The Farmers Mart Oct-Nov 2018 - Issue 59 | Page 18

18 FARM NEWS
OCT/NOV 2018 • farmers-mart.co.uk
Weather Cuts British
Plum Season by a Month
August Bank Holiday weekend saw the grand finale
to the Pershore Plum festival with three days of food,
entertainment and plum fun. However, this year
it also marked the end of the British Plum Season,
which normally extends to the end of September.
THE unusual weather experienced
throughout 2018 is to blame, as Gary
Farmer, from Vale Landscape Heritage
Trust, a charity that revitalises old orchards
throughout the region, explains:
“Plums are a temperamental fruit, which
might be one reason their popularity had
dwindled. What’s more, weather conditions
have fluctuated over the last few years
which means neither the trees, the pollina-
tors or the growers know how to adapt.
“In 2018, the cold, damp weather in early
May resulted in fewer blossoms, which
leads to a smaller harvest. The recent rain
following a spell of hot weather has caused
many of the plums to swell and split. We’ve
had all the right weather, just not in the
right order.
Instead of an ongoing crop of
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different varieties at different times of the
summer, all of them seem to have popped
‘en masse’ in August and the plum season
came to an end a month early”
www.pershoreplumfestival.org.uk
Farmer John takes
pesticides message
to heart of the EU
A West Midlands farmer was in Brussels this
week to take his message about safe use
of pesticides directly to lawmakers in the
European Parliament.
John Chinn’s business Cobrey Farms in
Coughton, Ross on Wye, is Britain’s biggest
asparagus producer.
He addressed the parliament’s Special
Committee on Pesticides at the invitation
of West Midlands Conservative MEP Anthea
McIntyre.
Mr Chinn, who also grows berries, beans
and other crops, spoke about the work of
the Centre for Crop Health and Protection,
one of four agri-tech innovation centres set
up by UK Government, which he chairs.
He warned MEPs that the world popu-
lation of 7.6 billion people would reach 10
billion by 2050, and the great challenge
of the 21st century was to produce more
food from the same area while protecting
biodiversity.
He said the UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation and the European Crop Pro-
tection Association estimated that without
crop protection tools farmers could lose
80 per cent of their harvests to damaging
insects, weeds and plant diseases.
Small Robot Company Partners with
NFU on Farmvention Stem Initiative
C
M
Y
Small Robot Company, a British agritech start-up for
sustainable farming, today announced that it has partnered
with the National Farmers Union (NFU) on its Farmvention
initiative. The competition aims to get primary school
children engaging with key topics such as science,
technology, engineering and maths (STEM) by designing
and creating their own food and farming products.1
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
SMALL Robot Company harnesses the
power and precision of robots and Artificial
Intelligence (AI) to improve the way that
food is produced and minimise chemical
usage and use plant protection products
more efficiently. It will make farms more
profitable, and increase yield and efficien-
cy, through using small robots instead of
tractors.
The NFU’s national competition for
primary schools is officially open, and
schools can now submit their applica-
tions for the chance of having their school
turned into a farm for a day. Applications
close on the 21st December 2018.
Fifty school children and their teach-
ers who took part in the pilot project will
attend the launch of the competition at
Birmingham’s ThinkTank Museum, where
they will take on the challenge of creating
their own tractor of the future and design-
ing and preparing a seasonal snack to take
home.
‘ make farms more
profitable, and increase
yield and efficiency
’
Finalists will be invited to present their
designs at the House of Commons during
British Science and Engineering Week,
where the winning school will be an-
nounced.