Agri-Tech East Anaerobic Digestate group_16-19 field lab

The group met to discuss results this year, next steps and which fields they are planning to use for a further year of trials. Issues with Green Area Index assessments due to poor establishment were also discussed.

This meeting is to fine-tune the experimental details, agree who will be participating and also to discuss the template to capture the data for the economic modelling.

There have been a number of really helpful discussions with NIAB about this and they have both economic models and also some prior art on this which Lydia is working with the agronomist who did the work to ensure we are building on that work.

We hope to have heard about our grant application to Innovative Farmers by then too.

There is a recognised value in digestate to help improve soils health, but little is really known about what is happening in the soils. What are the unanswered questions and priorities for research for farms in the area making and using AD?

Agri-Tech East are interested in setting up a field lab investigating AD on-farm. This is a workshop to discuss what is a priority for farmer-led trials.

This workshop will be facilitated by Dr Belinda Clarke, Director of Agri-Tech East.

Dr Ruben Sakrabani from Cranfield University will give a presentation on the gaps in research.

After the initial meeting in October where we raised our priorities, we are meeting to discuss the next steps for planning a field lab on anaerobic digestate.

Agenda
10.00 Arrival and registration. Tea and coffee available
10.30 Welcome and Introductions
10.45 Revisiting outputs from previous meeting; comments and reflections
Discussion to include input from NIAB and Cranfield University on the current state of the art, to ensure no repetition of existing work
• Are these still the right / appropriate questions to ask? Are they still relevant? Are the other issues that people have thought of since our first meeting?
• Where will the various elements of the project add real value to farmers?
• What is a realistic scale of the project in terms of timing, resource availability, project outputs and trust in the results? How could / should we prioritise the questions to ensure a good quality piece of work which is relevant to the farmers?
12.30 LUNCH
13.00 Next steps for funding application to Innovative Farmers
Kate Pressland, Research Manager, Innovative Farmers programme, Soil Association
13.30 Summary and agreed actions / timescale
14.00 Close and depart