Careers
Royal Agricultural University scoops virtual wheat challenge
A team of students from the Royal Agricultural University won the 2018 Cereals Challenge by grow- ing the best crop of virtual winter wheat. Newcastle University took second place closely followed by Harper Adams University. The winning team – of Tania
Coxon, James Waddington, Char- lotte Pritchard and Oliver Carrick –was presented with the prestig- ious Cereals Challenge trophy and £1000 prize money to share, plus an additional £500 for the college at last month’s Cereals event. Other participating teams were from Nottingham Universi- ty, Writtle University College and Hartpury College. The goal was to grow the best winter wheat on land with a resistant blackgrass challenge and following a crop of oilseed rape that left Clearfi eld volunteers to manage. The RAU team chose to grow Evolution on the basis of the variety’s good tillering capaci- ty and black-grass competitive- ness. The crop was drilled in ear- ly Nov to allow for an application of glyphosate for weed control pri- or to drilling. As the season pro- gressed the team amended their fungicide and nutritional plans to refl ect the diffi cult spring condi- tions, which they believe made the difference. Judges Dick Neale of Hutchin- sons and Keith Norman of Vel- court agreed putting down the winning formula to the team’s
Film highlights
careers in agriculture A new fi lm highlights the opportunities for youngsters to carve a career in farming. Produced by Susie Emmett of Green Shoots Productions and funded by the Felix Cobbold Trust, the fi lm focuses on young people starting out in farming and the ancillary industries.
To view the fi lm, visit
www.bit.ly/FarmCareerVideo
Apply now for Nuffield Farming Scholarship
Applications are being encour- aged to send submissions for Nuffi eld Farming Scholar- ships well ahead of this year’s 31 July deadline.
The globally recognised
scholarships enable successful applicants to study and travel overseas. They are funded by a raft of sponsors who provide successful candidates with a bursary of £7,000 to cover trav- el and subsistence for a mini- mum of eight weeks’ worth of global research. Richard Hinchliffe, who
Winning team (l-r): James Waddington, Charlotte Pritchard, David Hutchinson (Hutchinsons) Tania Coxon and Oliver Carrick. [photo credit: Andrew Pennill]
consistently good and robust approach to manging the crop throughout what has been a very challenging season.
They underlined the impor-
tance of the experience in taking part in the Cereals Challenge for young people considering careers in farm management or agrono- my, in order to understand the value of good technical informa- tion and agronomic advice in prof- itable crop production. Charlotte Pritchard, part of
the RAU team who is studying for a FDSc in Agriculture and Farm
Management and is in her second year, believes that taking part in the Cereals Challenge has giv- en her fi rst-hand experience of what it would be like to work as an agronomist. She said: “It has also has been an excellent opportunity to be working and learning alongside leading industry experts. It was certainly well worth the commit- ment and hard work throughout the season, and I would encour- age anyone considering a career in agronomy or crop production to take part.”
was a 2016 scholar, travelled to the USA, Australia and Argen- tina to broaden his agricultur- al knowledge and investigate how farmers and agronomists overseas were dealing with the challenge of herbicide resist- ance.
He said: “I was awarded
my Scholarship in 2015, on the topic of herbicide resistant weeds, after a long battle with blackgrass on my own farm in Yorkshire. Since then, my re- search has helped the farm to become blackgrass free for the fi rst time in 17 years. Mr Hinchliffe added: “Un- dertaking a Nuffi eld Scholar- ship has been one of the best professional decisions I’ve ever made. It’s given me a totally different outlook on the indus- try, expanded my contacts on a global scale and given me friends for life.” A scholarship does not re- quire academic qualifi cations, but applicants must be aged between 22 and 45 years old, be well established in their ca- reer, and be at least three years post tertiary education. Full details are at
www.nuffi eld-
scholar.org. Nuffi eld
director Mike
Vacher said: “It’s important to start considering your submis- sion as soon as possible. We can put you in touch with Scholars such as Richard, who will pro- vide fi rst hand advice and ap- plication tips.”
68 ANGLIA FARMER • JULY 2018
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