With just a month to go until Cereals, we attended the Crop Plot preview day and, alongside our sister publication Agronomist & Arable Farmer, interviewed the companies exhibiting their new varieties.
Kicking things off we spoke to host farmer Robert Law, who is hosting the event for the sixth time. Mr Law farms 500 hectares at Chrishall Grange as part of a 1,600-hectare enterprise. It’s a mixed farm with arable crops including sugar beet, a 1,800 ewe flock and 60 suckler cows.
“Two years ago Covid came and we had to spray the plots off – I’m happy that farmers will now be back here, visiting Cereals,” he said.
He added that there had been enormous challenges since the last time he hosted the event: “First it was the early days after the Brexit referendum, then we had Covid, now we are six weeks into the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Suddenly one-third of world wheat production has been affected by the conflict.
“We need to focus on our primary role as food producers, feeding the nation, alongside the environmental agenda,” he said. “We are moving into the unknown. I am trying to run a business but sometimes it seems like being at a casino.”
The Cereals Event will be held near Duxford, Cambridgeshire on 8-9 June 2022. For more information or to purchase tickets visit the relaunched website at www.cerealsevent.co.uk.