Farmer and ex rugby international Simon Best is guest speaker at conference

The 2022 Oxford Farming Conference, Routes to Resilience, will be co-chaired by Barbara Bray MBE and Sarah Mukherjee MBE and will be held from 5 to 7 January 2022.

Following an announcement on Wednesday 22 December, the conference will be fully online only.

Like many other organisations, OFC has been monitoring announcements and developments across the UK and internationally on the Omicron variant.

Delegate safety has always been the primary concern and with the groundswell of concern nationally and internationally, combined with the lack of clarity about regulations likely in the weeks ahead, the decision to move online was inevitable.

Digital attendees will get access to all the sessions, streamed live, that would have been delivered at Oxford including the politics, trade, science lecture, inspiring farmers, debate, Henry Dimbleby and Dame Ellen MacArthur.

Sessions will be recorded and full on-demand access will be provided, as well as access to the OFC app where delegates can ask speakers questions, participate in the polls and network online.

Simon Best, a fourth generation farmer at Acton House Farm in Northern Ireland, will be speaking on Thursday 6 January.

Acton House Farm has evolved over the years to a predominantly arable unit, growing cereals, oilseed rape and beans, the majority of which are sold within a five-mile radius of the farm.

Over the past 15 years there has been a significant focus on environmental sustainability with the farm being LEAF accredited, participating in environmental stewardship schemes and diversifying into composting with the aim of soil improvement.

It is also one of seven Northern Ireland farms participating in the ARC Zero project, which aims to establish a verifiable baseline for whole farm carbon emissions.

This year, Simon was winner of the Farmers Weekly Arable Farmer of the Year award, a title not normally associated with Northern Ireland.

The judges were impressed that Simon had successfully established an environmentally sustainable arable business on a scale not seen in Northern Ireland.

Before returning to the farm, Simon started his career in professional rugby, where he represented Ireland 23 times, playing in two World Cups before retiring through injury in 2007.

There have been many lessons from professional sport that Simon has applied to running the farm business and he will share insights into this applied learning at OFC, as well as his own journey of succession on the family farm.

Joint co-chairs, Barbara Bray and Sarah Mukherjee, commented: “Like many other organisations, we have been monitoring announcements and developments across the UK and internationally on the Omicron variant.

“Delegate safety has always been our primary concern.

“Whilst we are confident that the measures we had put in place to safeguard delegates were robust, the groundswell of concern nationally and internationally, combined with the lack of clarity about regulations likely in the weeks ahead, made this decision inevitable.

“The OFC is in good financial health, but we must face the fact that this decision will create a very large deficit for us, as a small charity that dates back to the 1930s.

“However, the decision is the right one to make.”

Tickets for the online event are heavily subsidised at just £45 + VAT and can be purchased at https://www.ofc.org.uk/booking