| Education
Peas prove a success for Bishop Burton team
Bishop Burton College has won the 2016 Cereals Challenge having risen to
the challenge of growing the most profitable crop of peas.
ast year’s winner’s Easton &
Otley College claimed second
place and Harper Adams
University came third.
Teams from Newcastle
University, The Royal
Agricultural University, Harper Adams
University, Bishop Burton College, Risheholme
College and Easton & Otley College qualified in
a competitive process for the Challenge, and
were subsequently each allocated a plot at the
Cereals site at Chrishall Grange Farm in
Cambridge for which they have had complete
responsibility over since February through to
the Cereals Event.
The team of three from Bishop Burton
College who are studying for a Foundation
degree in Agriculture secured their win by an
attention to detail across all elements of the
competition. The team goes away with a trophy
and £1000 prize money to share between the
team members plus an additional £500 for the
College.
Team captain Rhys Jones along with team
members, Harry Torn and Shane Hardgrave,
were thrilled with their win. “We didn’t know
much about peas as a team initially so we had
to source information from reference texts such
as the PGRO Agronomy Guide, to gleaning
information from the web as well as talking to
our lecturers. We then pooled all of this
information and agreed the recommendations
as a team- and it obviously worked – we are
L
really pleased with how the peas look,” says
Rhys.
“It is the first time that peas have been grown
in the seven years that the Cereals Challenge
has been running, in recognition of the UN
declaring 2016 the International Year of Pulses,
so we at the PGRO were delighted to be
involved and support the Challenge,” says
Roger Vickers, CEO of the PGRO
Judged by Keith Norman, technical director
at Velcourt, Dick Neale, technical manager of
Hutchinsons, and Roger Vickers and Steve
Belcher from the PGRO, the final results are
based on each team’s agronomic
recommendations (evaluating their
appropriateness and timeliness for each
recommendation), input cost management,
estimated crop yield and the quality, as well as
harvesting advice.
Dick Neale puts down the teams win to an
attention to detail across every area of their
programme. “The team chose a profitable
variety, the marrowfat Sakura from the start,
and their herbicide, fungicide, insecticide and
nutritional recommendations were well thought
through and justified- and getting this right on
paper was translated into how well the plot
looked,” says Dick Neale.
Keith Norman agrees and says that the team
got it right from the start.” The crop established
well, the seed rate was kept at its correct rate of
74seeds/m² and the team got the early nutrition
right, which on the light soils of Crishall Grange
Bishop Burton College, Winners of the 2016
Cereals Challenge l-r: Harry Torn, Shane
Hardgrave, Rhys Jones (team captain)
is crucial.”
Set up as a joint initiative between
Hutchinsons and Velcourt to offer an insight
into careers in agronomy or farm management,
the Challenge has proved a success in its
seven year history with 5 students joining
Hutchinsons successful Agronomy Foundation
Training Programme, whilst Velcourt has
employed 6 students as farm managers
Jacqueline Tilney, part of this year’s Easton
& Otley team, says that the Challenge has
really piqued her interest in agronomy as a
career. “I’ve had an interest in agronomy but
being part of the Challenge has really
confirmed this, as I’ve had a chance to see firsthand how decisions on inputs and crop
management can have such an impact on the
crop - and that’s fascinating.”
Hanna and Salla at the Walford Farm
42 | Farming Monthly | July 2016
www.farmingmonthly.co.uk