Farmers’ welcome return as Lincolnshire hosts one of country’s first arable trade shows for 18 months

Cereals 2021, the UK’s main arable farming trades show went ahead on Wednesday and Thursday on land at Boothby Graffoe, between Sleaford and Lincoln.

It was one of the first farming shows to go ahead since the start of the pandemic, allowing farmers and exhibitors to meet and network face-to-face, rather than online webinars.

Although slightly smaller than normal, as some businesses had been unsure whether to go ahead due to ongoing uncertainty from government about restrictions, trade stands reported a good, steady flow of visitors across the two days.

They were able to eye up the latest massive machines and labour-saving technology, such as driverless tractors and drone crop sprayers to address the growing shortage of manpower, talk to people directly, attend seminars and examine the crop plots, including soil pits to see root growth.

There were 300 exhibitors plus live demonstrations of machines, as well as the Isuzu off-road driving course to have a go at.

Kicking off the speakers on Wednesday was Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice who spoke about support for farmers to preserve and enhance soil quality.

There were also celebrities on hand, with Ceres Rural farming consultants’ Charlie Ireland, better known as ‘Cheerful Charlie’ the advisor on hit Amazon TV show Clarkson’s Farm. He was joined by Jeremy Clarkson’s farm hand Kaleb Cooper, as they posed for selfies.

Local exhibitors included Blankney Estates along with subsidiaries Growing Opportunities, who supply organic fertilisers, and X Farm, an online grain trading platform. Joss Vincent from the company said: “Everyone is excited about the industry and where the market is going. In two years a lot has changed with Brexit and people’s perception of the countryside, food and the future of farming.”

Fred Clarke, technical sales adviser with Mastenbroek’s, a drainage equipment manufacturer from Boston, was equally optimistic: “It is nice to talk to people in person rather than through a TV screen. How can you imagine what one of our machines looks like on a picture?”

Jon Wareing, a director of G and J Peck farm machinery sales of Mareham Le Fen agreed: “We have not done much in the last 18 months in terms of this type of event, so it has been good to meet customers.

“During the pandemic agriculture has had to carry on. We have adapted by doing more remote working, but generally we have been busy.”

Andy Eccles, a director of Omex fertilisers, in Bardney, noticed the show seemed smaller but their stand had been busier than expected.

Looking to the future and addressing the challenges of climate change was top of the list for many landowners and Michael Jorden of JRH Water management Solutions, of East Firsby, Market Rasen, had a modern take on recycling rainwater, instead of the old Lincolnshire system of pumping it off the land and out to sea as quickly as possible. He said: “These systems are flood prevention devices as well as keeping water to re-use instead of going down the drain. It is new technology but people have collected rainwater for years - we are taking it into the 21st century.

Graham Larrington of Larrington Trailers has been an engineering success story, based on Great Fen Road at Wyberton Fen, Boston. Again his firm has been busy throughout the pandemic. Only now were they beginning to see hold-ups in supply of parts from overseas due to the pandemic affecting factories and Brexit slowing imports.

Employing 20 people they fabricate and manufacture equipment that limits bruising of harvested crops for clients globally, exporting to Australia, New Zealand, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Denmark, Ireland and the USA.

Mr Larrington said they have just embarked on developing an automated system for Boston growers that gently loads cabbages into boxes without damaging them, to futureproof against an increasing shortage of labour to do the job by hand.

Praising organisers on the first day of Cereals 2021, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice commented that there will probably be lots to retain from the many Zoom meetings it has entailed as it is easier to do meetings with people across the country.

But he added: “I’m glad to be rid of it as well. It’s great to be back out again because farming is real, it happens outdoors, we want to meet and it’s important that you’ve got actual demonstration projects that you can see in the ground so it’s great to see these events returning.

“I would also say that the last 18 months with the pandemic have been incredibly difficult, challenging times. It has taken up huge bandwidth within government but the food industry I think has shown its phenomenal ability to respond to that challenge. At the beginning of the pandemic, we had that panic-buying episode, there was a 50 per cent spike in demand for food, billions of pounds worth of food being ordered by people and in that period we really saw the entire food supply chain step up, from farmers producing the food, right through to the food manufacturers who cranked up the lines and churned out more, right through to supermarkets and the staff in supermarkets who were on the front line.

“It was a phenomenal response from the food industry. I hope that out of this there will be a renewed appreciation among the public of the importance of our food industry, the resilience of our food industry and that that resilience actually depends on domestic food production. That domestic food production is a critical part of our food security.”

After a particularly challenging and difficult year for the arable food sector with the weather in 2020, he said this year was looking much better. With climate change playing a part in food production, he said land and soil management could be part of the answer to that, lowering carbin emissions by reducing use of fertilisers while im[roving water quality and biodiversity.

To this end he announced more details on the government’s Sustainable Farming Incentive, encouraging farmers through payments to be custodians of their soils, with four standards for different uses.

Mr Eustice said: “Farmers know the value of good rotation and good soil management. We want the Sustainable Farming Incentive to support that.”