STOCKBRIDGE TECHNOLOGY CENTRE LTD

AUTUMN NEWSLETTER 2009

Welcome to STC

We are pleased to welcome three new directors to the STC Research Foundation Board. The STCRF Board looks after Stockbridge and guides its strategy and policy for the interests of the horticultural industry. We therefore try to get a spread across the sectors. The new directors bring new skills and experience with Martin Evans representing root vegetables, David Piccaver salads and Alan Davis bedding/ornamentals. They join John Richardson hardy nursery stock, Roger Sayer protected edibles, Peter Branfield potatoes, Julian Hargreaves processing veg and potatoes and John Molyneux brassicas. We also have two eminent professors in Bill Davies and Carlo Leifert. We would like to thank Stuart Coutts who has retired from the Board for his advice and help.

The STC business is responsible to this STCRF Board for running a profitable business which has to service the mortgage and other investments we make. The business structure is totally self-contained so that all surplus (profit) has to be channelled back to the Foundation and, in turn, the Foundation can only deliver its objectives via the STC business. Thus no monies are payable to anyone outside and there are no other conflicting business priorities for monies or policy changes.

For those of you who remember supporting the creation of the STC business, after Stockbridge House Experimental Horticulture Station was one of the early casualties of the Defra/HRI International funding cuts, the concept was of an applied research facility and staff expertise whose future was solely in the hands of and controlled by growers. I think those supporters can reasonably congratulate themselves on their long-sited vision as the industry is faced this week with the closure of Wellesbourne, with Kirton and Efford already closed and dissipated.

This leads me to our other major development. We have signed cooperation agreements with East Malling Research and ADAS Horticultures to create an applied research platform. This means all our staff expertise is pooled so we can work together to deliver the best service to our customers (growers).

This platform is able to offer to universities and other pure science institutions expertise in horticultural applied science and consultancy. We will be the best partners for them to deliver to the industry the innovations their science identifies. The funding streams from Government are directed at pure science although there is some movement within the TSB new pot (Technology Strategy Board) which is absorbing LINK. Applied science in the public arena is dependant upon the HDC and regional funding streams.

The creation of the platform emerges from many years of strong priced based tender competition, a fashion to squeeze short-term gain. The drying up of public funds does not fit this abrasive model, nor does this model encourage sustainability of business.

We have created the platform to overcome the fault lines of the last ten years and to offer from our side a more sustainable foundation for future delivery of technology to the horticultural industry. To be successful it will require a longer term commitment by growers and their fund managers, which understands the needs of good value but also the need for sound long term businesses.

STC sponsored the Deliciously Yorkshire Awards 2009-2010, which was won by W S Bentley for their new product sprouted peas ( ). Jan is a client of STC but we did not cheat!

We have started our new website Stockbridge Online ( ). The site is for all the technologists and research providers in the industry to use. We are trying to create a focus for scientific and political issues related to horticulture. Basically most mainline journals have extracts so we are trying to refer users to the fuller details, and also to extract from more general sites the stuff relevant to horticulture so you can spend less time searching. It is early days but we are encouraged by the hit counter.

We try to maintain a high-level of expertise input into Government initiatives. This is expensive in staff time and I wonder if we are doing too much for no pay (back to the short-term price tenders). Martin serves on the ACP pesticide registration body. Julian serves on the PRC (residues monitoring) and is a Governor of Askham Bryan College. I still do the NFU nitrates and have recently joined one of the work groups for the Defra Food Policy Advisors Initiative. I justify this overhead cost, rather weakly to the Foundation Board, by maintaining that it keeps us in touch with regulation and initiatives affecting growers so we are better informed to serve our customers.

Finally my colleagues will describe some of the schools and health work we are doing to help expand the market for F&V. I am now trying hard to engage with secondary education. There are new Diplomas being introduced as alternatives to ‘A’ levels and other academic qualifications. I am exploring a F&V Food Chain Diploma which should expose our youngsters in all issues of F&V from field to plate. Identifying issues like climate change, health and food security on the one hand and job opportunities from farm, packaging, distribution and retailing on the way. It’s a very complicated process but I believe essential if we are to get an understanding of the value not the price of English grown produce and a source of staff for our businesses.

Graham Ward OBE, Chief Executive

------

Agronomy projects

This season has been a particularly busy one and the credit crunch does not appear to have affected the level of business activity. Companies have continued to want us to test new products, assist with product development and this shows confidence in both STC and the horticulture industry. Our independence and confidentiality are crucial to this success.

