For those who missed last week’s Norfolk Farming Conference and for those who want to revisit some of the topics covered, the papers can now be accessed on the conference website:

http://www.norfolkfarmingconference.org/content/post.asp

Subjects ranged from the highly controversial proposals to replace set-aside to the volatility of wheat prices.

Organised by Anglia Farmers and Shaping Norfolk’s Future for the sixth year running, the annual event was a sell-out with a majority attendance by farmers from all age groups.

“We were particularly pleased to see a strong turnout from the county’s younger farmers,” said Clarke Willis, chairman of the Norfolk Farming Conference organising committee. “In addition to presentations from NFU head Peter Kendall, Mark Felton of Natural England and from Jon Duffy of Frontier, we had a good cross-section of farmers on the platform including Sarah Long talking about beef, Rob Proctor talking about the dairy industry and Poul Hoveson talking about arable farming at Salle Farms.

“The new introduction of a ‘question time’ panel, which included three high profile farmers– David Richardson, Oliver Walston and Matt Naylor as well as Charles Whitaker from Brown & Co - was well received. And the whole event was masterfully handled by Essex farmer Guy Smith for the second year running.

“As ever, we were hugely grateful to our sponsors Brown & Co, NatWest, Birketts and Grant Thornton.”