Wed, 21 Feb - 10am to 4pm..
We were delighted to have a full house and welcome everyone who joined us for a special day-long training event with internationally renowned, Iain Tolhurst, award winner for his lifetime achievements, and recognised as a leading expert on stock-free organic horticulture and life long research and use of ramial woodchip in his low carbon local vegetable production systems at Tolhurst Organics.
We were delighted to have a number of farmers, trainees and tutors from the Dromcollogher Organic Training Center join us on the day who were delighted to meet Iain and hear first hand of his many years of successful research and production at Tolhurst Organics and to have his slides from the day for ongoing educational purposes!!
Costs were kept to a minimum to make it affordable for students and a number of young farmers starting out etc
The Days Event consisted of Introductions from Tolly and delegates, followed by a Presentation on "Agroforestry in Horticulture a local way to address global challenges- a whole systems approach" Plus 20-30 minutes for Q+A and discussions
The second Workshop Session consisted of "Pest and disease control through organic Systems" which was an Interactive session with participation from delegates.
The final presentation was on "The role of Agroforestry and the use of Ramial Woodchip and composted Woodchip for Soil Health" with Q+A at end for 20 mins.
Please see attached slides for these presentations -
More info about Iain Tolhurst :
In 2023 Iain was awarded an MBE for his services to agricultureIain Tolhurst An organic producer since 1976 growing a wide range of mixed veg on 19 acres of land at Hardwick Estate in south Oxfordshire. The farm is now operated as a Community Interest Company and was the first to attain the Stockfree Organic symbol in 2004, no grazing animals and no animal inputs to any part of the farm for the past 37 years. The farm has more than three decade’s history of participative research projects looking at a range of subjects.Iain Tolhurst is well known within the organic movement having been active for over 45 years. He also works part time as an advisor for many horticultural farms nationally and internationally as well as various organic organisations delivering seminars and conducting farm walks. He is considered to be a leading expert on stock-free organic horticulture, and low carbon local vegetable production systems. His farm is a model of productivity centred on agroforestry, biodiversity and green manure systems. He has written several books about his experiences, the most recent being “Back to Earth” self-published in 2016
For more info please visit - https://www.tolhurstorganic.co.uk
Want to revisit Iain's presentation? Check out the slides for Woodchip Applications for Horticulture, Pest and Disease Control through Organic Systems, and the excellent power point, Agroforestry in Horticulture a local way to address global challenges (this is a large file and you will have to download it to view it).
This event was supported with the kind assistance of core funding by the IEN and by Department of Agriculture, Forestry & The Marine under the Forestry Promotion Programme.