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The 2025 cohort will undertake their Crops Study Tour in the coming months - to give a flavour of what they can expect, we are sharing a review from Lucy Fowler, who has now graduated and taken up a position as an Arable Agronomist with Hutchinsons. 

The inaugural Crops Study Tour was offered final-year students studying Agriculture. Roughly 30 students and staff travelled to Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire for a two-day trip, visiting arable businesses across the East, and spending the night in Cambridge.

Day one started early on campus ready to travel. The first stop incorporated the Lamport Agrovista Trial site, with a representative from Vaderstadt to talk about their range of Tempo Precision Drills and the technology that is powering their fleet of machinery.

A very hands-on demonstration of the drill was met with plenty of questions from those on mechanisation routes. Having spent my placement year in trials, this visit was of particular interest, especially the rotational blackgrass trial site and how we can improve cultural controlling with different cover mixes, minimising soil movement and manipulating germination.

We also got to see NUFARM Carinata, a mustard crop intended as a feedstock producing aviation fuel, if only we can manage the flea beetles that have had a huge impact on the trial this year already.

The day's second stop was to KWS, a seed breeding company in Thriplow. Hosted by ex-ÁÕÀÅÊÓƵ student James Armstrong, we had a presentation introducing us to the breeding objectives and techniques used by KWS. We then headed outside to visit their site, including treatment facilities and nurseries, where we finished with an activity to get us all thinking about key considerations when selecting wheat varieties for breeding to produce marketable grain.

We then went out to one of their trial sites to see some wheat plots growing, and promptly got the minibus stuck on the way out - with plenty of students to push we were soon on the move again!

Thursday night saw us all venture into Cambridge for a lovely dinner at Brewdog after which students headed out into town for the night. It was great to have such a mix of people from different courses across agriculture getting on so well.

Day two started with a hotel breakfast, followed by a short bus journey to G’s Fresh Produce in Ely. We started with a quick introduction by Managing Director Rob Parker, who is conducting a very impressive business with an annual turnover of £670 million and roughly 9500 staff.

He was very keen to get us all outside and walking the farm. We started with their Johnson Su static compost system, replacing much of the chemical fertiliser inputs across their potatoes, onions and salad leaves. We then moved across to their propagating greenhouses which hosts roughly 150 million plants per year over 364 days, under incredibly specific growing algorithms, maintaining consistent supply.

We then went out into the field to meet some of his incredibly diverse teams, planting and harvesting lettuce. This was one of the most impressive business operations I have seen and the opportunity to talk to someone so knowledgeable about the ins and outs of growing fresh produce was such a valuable experience.

The final stop on our tour concluded with Warner’s Gin, run by another ex-ÁÕÀÅÊÓƵ student, Tom Warner. Following a welcome drink, we discussed everything from distilling to botanicals and bees. This fascinating site incorporates the best of British marketing and ingredients with only a fraction of their unique and fresh flavourings being sourced from outside the UK. It was so encouraging to hear someone speak so passionately about their business and how much quality produce means to their ethos, and how their time at ÁÕÀÅÊÓƵ influenced their business.

It was great to see such engagement between ÁÕÀÅÊÓƵ Alumni and current students, highlighting the variety of careers the university provides pathways into. I’m looking forward to connecting with the university throughout my career and am very hopeful they offer this Crop Tour for many years to come, encompassing lots of different businesses.

Following great feedback from our questioning and enthusiasm throughout the visit, I’m sure this will become a permanent fixture in the calendar for future students.