The Cereals Live Q&A Edition takes place today, offering the farming community the opportunity to ask industry experts their pressing questions in a series of webinars.

In June, the Cereals team brought the UK’s leading technical event for the arable industry online, attracting 19,000 visitors from across the world. The schedule was fully packed and the moderators, speakers and panellists did not have time to answer all 568 questions. RABI is the charity partner for the Live Q&A Edition, which aims to provide answer to those questions and more.

Four new webinars ‘by farmers for farmers’ are being staged today to address the challenges and opportunities facing arable businesses.  Each webinar is designed to be interactive and relaxed and will last up to 1.5 hours to allow for audience participation with ample Q&A, discussion and audience polling. The schedule is listed below.

• 9am – New era, new challenges, new opportunities, chaired by Nigel Padbury of Premium Crops. Speakers include Tim May of Kingsclere Estates, Oscar Harding of Duchess Farms, Buckinghamshire farmer Antony Pearce and Paul Temple, East Yorkshire farmer, Board Member and Chairman of Cereal & Oilseeds Sector, AHDB.
• 11am – A healthier environment: A healthier bottom line, chaired by Caroline Drummond, LEAF CEO. Speakers include Julian Gold of Hendred Estate, Northumberland farmer Louis Fell, John Hawkins of Bagber Farms and George Hosier of Wexcombe Farm.
• 1:30pm – Sustainable Crop Management, chaired by Fiona Burnett SRUC. Speakers include David Miller of Wheatsheaf Farming; Andrew Cragg of Brooker Farms, Tim Pratt of Wantisden Halls Farm and John Pawsey of Shimpling Park Farmwill.
• 3:30pm – New tools for a new era, chaired by Rutland farmer and agri-food consultant Sarah Bell. Speakers include Neave Anderson of Farm 491, Dr. Ruth Bastow of CHAP, Dr. Shamal Mohammed of AgriEPI Centre and Robert Ramsay of Soil Essentials, Scottish farmer & chair of Scotland’s Agricultural Science and Technology Group.

“We are looking forward to facilitating more informal and relaxed conversations on the important ideas that came out of the first online event in June,” said event director Alli McEntyre. “Of course we would rather be together in person but this format does allow a large global audience to be able to contribute ideas and questions in a convenient manner.”