East of England Farming Conference 3rd December 2015, Peterborough


Martin Collison was very pleased to support this new conference where he chaired the second session.

Held at the Peterborough Showground on 3 December the strong line-up of keynote speakers were Sir Peter Kendall, Chairman of AHDB, NFU Vice President, Guy Smith, and Peter Simpson, CEO of Anglian Water.

Other speakers who  joined the bill are Susie Emmett of Green Shoots Productions and CEO of Trelleborg Wheel Systems UK, Andrea Manenti, who talked about producing more for less.

The conference also looked at the political and economic issues facing agriculture with talks from Lucia Zitti, NFU Economist, and Gail Soutar, NFU Chief Economist and International Affairs Adviser.

During the afternoon session focused on the next generation Guy Thallon discussed his successful agri-tech project for Produce World, cereal and arable farmers Luke Abblitt revealed the challenges he faced when he took on a council farm and worked to double his acreage. Nuffield Scholar David Walston focus on how he has used beef cattle to help improve soil conditions and fellow Nuffield Scholar Russell McKenzie spoke about who talked about ‘challenging the conventional approach’ to farming based on careful analysis of statistics and staff feedback.

The conference was organised by the East of England Agricultural Society, supported by Anglia Farmers, Camgrain, Brown & Co, EDGE Careers, Bayer, Churchgates, Roythornes, Safety Revolution and the NFU.

All the papers from the event are available at: http://eoefarmingconference.co.uk/