Comment – Encouraged and impressed

This week saw an escape to the balmy climes of the West Midlands and the Institution of Agricultural Engineers annual awards ceremony, kindly hosted by AGCO at their Abbey Park headquarters.

It was a great day to recognise the achievements of individuals at all stages of their careers as well as thank and acknowledge some of the unsung heroes who quietly go about their business as volunteers keeping the wheels of the Institution and the profession going. Congratulations all. Have a read of the full list of winners and awards.

Alongside the awards ceremony, we also had a very positive and challenging presentation from Mark Moore,  IAgrE President and Director, Government Affairs for AGCO, which spelled out the big challenges facing the world around food, resources and the environment. His observation that ‘ there’s never been a better time to be an Agricultural Engineer’ was spot on.

The day finished with a look around the training facilities at Abbey Park and we found out some more about the AGCO’s training operation, which was fascinating, with the company being on track to train 22o or so apprentices this year, an impressive number. The companies commitment to developing their team and serving their customers shone out.

I was fortunate to be able to interview most of the winners after the ceremony for a future podcast, and all winners were surprised, honoured and delighted to have won, especially as these awards rely on third party nominations, so the winners do not apply. As an observer, it’s great that there are so many dedicated, motivated and keen engineers at all stages who are excited to be in the industry and want to support it. Well done to all and thanks for reminding me why we are all engineers.

Elsewhere the barley and peas sown on 19th April are up and thriving, and the April rainfall stats are a worrying 14mm for the month in comparison to 200mm in ’24, 86mm in ’23, 66mm in 22 and (incredibly) 13mm in ’21. So the optimist in me says ‘its not as dry as ’21‘!

Stat of the week – Canada provides 85% of the fertiliser supply for the United States have a read of the full article on global food security for more.

Enjoy the long weekend, and whilst the farmer in me wishes for rain, the BBQ’ing middle aged man wants the sun!

Andy