Nuffield CSC and travels.

Well, the last few weeks have been busy to say the least. On the 21st Feb I visited Harper Adams University in Shropshire to see the work of Prof Simon Blackmore and hear him talk about Precision farming. I was part of a group of 5 2013 Nuffield Scholars and it was nice to visit the place where I spent 2 years of my life 13 years ago!

The following week (mon 25th feb) I was off up the M1 again and this time to Stoneleigh and the offices of my sponsor, HGCA. I had a fantastic time meeting all the dedicated and enthusiastic staff on a tour of the premises with Jonathan Tipples, a near neighbour of mine! I then met with a number of the senior management and presented my study plan for the coming year. We had a very productive time and the support I was given and the contacts available to me were amazing!

I drove home back to Kent with ideas spinning around my head, thinking of all the possibilities my Nuffield Scholarship was unearthing!

I was home for two days before returning to Stoneleigh,this time for the first meeting of BASE-UK. This is a group of farmers and some agronomists and stands for Biodiversity, Agriculture, Soil & Environment. It was a fantastic day and an opportunity to put lots of names to faces, and faces to names! There were some excellent presentations with speakers from the UK, France and Ireland.

On the 6 th of March I was off again and this time I had suitcase in hand! My Nuffield introduction was about to start with 2 days in London at the Pre-CSC (contemporary scholars conference). The group of 22 UK 2013 Nuffield Scholars were joined by 2 from last year (Amy Jackson and Caroline Millar) and the Arden award winners Caroline Drummond and David Northcroft.

We had an excellent 2 days in London meeting with DEFRA and NFU officials as well as a visit to The House of Lords.

This was followed by our CSC in Canada. We spent 5 days in Guelph, Ontario, hearing from many officials, farmers and economists. We had the enjoyment of watching a senior A ice hockey match and tried our hands at Curling.

The final 3 days was spent at Niagra Falls. This allowed the group to travel, see the sights and build contacts with other Nuffield Scholars from around the world!

The final evening we dined at the top of the Skylon Tower, overlooking Niagra Falls! Our speaker that evening was Canadain Nuffield Scholar, Steve Larocque. He is a first generation farmer who practises No-Till farming, is also an agronomist and produces a weekly agronomy newsletter that is sent around the world. For me he was the highlight of the week and I had the pleasure of giving the vote of thanks.

So now it's back to reality! Wet, damp and cold soils are not ideal for spring drilling but we've cleaned 17 ton of spring bean seed in preparation for some planting in the next few weeks.

My wife is now approaching 39 wks pregnant with our 4th child so she is now my No 1 priority!

The next few weeks will be spent planning my Nuffield Travels and I'm hoping to get to Canada, Northern USA, Argentina, Brasil, France, Australia and New Zealand.

The next 12 months will not be boring!  Until next time.

Tom

First post

Well here's my first ever blog! And as the title suggests it will largely be covering the next year of my life and my Nuffield Scholarship Studies.

Last year I was awarded a 2013 Nuffield Scholarship studying "long term benefits of direct drilling/no-till" sponsored by HGCA.

I was presented with my award by Peter Kendall at the Nuffield conference last November where I met the rest of the 2013 scholars and heard the 2011 scholars give their reports.

Since then I have been planning my travels and researching the best people and places to visit.

Last week I was fortunate to visit Harper Adams University and Prof Simon Blackmore who spent the day helping a small group of us look at Precision Farming and the benefits it can bring. This was particularly useful as it got me to think "out of the box" and see what is possible as we move forward with technology in agriculture. It was also nice to return to Harper where I spent 2 years of my life 13 years ago! A lot has changed with some amazing new buildings, AstroTurf and two new buildings in construction. If you're an ex Harper student and haven't been back for a while, it's well worth a visit!

This week the early starts continued with a trip on Monday to Stoneleigh and the offices of HGCA. I was shown around by Jonathan Tipples and met some excellent people who took a real interest in my upcoming travels and thoughts surrounding no-till.
I then joined a meeting with Rebecca Geraghty, Susannah Bolton, Anna Farrell, James Holmes, Vicky Foster and Jonathan Tipples. They all listened to my thoughts and initial plans and helped with some thoughts and suggestions including contacts and helping to organise some visits to Rothamstead and the James Hutton Institute later in the year. Having been a bit nervous of embarking on my Nuffield, the enthusiasm and support that the staff at HGCA showed  me left me feeling like I had an army supporting me as I embark on my travels. For those of you that view HGCA as a "recommended list" or sending out a few publications now and again really need to see what goes on at Stoneleigh. I was amazed at the depth of research, quality staff and enthusiasm in our industry that these lovely people showed.

Today was back to reality, out of shirt and tie and back to shirt and overalls, loading and delivering haylage and a bit of tree "pruning"!

So what next?

Well on Thursday this week I'm off (again!) back to Stoneleigh (yes twice in one week!) for the first BASE UK meeting and AGM. For those that haven't heard of BASE it stands for Biodiversity, Agriculture, Soil and Environment. It's a group that has been established in the UK by Jim Bullock and Steve Townsend and is modelled on the hugely successful group in France of the same name set up by Farmer Frederick Thomas. This group will be very interesting and I am really looking forward to meeting some of the farmers from the farming forums and on twitter in the flesh and finding out more about cover crops, no-till, rotations and all aspects of conservation agriculture.

Then next week our Nuffield travels kick off with 2 days in London with a visit to the House of Lords before flying out, with the rest of the 2013 scholars for 10 days in Guelph, Canada. This is known as the CSC (Contemporary Scholars Conference) where we will all meet up with scholars from around the world for fun, lectures, visits and is a great opportunity to meet with people from many different countries. Should be able to be able to get a  few good contacts for my travels!

On return my wife Sarah is expected to give birth to our 4th child in early April, so this is a year I will not forget in a hurry.

I'm hoping this blog will be linked to our website www.sewellfarms.co.uk and also the HGCA site where there is already a blog running for me!  I'm also embracing social media and prefer twitter ( even though I got hacked today! ) if you want to follow me or the Nuffield group I'm @tandssewell. The Nuffield 2013 group is #nuffield13

Until next time!