CCRI welcomes new placement student for 2020-2021

Recently I have started my placement at CCRI, after spending 2 years at the University of Reading studying for a Bsc in Agri-business Management. At the moment, I have kept my course choices to cover a broad range of management, finance and economics while also learning everything agriculture. Coming from a background of both farming parents, agriculture has always seemed like a natural fit for me, however I don’t see myself going back home to farm anytime soon as I would like to go and experience other aspects of the sector first.

I would say my current topic of interest lies more in the management side of agriculture, covering issues like succession and inheritance planning while also looking at different gender roles on farms and traditional views. I am also very keen on farm diversification, with the interest of having unique products made on site. Hopefully this year, this will become a reality for me as I have planned to receive some Mangalitsa pigs, to start a trial pork operation for the local hospitality industry.

To date I have experienced work covering a broad range of agricultural industries. More recently I have just spent my summer working for Frontier Agriculture in Newbury as a grain sampler. This enabled me to see another side of arable agriculture other than my home farm, as I travelled around the South-West of the UK visiting multiple farms and seeing how they were coping following a hard year, enabling me to compare and contrast between them.

 Although my start at CCRI, has happened during this COVID period, with the potential of an empty office and working from home, I am extremely happy and to be at CCRI. I am hoping to expose myself to different topics I maybe would not have chosen while also experiencing the world of research, with the idea to help aid my dissertation and be part of a larger project which could impact different agricultural areas in the future.