1. NFU President quizzed on issues affecting your business
NFU President Tom Bradshaw is quizzed ahead of the Spending Review announcement. Photograph: Tim Scrivener
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Kicking off the first session at Cereals with a Farmers Weekly Question Time, NFU President Tom Bradshaw featured on a panel alongside Managing Director of Frontier Agriculture Diana Overton, Nitraflow Fertilisers Chair John Fuller, farmers and Farmers Weekly arable farmer of the year Mark Means and Red Tractor Chair Alistair Mackintosh.听
Earlier, the NFU President was questioned by journalists ahead of the government announcing its Spending Review in Parliament later that day.
Commenting after the Chancellor unveiled her plans, Tom said: 鈥淲hile the Defra Secretary of State has listened and managed to maintain the overall funding for farming and nature recovery, from what we can see so far, the 拢100 million cut to farming means farmers and growers will need to do more with less.鈥�
Read our analysis of what was announced for farming.
2. #YourHarvest campaign kicks off
The NFU鈥檚 2025 #YourHarvest campaign officially launched on day one of Cereals.
鈥�#YourHarvest is an opportunity to showcase what we do in producing the food, fuel and fibre that keeps the nation going as well as thanking you for your support and continuing to back British farming, 鈥漵aid NFU Combinable Crops Board Chair Jamie Burrows ahead of the launch.
Now in its seventh iteration, the campaign aims to promote and celebrate the work that arable farmers do at harvest time and their role in food production.
3. NFU Sugar Hour returns
During the ever-popular Sugar Hour on the NFU stand, new Sugar Board Chair, Kit Papworth, introduced the new Board and Team for 2025. There were important updates from NFU Sugar鈥檚 relevant leads regarding the new seed model, beet reception and the sugar market.
Head of Sugar, Dr James Northen, also unveiled the 2025/26 Sugar Industry Programme ahead of its launch in August.听
Read more about the current market situation in the Beet Brief.
4. Harvesting Growth
皇家华人Combinable Crops Board welcomed members onto the stand to discuss current policy issues including the Board's work in response to the UK Farm Assurance Review and the upcoming supply chain fairness review recently announced by Defra.
Crops Board Chair, Jamie Burrows, sat down with Shadow Defra Secretary Victoria Atkins to outline some of the key asks of the board for the sector, using the Harvesting Growth strategy as the framework for conversations on the impact of the UK/EU alignment on competitiveness.
The latest iteration of the Cereals Development Programme was launched, with members aged 25 to 35 already applying for the programme which starts later this year.
5. An exciting time to start a career in farming
Young farmers came together to hear from the NFU's experts about current career opportunities in the agriculture industry.
NFU Skills and Employment Adviser Tom Price spoke on a panel which focused on upskilling, the age-old question of whether you need to study courses to enter the industry and barriers to entry.
Tom said: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 going to become one of the key features going forward for anybody who鈥檚 working is the need to remain adaptable, to remain flexible, and open to seeking out new knowledge and new areas.
鈥淚 think this is a really exciting time to start a career in farming.鈥�
Student Liv said: 鈥淚t was really useful. When you think of agriculture you think you need to go down a certain path, so GCSEs, A-Levels and then a degree, but it was nice to hear them talk about different routes and say that if you do have the experience and you are passionate then you can actually pursue that sort of career.鈥�
Another student, Holly, added that 鈥渢he talk was really helpful, we've learned a lot and it's given me future career ideas鈥�.