Winter Agronomy Roadshows (Scotland) go digital

The annual Agronomy Roadshow workshops hosted by AHDB, Scotlands Rural College (SRUC) and the Farm Advisory Service (FAS), will for the first time be delivered in a virtual format, while retaining their regional focus.

Farmers will get the lowdown on the latest crop research during a series of free online agronomy workshops being held in Scotland in January and February.

Organised by AHDB, SRUC, and jointly funded by FAS, the workshops will each focus on a different theme. These include; integrated pest management (IPM) planning and fungicide updates, crop selection and variety performance, business resilience and markets, soil health and an update on the results of the trials being carried out at AHDB’s Strategic Potato Farm Scotland.

The programme has been developed to include regionally relevant speakers and discussions with stakeholders from across the arable industry in Scotland.

The themed workshops, which run from 10 am - 1.30 pm each Wednesday from 13th January to 10th February, will take place online. Each session will commence with a technical webinar followed by a pre-recorded question and answer discussion with a range of speakers; and an interactive session looking at the theory in practice and discussing what is happening at different farms across Scotland – East Lothian, Fife, the Black Isle, Aberdeen and Angus.

The programme consists of:

13th January - IPM planning and fungicide updates

20th January - Crop selection and variety performance

27th January - Business Resilience and Markets

3rd February - Soil Health

10th February - Strategic Potato Farm Scotland results day

Chris Leslie, AHDB's Knowledge Exchange Manager Arable for Scotland said: “We have moved our popular Agronomy Roadshows online this year so we can still let farmers know about the latest crop research. As well as addressing some of the hot topics affecting their businesses, not just in Scotland but local to their region.

“We will provide information and thought-provoking conversations delivered via a range of speakers drawn from research, industry, and farming, to provide expertise from all areas of agriculture. I encourage anyone with an interest in arable farming to attend so they can benefit from the valuable and practical information that we will be sharing.”

Professor Fiona Burnett of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) said, “Sustainability and profitability are the running themes of this series of workshops. In the technical lectures, and supporting group discussion and downloads, we will dive deep into IPM practices, technical inputs, and markets suited to Scotland, and hear from growers about the opportunities to pick these up in practice.

“The sessions will cover the launch of a new planning tool to let growers track their IPM practices, and span-new asks around soil health, effective fungicides and resilient varieties that support both key markets and more sustainable practices.”

To see the full programme of each event and to sign up, visit FAS events