Farmers Guide Awards for Excellence 2020
9th April 2020
On 12th March, we were due to hold our annual Farmers Guide awards. Unfortunately, for the safety of our staff and guests, we made the decision to cancel the event, so here is a summary of our well-deserving winners!
Machinery winner, New Holland’s T8 Genesis tractor.
On 12th March, we were due to hold our annual Farmers Guide awards. Unfortunately, for the safety of our staff and guests, we made the decision to cancel the event. Below are our well-deserving winners, and we hope to be able to hold the awards ceremony later in the year.
New Holland UK tractor product specialist David Redman (left) and New Holland T7, T8 & T9 product marketing manager for Europe, Darragh Mullin.
Machinery Award
New Holland’s T8 Genesis tractor was awarded the Farmers Guide machinery award for 2019 this year.
According to David: “It makes a clear statement about the future of farm mechanisation when, rather than buying a tractor with added technology, those investing in the new model are buying an electronic brain and communications system, with muscle for eld tasks.” David spent half a day driving a pre-production T8 Genesis in August last year away from public view, cultivating stubble on a large Oxfordshire estate.
“For a machine with so much computing power and automation it’s easy to set up and use, and the whole concept is extremely user-friendly,” he explains. “Clearly the tractor’s systems are designed to do far more than the New Holland team admits to currently, but when the industry is ready to accept more automation, this tractor will be able to raise its game accordingly. It’s a future-proof investment for professional farmers and contractors.”
New Holland T7, T8 & T9 product marketing manager for Europe, Darragh Mullin, explained that the new tractor is capable of making the most of data available for task management and planning. “It’s likely that before we see fully autonomous operation we will see coordinated working of linked machines such as a chaser wagon automatically tracking alongside a fleet of combines,” he said. “To make operational decisions during that sort of activity requires huge amounts of data to be considered, and the T8 Genesis will handle that.”
Arable Award
In light of the well-documented decline in triazole efficacy against key cereal disease septoria, the imminent loss of multi-site fungicide chlorothalonil (CTL) and the evolving picture of SDHI resistance, BASF’s launch of a new cereal fungicide couldn’t have come at a better time for UK growers. As such, for arable editor Dominic, it was the standout award winner for arable product launches in 2019.
BASF head of business development, Steve Dennis and BASF senior principal scientist, Dr Rosie Bryson.
Dominic says: “Revystar XE is based on new active ingredient Revysol (mefentrifluconazole) and Xemium (fluxapyroxad). It offers an impressive leap in the control of septoria in wheat over current products, while also delivering improved yields. ”Revysol is unique in the way it binds to the fungus, providing reliable control of all known strains of septoria. Its binding power is, on average, 100 times more powerful than conventional azoles, resulting in stronger efficacy. It offers improved control over other SDHI products for septoria (as a protectant and curative) and demonstrates very good brown rust control and yellow rust control similar to other SDHIs. ”Its broad-spectrum activity is extended to the main barley diseases and, importantly, ramularia. Revysol has very rapid leaf uptake and inner leaf reservoirs are formed, resulting in slow and consistent distribution of the product, also leading to long-lasting efficacy.”
Steve Dennis said: “BASF are delighted to win the Farmers Guide arable award for the Revystar XE campaign; the campaign is about knowledge transfer to the user of this exciting new chemistry, so it is critical to the success of the product and for rapid adoption of the best technology by growers. We are grateful to farmers Guide for recognising the value of this new innovation.”
Farming Hero
The Farming Hero award is a new category and we had hundreds of heartwarming nominations. According to editor Rachel: “The nomination for this year’s winner came from a Norfolk farmer, and simply said ‘I nominate Matthew Hawthorne of Euston Estates. Matthew goes above and beyond for the estate, young people, schools and his staff.’
“After investigating further, the work that Matthew does with his local primary school is nothing short of amazing. One initiative saw students manage an £80,000 budget to purchase a new handler, with Matthew helping them to assess the cost, styling, performance, dealer customer service and origin of three different branded machines before letting them make the final purchasing decision.
“Another involved testing variables affecting the sugar beet yield, including ground prep, planting methods and the amount of nitrogen fertiliser used. At harvest, the sugar beet were counted and weighed, before being sent off to analyse the sugar content. It was also explained how the results yielded useful data for the farm. As such, I chose to give the Farming Hero award to Matthew Hawthorne for turning learning about agriculture into an adventure and encouraging future farmers.”
Matthew said: “It’s an honour to win the Farming Hero award. If there was any category I could have picked to win, this would be it. I’m keen to involve youngsters and help them experience the agricultural industry so it feels very special knowing others have recognised this, and recommended me for this award.“
