At this year’s Welsh Winter Fair in Llanelwedd, Aberystwyth University IBERS will be showing Welsh farmers a range of ways to help the environment and to help themselves at the same time.
The holder of the UK’s only Chair in Sustainable Agriculture will raise a crucial issue during a special breakfast discussion on the Tuesday morning, November 30, in the company of Elin Jones AM, Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Rural Affairs .
Professor Gareth Edwards Jones, Waitrose Chair of Sustainable Agriculture at Aberystwyth University’s Institute for Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences will ask the audience of invited guests, “Can large farming enterprises ever be truly sustainable?”.
With pressure on farmers to increase the size of their units and with stories in the press about farms with thousands of milking cows, it is one of the hottest subjects in farming today.
Helping farmers to be sustainable
The IBERS team will be advising Welsh farmers on to find ways of making their enterprises more sustainable and profitable. The team from the Grassland Development Centre and the Wales Climate Centre, both based at IBERS, and IBERS Farms Manager will be on hand to discuss a range of topics including:
The SLP Project – Evaluating Sustainable Lamb Production An exciting new project which aims to make the most of genetics by combining the advances in sheep breeding and strategic use of different grassland types .
Grazing less improved areas with breeding ewes and capitalising on the benefits of the latest varieties of grasses and clover for lamb finishing, the project is working with commercial farmers across Wales jointly with industry partners.
Looking to minimise cost and maximise returns through strategic use of the different grassland areas on the farm during the sheep year, the work will help farmers to evaluate and develop efficient and environmentally friendly systems of sheep production that meet market needs.
ProSoil – This five-year project shows how IBERS is working with farmers across Wales to determine how the quality of the soil affects grassland farming and how good soil management could be the key to improving the financial efficiency of Welsh livestock farms in an environmentally-sensitive way.
Initially the project is looking at the effects of improving soil health on the productivity and quality of forage available to livestock. The long term aim is to study its impact on the quality of agricultural food products.
Experimental work on plots at IBERS’ own farm and on eight commercial farms across Wales is monitoring the performance of different treatments on different soil types. Now in its second year, the team members on the stand at Llanelwedd will share the latest news.
IBERS’ mission
All the projects fit into the stand’s theme – Sustainable Agriculture – and with IBERS’ mission, to use world class research to offer practical support to the farming industry and the environment in Wales and across the globe.
“These projects show how academic research into plants and animals, and putting that science into practice can help farmers improve their land, their crops, their stock and their income,” said IBERS Director, Professor Wayne Powell.
“IBERS is carrying out cutting edge research to try and help tackle the great global issues of climate change, and security of energy, food and water – these projects show how we are helping Welsh farmers in all these areas.”
Where? The IBERS stand at the Winter Fair (November 29 and 30) is on the balcony in Livestock Complex 1 –stand no. EXB253. You are welcome to send a reporter and photographer/camera crew. The IBERS team will be on hand to offer more information.
Vistors to IBERS stand at the Winter Fair can also learn more about …
New crops – AU IBERS Farms are constantly developing new techniques and ideas, and working as a role model for Welsh farms. One of the latest contributions is to show how farmers can tackle the surge in cereal prices by growing their own cereals and high-protein crops for feeding their livestock.
“We have been planting new crops to protect our farming operation against unpredictable price rises and will be developing a further range of crops.” said Dr. Huw Mc Conochie, IBERS Farms Manager
Wales Climate Centre – which is part of IBERS – will offer practical guidance on how farms can produce their own energy. Advice will include assessing land for a wind turbine and the latest in anaerobic digesters, using waste from the farm to create energy. Staff at Llanelwedd will highlight their programme of information events for farmers across Wales.
