The agricultural industry is currently experiencing huge change and hundreds of land agents and valuers from across the UK will be visiting Shropshire next month to ensure they stay on the front foot.
Shropshire is pioneering the way forward with progressive farming businesses and these will the focus of a two-day event to mark the 75th Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers.
“We all need to be at the forefront of our industry to ensure that we lead the way through the challenges ahead,” said Charlotte Rogerson, a chartered surveyor with Berrys and spokesperson for the Shropshire, Montgomeryshire and District Agricultural Valuers Association which is organising the event.
The event will include a visit to a progressive rural estate and educational facility and a series of seminars and talks from leading individuals within the industry.
Albrighton Hall Hotel will be the base for the two-day meeting which starts on Thursday, June 27 with a visit to Harper Adams University, Newport where the Hands Free Hectare project and intensive dairy unit will offer a glimpse into the future.
In the afternoon, Sansaw Estate near Shrewsbury will showcase a modern rural estate with commercial office development, light industrial units and New Zealand-style dairy unit. Owner James Thompson, a former Royal Marine, has developed the estate to be fit for the 21st century. One of the tenants of the commercial units, Forestart Ltd, grow, harvest and condition tree seed, an unusual and innovative business.
The following day CAAV members will meet at Albrighton Hall Hotel for the conference and annual meeting which includes talks from Professor David Llewellyn, vice chancellor of Harper Adams University, Gill Hamer, Shropshire Enterprise Partnership and Shropshire grower Philip Maddocks of PDM Produce Ltd, one of the UK’s leading specialist lettuce and baby leaf growers and processors.
The challenges of controlling animal diseases post Brexit will be discussed by Professor Jonathan Wastling, Dean of Natural Sciences at Keele University and there will be a professional update from Jeremy Moody, secretary and adviser of the CAAV, along with the election of a new President and presentation of the Talbot Ponsonby Prize for top marks in the CAAV examinations.
The event takes place annually and is based in the home county of the CAAV President who this year is Geoff Coster, a senior figure in the Valuation Office Agency based in Shrewsbury. The event was last held in Shropshire in 1987 when the national President was Graham Holmes, now deceased, who was a partner with Berrys in Shrewsbury.
“We are really proud to be hosting this prestigious event in Shropshire and we hope that the varied programme will demonstrate how the county’s forward-looking rural businesses are evolving to thrive in the future,” said Charlotte, a former winner of the Talbot Ponsonby prize herself.
“We are in a time of great uncertainty so this event will be vitally important to all advisers working in the rural profession,” she added.
For further details contact Charlotte Rogerson at the Shrewsbury office of Berrys on 01743 290642 email charlotte.rogerson@berrys.uk.com
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