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17th September 2008 - LEAF Demonstration Farm Launch |
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Held at Tiptoe Farm, near Cornhill-on-Tweed in Northumberland |
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Launch of the LEAF demonstration farm and a farm tour |
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20th October 2008 - Somerset Branch Meeting: The Corporate Customer on Your Doorstep |
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Held at 8.00pm at Long Sutton Golf Club, Long Sutton, near Langport |
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SPEAKERS: Rob Addicott and Jeremy Padfield, Somerset Farmers
For further information contact Richard West on 01278 655046 |
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30th October - 1st November 2008 - Provisional date of Nuffield Conference |
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Held at South West |
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19th - 20th November 2008 - IAgrM and BIAC National Farm Management Conference 2008 |
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Held at The Barcello Oxford Hotel |
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The conference theme for the 44th annual conference is “Windows of Opportunity” reflecting the conference committee’s thinking about the current agricultural scene in the UK. We meet at an interesting time for agriculture. The long and oft predicted world food shortages do now appear to be with us, and our politicians are beginning to panic - “What can we blame? Ah, yes – the use of crops for biofuel production!” (Nothing to do with short sighted policies and a failure to support research then!) The situation is changing very quickly and predicting farming’s prospects forward for any length of time is increasingly difficult – but to help us with this we have arranged a superb group of speakers.
For the world scene we have Dr William C. Motes, Executive Vice President of Informa Economics, a member of the Agra Net Group of companies and the foremost company in the USA for world trade analysis. Based in Washington, Dr. Motes has primary responsibilities that include client consulting for international commercial clients and development projects. For the UK scene Siôn Roberts CEO of the English Food and Farming Partnerships will be outlining the opportunities and learning points for UK farmers and the food industry in a rapidly changing marketplace.
Forthcoming technical innovations will form the basis for the second session. Steve Amies, Chief Operating Officer is in charge of Product Development and Strategy at Genus will be giving the Geoff Alderman Lecture on innovations in the livestock industry, whilst Wayne Powell, currently the Director and CEO of the NIAB and shortly to be the Director of The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University, will be talking on the new and exciting technical opportunities he sees for the breeding of crops. Expect the unexpected!
On the second day of the conference we have 3 leading lights from this year’s Institute Leadership Course. The Middleton Lecture on new ways to communicate will be presented by Heather Gorringe founder of Wiggly Wigglers, Andrew Hunter with his extensive farming experiences in Hungary will be talking about Eastern European opportunities, and Matthew Naylor, Lincolnshire farmer, Farmers’ Weekly columnist and FWi blogger will be taking a look “through his window” on the farming world.
Want to know what is involved in ‘Carbon Trading’? Then Simon Ward MD of Increment and proprietor of “Inside Track”, who was a key member of the team which designed the EEDA-funded CALM carbon calculator, will be shedding some much needed light on what up to now has been a foggy pipe dream for farmers.
With ‘regional food’ now becoming an important preference for some consumers, and therefore a marketing issue for food retailers, we have Alistair Robinson Tesco’s Senior Buying Manager in the North of England talking about the opportunities for farmers.
Finally to wind the conference up we have the charismatic and ebullient Prof. David Hughes “opening a few windows” and no doubt letting in some invigorating fresh ‘air’ from his huge experience of global food industry issues and consumer trends.
Added to our line up of invited speakers we will be having our usual session of contributed papers and anyone interested in presenting a paper should contact the Director for more information.
After 2 years in Basingstoke our conference moves to Oxford. The Oxford Hotel is situated conveniently on the NW outskirts of Oxford close to the A40 and A34 and is easily accessible from the M40.
More conference information will be following soon and a conference flyer will be available from the Institute’s website at www.iagrm.org.uk. Don’t miss out - make sure you put the dates in your diary now! Again and again delegates at NFM conferences have praised the conference as the “best yet” and “worth every penny” and have wondered why more people have not attended – so make sure you do not miss out this year at a time when once again agriculture is beginning to be seen as a vital industry, but when making the right decisions will be critical.
Please see Draft Programme and application form accessed via the 'News' tab |
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20th November 2008 - Somerset Branch ANNUAL DINNER and Presentation of Awards for 2008 Farm Business Competition |
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Held at Somerset County Cricket Club |
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SPEAKER: Poul Christensen, Farmer and Deputy Chair of Natural England
For further information please contact Richard West on 01278 655046 |
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1st December 2008 - Somerset Branch - Do We Manage the Media or Do They Manage Us? |
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Held at 8.00pm at Long Sutton Golf Club, Long Sutton, near Langport |
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SPEAKER: Liz Falkingham, Communications Director, NFU
For further information please contact Richard West on 01278 655046 |
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19th January 2009 - Somerset Branch - The Euro Express |
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Held at 8.00pm at Long Sutton Golf Club, Long Sutton, near Langport |
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SPEAKER: Neil Parish MEP and Leader of the Agricultural group
For further information please contact Richard West on 01278 655046 |
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23rd February 2009 - Somerset Branch - Farming in the Fast lane |
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Held at 8.00pm at Long Sutton Golf Club, Long Sutton, near Langport |
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SPEAKER: Chris Musgrave, Manager, Temple Farming
For further information please contact Richard West on 01278 655046 |
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16th March 2009 - Where do You Want Your Income to Come From? |
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Held at 8.00pm at Long Sutton Golf Club, Long Sutton, near Langport |
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SPEAKER: Andrew Robinson, Symonds and Sampson
For further information please contact Richard West on 01278 655046 |
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20th April 2009 - CMA - AGM |
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Held at 7.30pm AGM at Cannington Centre for Land-Based Studies |
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16th - 17th June 2009 - Judging of the Farm Business Competition |
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