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Technology Transfer Events for Growers

7th Feb 2014

During the winter season, Angus Growers run a series of seminars for our growers, with invited speakers from a range of suppliers, researchers and advisors to the soft fruit industry. The meetings kicked off this year on 13^th January with a day of interesting presentations from Omex Horticulture, Flowering Plants Lt and Syngenta Bioline.  Speakers from Omex Horticulture gave a review of available products for foliar feeding and improving fruit quality, followed by a participative discussion on optimising application methods on-farm.  Details of on-going trials and new product developments were presented by the Omex trials team, and discussed amongst growers and the AG agronomy and QA team.

This was followed up by a group of speakers combining expertise from Flowering Plants Ltd, Supernemos, and the University of Dublin to give a detailed review of vine weevil biology and its control using a new nematode product Supernemos- a lot of focus was given to ensuring good application techniques on-farm.  Flowering Plants Ltd closed their session with discussion on water quality and fertigation, in particular the use of scheduling fertigation according to alkalilinty levels.

The final session of the day was from Syngenta Bioline.  The speaker highlighted the importance of optimising pollination in soft fruit crops, with a review of bee biology, hive design and techniques to facilitate successful pollination (e.g.. tunnel venting, climate control, IPM practices).  A detailed discussion of vine weevil control using a range of Syngenta nematode products then followed.

For our second seminar on 4^th February, we invited speakers from Everris Ltd and Cocogreen to speaker to our growers.  The team from Everris Ltd started off the day with an introduction to the company and the products and services they provide.  This session began with an interesting presentation on the peat harvesting processes at the company’s Scottish bogs, and the range of Everiss substrate products on offer.  A member of the marketing development team travelled from the Netherlands to speak to us about on-going work with product development, field trials and advisory tools- in particular a demonstration of a new fertiliser advisory tool suitable for soft fruit advisors and growers.  The Everris seminar concluded with a presentation of the range of nutritional products they have on offer, including their ranges of Agroleaf Power foliar feeds, Agrolution fertigation fertigation products and their range of controlled release fertilisers- detailed data of scientific trials of these products was presented.

The second company to present on 4^th February was Cocogreen (UK) Ltd.  These speakers gave us another interesting insight in to some of the production processes behind the substrates used on our soft fruit crops; with details of the physical and chemical steps involved in coir production, from the initial harvesting of green coconuts through to the finished products delivered on farm in Scotland for our strawberry and raspberry crops.

For more information about our previous or upcoming events, please contact us.