As UK farm and forestry businesses prepare to face the challenges and opportunities of trading outside the EU, Farming Connect will be using this year’s Royal Welsh Show (July 24 – 27) to showcase some of the industry’s newest and most successful technologies to help them compete.

Innovation and technology will be a key theme at Farming Connect’s usual base in the Lantra Building (Avenue K), and on the first floor balcony of the sheep pens (Stand No. M652) where you will also find this year’s Agri Lab exhibition, a joint collaboration between Farming Connect and the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society.

“The Show provides a great opportunity for Welsh farmers to see for themselves the results and outcomes of the numerous projects and methods currently being trialled on the Farming Connect demonstration network sites,” said Eirwen Williams, director of rural programmes with Menter a Busnes, which delivers Farming Connect on behalf of the Welsh Government and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.

The Agri Lab exhibition will bring together a range of companies and individuals who are at the cutting edge of innovation and technology within the industry. Book up soon for your one-to-one business support surgery (July 24), or Precision Farming clinic (July 25 and 26 only). Ian Beecher Jones, an expert in independent precision technology, will be available for pre-booked 30-minute sessions to help define specific requirements for investment in tractor and machine optimisation, targeted agronomy and data management. There will also be an opportunity to meet qualified robotic engineer Jonathan Gill to find out how aerial drones and agronomy, currently part of a major research project at Harper Adams University’s National Centre for Precision Farming, could benefit your business.

Farming Connect will also focus on technology in the Lantra building, where visitors can wear ‘virtual reality’ goggles that provide a 360 degree view from the telehandler’s perspective.

Other items on display in the technology section will include heat sensors for poultry housing; hand held NIRS (Near Infra-red Spectroscopy) grass sampling equipment; genomic testing equipment of female dairy cows and heat detection collars for suckler cows.

Booking in advance is essential for any of the one-to-one clinics provided by Farming Connect at the show. Visit www.gov.wales/farmingconnect for more information and to book your place.