| Cereals
A wide range of courses Agriculture students
on offer at Moulton
hope to lead WUC to
College
virtual victory
Preserving and managing the Great British countryside is
no easy job – particularly with an increased push on
ensuring the sustainability of our land.
oulton College
have been training
the next
generation since
1921. Students
learn on the
commercially farmed 550 hectare
estate where a wide range of
crops are farmed and a beef
enterprise has been established.
All of this alongside the specialist
workshops, mean that students
enjoy the very best resources at
Moulton College.
It isn’t just agriculture either,
with courses in arboriculture and
countryside management; if you
enjoy the great outdoors you are
sure to find the perfect course at
Moulton. Whether you’re just
finishing school, looking to change
career or just develop new skills,
Moulton College have hands-on
further education, degree level
M
A team of four agriculture degree students at Writtle
University College are competing against seven other
Universities and Colleges from across England in a virtual
crop growing challenge.
courses, part-time courses and
apprenticeships to help you take
the next step.
Students enjoy the very best
resources at Moulton College
Moulton College offers a wide
range of part-time courses for
those working in the arable sector
including FACTS, BASIS and a
range of pesticide courses. With
an experienced team, great links
to the industry and ground-
breaking research, Moulton will
help you to succeed and prepare
you for a career in your chosen
area.
For more information visit
Moulton College at Cereals on
stand 419, alternatively call 01604
491131 or email
[email protected]
ow in its eighth
year, the Cereals
Challenge is an
annual
competition
organised by crop
production specialists,
Hutchinsons, and farm business
management company, Velcourt,
and aims to encourage a new
generation of agronomists and
farmers into the industry. For the
first time in the competition’s
history, teams won’t have a real
plot to manage but will compete to
grow the best virtual plot of spring
barley.
WUC Team Captain Oliver
Martin, a third year Agricultural
Business Management (Crop
Production) student explained the
team’s choice to grow a malting
barley on light sands: “By growing
a malting crop in Suffolk, we are
close to malsters. We have opted
for Octavia which is approved for
brewing and malt distilling. At least
we know that we can manage the
weed control, as we don’t have
black-grass to worry about on the
region’s lighter soils.”
Each team will be asked to
present fertiliser and herbicide
management plans, a PGR and
pest management plan as well as
a disease management plan and,
most importantly, will be asked to
evaluate their appropriateness and
timeliness for each
recommendation, input cost
management, estimated crop yield
N
www.farmingmonthly.co.uk
and quality.
Speaking about the
competition, Oliver added: “The
Cereals Challenge is a great
opportunity for us as a team to
pool our individual knowledge and
expertise, and to put into practice
some of what we have learnt over
the past three years.”
Supporting Oliver and the team
which is made up of Henry
Hawkins, Harry Coppin and
George Padfield, is WUC Senior
Lecturer in Agriculture, Henry
Matthews who said: “This is a
great opportunity for students to
demonstrate their skills and
knowledge in an applied way, as
they will have to in the roles they
are likely to take up in the industry.
As on previous occasions,
including when we won the
competition, I am confident that
the students are equipped to
acquit themselves without any
major input from me”
The winning team will be
announced at the Cereals Event
on 14th June as part of the Guild
of Agricultural Journalists Cereals
Awards ceremony.
Writtle University College offers
a range of agricultural
qualifications, ranging from short
course programmes and
apprenticeships, to college and
university courses. For more
information visit
www.writtle.ac.uk/courses
May 2017 | Farming Monthly | 37