A large proportion of the work is repeat business but we have also started work for 6 new clients in 2009 either directly or through introductions by independent consultants. The challenge is to increase this further so that we are the first choice for the sector. Most growers will not realise our involvement due to confidentiality but it will surprise many at how we are working behind the scenes to help the industry.

Our pesticide testing on non-target plants expanded by 50% in 2009 and is immune to the current economic conditions as the Regulators still require the data and approval may be several years away.

All this additional work is fortunately spread out over a longer period than was the case several years ago. This helps to improve the utilisation of the glasshouses and helps to maintain full glasshouses during the winter when heating costs are high.

Innovation Voucher scheme

We are now registered with this scheme administered by Business Link in this region. The vouchers are available to commercial companies who require technical input from R&D providers such as STC. Although they are currently only worth £3k each they are set to double or treble in value in 2010 and can be a useful source of funds to supplement existing R&D budgets.

Let Nature Feed Your Senses

This is a new Big Lottery funded project through Natural England to improve access to nature and the countryside. The target audience are people who are disconnected with the countryside through a variety of reasons – locality, age, deprivation etc. The target areas are the 10% most deprived areas of the country. The project is being run by LEAF and the Sensory Trust.

STC are involved in helping to coordinate the activities within this region and hope to be able to host some visits to the centre. Host centres will include nature reserves, city farms, Care Farms with an expectation that over 60% of visits will be made to commercial farms. Farmers will receive a fee for hosting visits depending on the number in the group. This project should help us work with groups from inner city areas.

Business and Enterprise Scheme in Schools

To date most of our work with primary schools has been around healthy eating but we wanted to diversify and piloted a new scheme in spring 2009 involving schools setting up a business to grow and sell bedding plants.

With the current education strategy on developing cross-curricular links we thought this would be an ideal opportunity to get top year primary pupils thinking about business and making money! The project involved growing, setting budgets, deciding on how many trays to grow, what bedding and vegetable crops to grow, marketing and the use of the internet to find out prices. Team work was also crucial.

I went into each of the 6 schools to explain the project to staff and students. STC supplied the plug plants and then the schools pricked then out into pots or six pack trays before bringing them back to Stockbridge to grow for 4-6 weeks. The plants were then delivered back to school for sale. STC inputs were covered as we charged for compost, plastic trays and also rent for then glasshouse based on the area used.

The feedback was very positive and the children decided how the money raised was spent. We have decided to expand the scheme to 12 schools in 2010.

Food Dudes

We applied to the local Government Office to introduce Bangor University’s Food Dudes Scheme into 2 local schools to compliment what we already doing with growing with schools. We selected one rural school and one on the edge of Selby to provide 2 contrasting localities. The main emphasis is on rewarding children when they try new foods and also using the Food Dudes characters to promote eating fruit and veg.

Phase 1 lasted for 16 days and the Key Stage 1 children were given a piece of fruit and vegetable each day with different combinations for 4 days before repeating on 4 dates. Evidence has shown that repeated exposure to new tastes can overcome children’s reluctance to try new foods. The combinations were apples/cherry tomatoes, satsumas/yellow peppers, grapes/carrots and bananas/cauliflower. We monitored what they ate on 2 days prior to intervention to provide a baseline.

Post October half term the schools are monitoring what the children are eating at lunchtime (school dinner or pack up) for 4 weeks for Phase 2. This will continue through until the summer term but only monitored once a week.

We will report the results in summer 2010.

Julian Davies

------

Vegetable Bag Scheme

With funding from North Yorkshire County Council, our project with Selby Association of Voluntary Services is now supplying and delivering up to 75 affordable vegetable bags per week to the local Selby Community. We are supplying 3 different size of bag to cater for individuals to the larger family. The majority of produce is grown here at Stockbridge, and any additional veg sourced from local growers. The produce is picked fresh and packed every Wednesday and held over night in a cold store for collection and delivery the following day.

The scheme is linking in well with our other school projects, promoting healthy eating and a number of primary schools are now providing a venue for delivery of our veg bags. This means that children learn about growing their own veg and the importance of healthy eating during their visits to Stockbridge, and we can extend the benefits of this to families and friends through our affordable scheme, particularly in areas where there is limited access to fresh fruit and veg.

We have currently passed the first application stage for our Big Lottery bid to expand the project further. For more details about the scheme go to or call Gill Bell at Selby Association of Voluntary Services on 01757 291111.

