Technical Tours

Half-Day Technical Tours

Tuesday 20th July 2010, 13:00

There is a choice of half-day technical tours taking place on Tuesday 20 July. Delegates are able to select which Half-Day Technical Tour they wish to attend via the registration site. If you have already registered for WABCG10, you must log into your booking to make your selection. The three choices of Half-Day Technical Tour are as follows:

Bartlow Estate

Bartlow Estate is a 1,850 hectare arable farm producing wheat for bread making and animal feed, malting barley for beer, oilseed rape for cooking oil and energy use, and sugar beet; of which 260 hectares are grown and c.20,000 tonnes are processed by British Sugar. In total, 2,000 hectares of sugar beet are harvested and c.130,000 tonnes are loaded and transported to the Bury St. Edmunds factory as a contract operation for other growers.

In addition, Bartlow has 60 hectares of woodland, environmental schemes, a pheasant shoot, rented houses and offices converted from redundant farm buildings. The Estate is located in rolling countryside, 12 miles south east of Cambridge, on the Cambridge/Essex border.

G's / Shropshires

Guy Shropshire began farming in the Cambridgeshire Fens over 50 years ago. He and his family have built up a thriving business in the UK and in Europe, delivering the best fresh salads and vegetables from seed to shelf.

G's Marketing provides Growers with services including harvesting, storage, packing, distribution, administration, quality assurance, technical advice and marketing. Farms are based in various locations in the UK and in Spain, where the climate enables us to continue service to customers in all sectors of the food business in the UK throughout the winter months.

G's Marketing is, at its heart, a family business with very strong values for its people, its customers and its suppliers as well as enormous respect for the environment and nature.

This half day technical tour option will give delegates the opportunity for a tour around G’s. Delegates will see their greenhouse, one of their planting operations in the local area and then move on to see some harvesting.

National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB)

NIAB is a pioneering plant science organisation based at the heart of the Cambridge science, technology and university communities and a thriving UK agricultural industry, with over 80 years experience in the agricultural and food sectors. NIAB has an internationally recognised reputation for independence, innovation and integrity and traditional activities have always focused on science-led plant variety and seeds characterisation, evaluation, quality control and knowledge transfer.

The NIAB tour will consist of an overview of the Recommended List system for choosing Sugar Beet varieties, a visit to an Innovation farm with an overview of NIAB genetic research, a tour of the HQ crops and plots and an overview of ornamental operations.

Post-Conference Full-Day Technical Tour

Thursday 22nd July 2010

Hosted by   

Hosted by British Sugar, the conference technical tour will commence with a visit to the company’s sugar factory at Bury St. Edmund’s in Suffolk. Some 30 minutes from Cambridge, the Bury factory produces 250,000 tonnes of sugar each year and is the site of the Silver Spoon Company’s retail packing operation.

After lunch we will move to the Broom’s Barn research centre, part of the world renowned Rothamsted Research institute. Broom’s Barn’s mission is to carry out high quality strategic and applied research work on sugar beet.

Delegates will be able to book their place on the technical tours when registering for WABCG10. The cost of a single place on  each technical tour is included in the delegate fee, extra places for non-delegates are available through the WABCG10 Partner Programme, which can also be booked during registration.