowledge that we develop here to the farming industry and the ambassadors are going to be future leaders of the industry. It’s great to be able to have them here and pass on some of the skills and ideas we’ve developed over the years that we think are going to be important to sustainable farming.”

The day began with a tour of the farm, where the ambassadors were shown around the orchard, where sheep were grazing. From there, the group heard about soil erosion and the ways you can reduce it, and the development of fi eld margins to improve biodiversity.

It was the fi rst public tour that Joe was running by himself, but already he was well-versed in what was growing on farm. He said: “I’ve been immersing myself in a lot of the trial data we’ve run here over the years. I’ve taken over from Phil Jarvis, who continues to be a strong supporter of the NFU and the project. I followed Phil around on a few of his fi nal tours and

he has a huge wealth of knowledge and experience about nature friendly farming and the project, and it was easy to pick up a lot of his own infectious enthusiasm and include it into my own thoughts about environmental farming.”

One part of the farm that generated particular interest was the newt ponds that had been installed in recent months, as it represented the future of a possible farming income stream. Mr Stanley said: “The newt farm was a biodiversity off-setting scheme that’s beneficial for our environment on farm but it’s off-setting the loss of habitat in another part of the country. That specific scheme was a Wiltshire wildlife trust, it was a reverse auction to create a network of newt farms and it’s an example of blended finance that we can see in the future for alternative sources of income with a public/private blended finance. It’s good in its own right and it’s an interesting concept – biodiversity off-setting. Is it is an acceptable way of allowing development in areas where you’re then going to be creating biodiversity loss? And how can farmers benefit?”

These subject areas prompted questions back at the lodge, where the ambassadors heard from NFU East Midlands Environment Adviser Simon Fisher about the organisation’s Net Zero 2040 ambitions. He spoke about the challenges that farmers face as the government moves towards ELMs and away from BPS payment systems, and explained the way members around the country can reach out to experts at the NFU.

His insight prompted a range of questions, especially around how the government is considering food production into the future, and whether or not we will simply be exporting carbon emissions if we rewild the countryside.

It was a day that opened the eyes of the Student & Young Farmer Ambassador Programme in ways that were more difficult to achieve over Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings. And, with the programme continuing until the end of 2021, there should be a number of opportunities for them to learn more about the rest of the food chain.

The most interesting outcome of our visit to the Allerton Project was the ability to meet my fellow ambassadors in person before heading out into the field to see innovative and regenerative agriculture techniques in practice, rather than through a computer screen. After such a long period with reduced social interaction, being able to get together to discuss ideas is fundamental for us to carve a path to an even more sustainable future in British agriculture. UK farming faces a turbulent time ahead, but the opportunity to learn and engage with others with such passion for our great industry always gives me confidence that we are well prepared.

It was so lovely to finally meet the NFU team and my fellow ambassadors last week. I really enjoyed the trip to the Allerton Project – it was interesting to learn about the research they were doing on sustainable intensification, agroforestry and biodiversity-friendly measures on marginal land. The day finished with a great discussion about food security and policy and the responsibility of our government to ensure new policies don’t result in us simply ‘offshoring’ food production and displacing emissions and biodiversity loss.

A great informative tour held by Joe. It was really interesting to learn about the current farming practices on the land, the research undertaken, and the influence this can have on future agricultural and environmental policy. Additionally, it was great to actually meet my fellow ambassadors in person.

The trip to the Allerton Project was a great experience. It was fantastic to finally be able to meet all of the ambassadors and I really enjoyed hearing from Joe about the different trials and initiatives in place on site. It was great to be able to see the effects of wilding projects and additions such as beetle banks in person and to have the opportunity to discuss and question how these things are working on farm.

Our trip out to Allerton Project was such a fantastic day and it was great to be able to finally meet everyone face to face. The tour around the farm was very interesting and it's made me think about the small changes I can make in my day-to-day work. I'm cutting hay and will be leaving a strip around the headland uncut for pollinators and insects so they still have a habitat and a source of food once I've taken the hay crop.

I had a brilliant time at the Allerton Project. It was great to see all the changes people are talking about happening in practice, and it made me realise change is happening in the sector at a faster pace than I had imagined.