Open days

We held 2 open days at STC this year –open farm Sunday in June, and during British Food Fortnight in September/October. Both events were very successful. In October we were joined by Hilary Finney who held cookery sessions for around 100 children. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust were here and Rachel Stanhope from Barlow Common Nature Reserve was pond-dipping – always very popular. Julian showed groups of visitors around the glasshouses at some of the work we do. The numbers were over-whelming and we always find huge interest from the public in glasshouse crops. As usual, we will hold our next event on open farm Sunday, which is June 13th 2010.

Julie Langdale

------

The Farm

This year Bayer Crop Science has continued to increase its area of arable demonstration and development work with us which has included new varieties, new herbicides in cereals and maize, and comparison of seed treatments on winter wheat and barley. During the summer Bayer hosted a demonstration day here for farmers and agronomists. Around 250 attended to see fully-labelled plots and very detailed recommendations. Also on view was a new fungicide being developed at only a few sites in the UK. The new fungicide is a co-formulation which has been shown to ensure robust and long-lasting Septoria and rust control at the flag leaf timing. The UK will be the country of registration and therefore the trials have attracted visitors from Bayer Europe to monitor progress and see the significant levels ofdisease control – see picture below.

Last week, a smaller demonstration day was held by Bayer to show interim results of a grass weed screening trial in winter cereals. We have sown a number of grass weeds for Bayer including black-grass, ryegrasses, bromes, meadow grass, oats and we are applying herbicides at 6 different timings from pre-emergence in September, through to next April. The aim is to determine the best combinations of chemistry and most appropriate rates for optimum control of specific grass weeds. More than 100 agronomists joined in the demonstration day to observe early weed control success, and a second day is planned in spring.

We are also doing a number of fruit and vegetable trials for Bayer including fungicide work on lettuce, leeks and strawberries, and insecticides work on sprouts and lettuce. Next year Bayer is looking to expand work into raspberry crops.

We have a large degree of flexibility at STC with a range of tunnels and glasshouses and adaptable watering and feeding systems. This means we can easily meet customers requirements. This year we have conducted work for a company investigating the effects of specific insecticides on honeybees. This meant netting 9 of our Spanish tunnels to make them insect-proof, planting 500 raspberry canes per tunnel and introducing the bees prior to insecticide application. The trial was a success and we now have raspberries for future trials work.

Our specialist cauliflower seed production continues to expand. We are now growing cauliflowers for 3 different seed companies. In addition to hybrid varieties, we have been asked to grow some of the traditional open-pollinated varieties. The size of many of our glasshouses make them ideal for this project. If it continues to expand, we will aim to erect polythene tunnels to house more caulis.

We are filling up all empty glasshouse space over-winter by storing shrubs for a large local nursery. The plants need frost protection during this period. This means that all the glass on site is currently occupied until spring.

It is almost a year since converting our heating systems from heavy oil boilers, to 8 smaller light oil boilers. The cost saving to the site has been phenomenal. Our oil usage is down by around 60% and our maintenance costs are minimal. Last years repair bills and insurance costs for the steam system cost around £20K. This makes the site hugely more efficient and competitive when quoting for new business in the glasshouses. At the current rate of saving, the system will have paid for itself in approximately 4 years.

Our environmental schemes have been successful this year. We now have barn owls regularly hunting along our grass margins. We have also included an environmental theme in many of the school visits we undertake here, introducing children to the conservation measures put in place by farmers and the subsequent wildlife benefits. Because of this we were granted Educational Access in our Stewardship Agreement allowing us to fund extra school visits.

Michael Langdale

------

Crop Protection

2009 has proved to be a busy and productive year. Some large HDC funded trials have been completed and written-up for dissemination to the growers. These include PC 252 - Investigation into Seed Borne Diseases which we carried out alongside colleagues at ADAS and PC 230 – Detection and control of downy mildew in Impatiens in collaboration with Fera. Both projects went well, although logistical difficulties with working on both pansy and impatiens downy mildew made the latter project more of a challenge. Martin McPherson, Cathryn Lambourne and Phil Jennings from Fera gave presentations at the BPOA Disease Seminar alongside Mike Klopmeyer and Will Healy from Ball Colegrave USA. More recently, Martin McPherson was also invited to speak at a Fleuroselect ‘Young Plant Producers’ conference in Germany on downy mildew in Impatiens. It has evidently become a world-wide issue with the disease causing problems far and wide including Australia and New Zealand.