We’ll keep doing what we’re doing

I was recently lucky enough to join the Cereals Live event, “New tools for a new era” as a panellist, along with Neave Anderson from Farm 491, Dr Ruth Bastow from CHAP and Dr Shamal Mahammad from Agri-Epi Centre, excellently chaired by the brilliant Sarah Bell.

https://www.cerealsevent.co.uk/cereals-qa-edition/new-tools-for-a-new-era

We were talking about some fascinating new technologies and how farmers would use them, questions being fired in about the plethora of options being offered to farmers and who to trust, what technologies to adopt. My point was that almost all these technologies will deliver for you if used with imagination and creativity, but none would, just simply by buying them. They are just tools that allow you to create value in your business if you use them sensibly. It is therefore all about changing your production system based on having technology that facilitates that.

Interestingly this survey, done at the time, reinforced my view. It is small private companies like SoilEssentials who are trusted to deliver real value. We work with the agri-tech centres and academia, but in the end, farmers want smaller, more agile companies that understand their industry and really care. Good to be recognised and get the thumbs up for what we do, and we will keep at it as hard as ever – even after 20 years.